CIBSE HQ: A Commercial Green Deal Story - Part 3 - DECs are the business

Digital Energy www.digitalenergy.org.uk have now completed the Green Deal assessment and produced the voluntary DEC certificates.

We do not currently have an option to apply for Green Deal funding as we are now being told that this will not be available until early 2014 according to Mark Bayley, Chief Executive of the Green Deal Finance Company.   We will be ready when it is! In the meantime we now have current voluntary DEC certificates with an Operational Rating (OR) of 80 and up to date associated Advisory Reports giving us a comprehensive set of Energy Certificates for the CIBSE HQ buildings. The advisory reports have their limitations and have been widely criticised www.gov.uk/government/publications/exploring-the-use-of-display-energy-certificates, but ours give us comprehensive advice on how to reduce our energy use by both improvements in our energy management and use of energy in the building, and fabric or system improvements.  Green Deal is just one funding method for the fabric and system improvements, but we can improve our management and encourage better user behaviour ourselves.  With the wealth of energy information to hand, perhaps a case can be made for funding from other sources.

Recommendation Reports (RR) with EPCs and Advisory Reports (AR) with DECs have been around for a few years now.  Green Deal Advice Reports (GDAR) are a more recent introduction.  We have not had the opportunity to compare an RR with an AR and with a GDAR, all for the same building and produced by the same individual, until now….

The limitation of the RR is that it only deals with asset improvements and does not address operational measures, whereas the GDAR and AR cover both.  The operational advice within the GDAR is very generic and bland (motherhood and apple pie” material and would have been read many times before in any energy management guidance produced directly or indirectly by Government Offices since the 1970s.  The objective of the Green Deal assessment is of course to facilitate funding for asset improvements so that probably explains the superficial treatment of operational advice.

The Advisory Report on the other hand provides asset and operational improvement advice that is more tailored to the specific building and goes into more detail in terms of the number of measures addressed.  A well prepared Advisory Report reads more like the result of a detailed survey by an engineer than the standard list of measures taken from a check list that you get from the other reports.

DECC are currently considering what mechanisms for energy audit and improvement advice already in use might be suitable for meeting the requirements of the energy audit requirements  of the Energy Efficiency Directive.  On the evidence from the multiple reports on these two buildings, the DEC and Advisory Report seems to be strong candidates if the concerns noted in the recent DECC survey are addressed. Indeed CIBSE contributed to a comprehensive set of recommendations for improving the advisory report and the wider DECC process in a review of the potential benefits of a wider roll out of DECs published by the UKGBC in March 2011 www.ukgbc.org/resources/publication/uk-gbc-task-group-report-carbon-reduction-existing-non-domestic-buildings

All that is needed is for DCLG to act on this. It would enhance the value of the advisory report at little cost – something that this government keeps telling us it is trying to do as part of its policy of better regulation and reducing red tape. When so many people can see the scope to improve the DEC advisory report, it is frustrating that DCLG do not seem to be listening!

	DELTA HOUSE
	Recommendation Report  from EPC (In ranking order)	Green Deal Advice Report (In ranking order)	Advisory Report
Asset Measures	Lighting improvements	Internal insulation of (external) walls	Consider introducing or improving loft insulation
	Glazing improvements	DHW storage cylinder insulation	Consider how building fabric air tightness could be improved, for example sealing, draught stripping and closing off unused ventilation openings, chimneys etc.
	PV	Lighting improvements	If stratification occurs consider re-circulating the air during heating
	Solar Water Heating	PV	Engage experts to survey the condition of the HWS systems and propose remedial and upgrading works to improve condition and operating efficiency
	Identify and treat air leakage	Solar Water Heating	Consider applying reflective coating  to windows and/or fit shading devices to reduce unwanted solar gain
	DHW storage cylinder insulation		Engage experts to review the building lighting strategies and propose alterations and/or upgrades to daylighting provisions, luminaires and their control systems and an implementation plan
			Consider installing building mounted photovoltaic electricity generating panels
			Consider installing building mounted solar ware heating
Lifestyle/Energy Manage-ment Measures		Allocated Energy Manager	Implement a programme to read, record and analyse the electricity and heat sub-meters in the building
		Monitoring and Targeting Programme	Engage experts to review heating system controls to ensure heating is only operational when required. During the assessment some of the heat emitters were found to be warm when external temperatures indicated that no heating was required.
		Management of HVAC controls
		Good Practices for lighting use
		Staff awareness and training
		HAVAC checks by energy manager
		Monitoring and servicing of HVAC plant and lighting

BUILDING SERVICES CENTRE
Recommendation Report from EPC (in ranking order)	Green Deal Advice Report (in ranking order)	Advisory Report
Solar Control to windows	Loft insulation	Consider introducing or improving loft insulation
Lighting improvements	Glazing improvements	Consider how building fabric air tightness could be improved, for example sealing, draught stripping and closing off unused ventilation openings, chimneys etc.
Glazing improvements	Lighting improvements	Consider adjusting existing, or installing new automatic external door closers or adopting revolving door solutions
Solar Water Heating	Replace DHW storage system with electric point of use in kitchen	Consider engaging experts to review the condition of the building fabric and propose measures to improve energy performance.  This might include building pressure tests for air tightness and thermography tests for insulation continuity.
PV	PV	Consider applying reflective coating to windows and/or fit shading devices to reduce unwanted solar gain.
Identify and treat air leakage	Solar Water Heating	Engage experts to propose specific measures to reduce hot water wastage and plan to carry this out.
		Consider replacing kitchen DHW storage system with point of use units
		Consider installing building mounted solar water heating
Replace DHW storage system with electric point of use in kitchen		Consider improving or replacing glazing.
		Consider installing building mounted photovoltaic electricity generating panels
Review HVAC control settings/timings		Engage experts to review the building lighting strategies and propose alterations and/or upgrades to daylighting provisions, luminaires and their control systems and an implementation plan
		Consider fitting push taps for the toilet hand washing facilities
	Allocated Energy Manager	Implement a programme to read, record and analyse the electricity and heat sub-meters in the building
	Monitoring and Targeting Programme	Review HVAC controls for Council Chamber to improve performance and match usage of system to occupancy.
	Management of HVAC controls
	Good Practices for lighting use
	Staff awareness and training
	HAVAC checks by energy manager
	Monitoring and servicing of HVAC plant and lighting