Carbon Army & Thermal Imaging

I was talking to Stewart Little of IRT Surveys about the possibility of individual householders getting a thermal image of their own home. This is entirely possible through IRT Surveys, who use thermal images to quantify how much energy can be saved. So not only do householders get an image of their home illustrating where heat losses occur, but this is translated into possible carbon dioxide savings, i.e. reduced energy bills.

In addition, IRT Surveys have made a pledge to the Carbon Army that makes this service even more attractive.

What I really liked though was the IRT video on You Tube, The Carbon Army with Sgt Major Carbon and Captain Dioxide. It just tells it to you straight, and as it’s a couple of kids telling you I think they get away with their straight-talking approach. I recommend a viewing!

I have recently had a lovely weekend with friends staying in the Strawbale Cottage near Howden. This is a holiday cottage that is both spacious and cosy, with the wood burner providing heat throughout the cottage, as well as plenty of hot water. Although it is on a farm, with the Strawbale Cabin nearby, it is on its own secluded plot of land, with views of fields and trees from the windows.

There are plenty of walks accessible from the cottage itself, including the town of Howden. There are also many places of interest within easy reach by train or car, such as York, the Wolds, and nature reserves on the coast near Goole, as well as specialist shops selling local produce or artwork.

The strawbale walls are lovely and thick, giving deep window recesses. The spectacular clay tiled roof gives sloping ceilings in the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom, which is not a problem as the rooms themselves are spacious. There is plenty of space downstairs with the large lounge and kitchen-diner, with a separate study-bedroom off from the lounge. Also off to one side is a large shower-room, together with an area for boots and coats. It's just so well thought out for an enjoyable stay in the Yorkshire countryside.

Still waiting for payment from Express-EPC

There are now over 30 DEA's who have contacted me to state that they have not received payment, or have had part payment from Express-EPC. I don't know whether we are a minority as others are still working for Express-EPC, so presumably are getting paid.
I had an email earlier this month from Express-EPC stating that I would be paid within hours. I went away that weekend thinking that soon this sorry saga would be over. But no, there were follow up questions - which invoices were outstanding? had I cancelled any of the EPC's? I replied to these and waited for payment.
On Monday I sent an email to chase up what had happened to my payment, but have not had a reply, nor my money.
We have highlighted our case through all avenues open to us, recently getting coverage in Estate Agent Today.
However, what is really needed is a change to a system that is still training DEA's when there are already too many. This is bringing revenue for training bodies but is making it possible for others to exploit DEA's by offering rock bottom prices for our work. Whatever we get paid we still have to pay our lodgement fees to the accreditation bodies.
For those DEA's who were doing HIPS their income was slashed at a stroke by a Government that didn't consult on the change and didn't appear to do a full regulatory impact assessment.
DEA's are usually self-employed individuals, so representing the smallest of companies. We work independently and have little contact with each other, so we are not a unified group. We are motivated and professional; we have been trained at our expense and set out on our own to make a living. We get little recognition or support for our efforts and find ourselves working at a pretty low hourly rate.

Express-EPC update

Since my blog in August Express-EPC have paid some of the money they owe me. However, they still owe me money for the rest of the EPC's I did in June or July.

It's not clear from the payment which invoices they have paid but I know how much they still owe. I have contacted them to point this out and am waiting to hear, I'll let you know what happens.

It seems I am not alone; I have received emails from other assessors who state that they have not been paid by Express-EPC either. Let's hope that this situation is resolved in the near future; however we will keep reminding them of the amounts we're owed.

Express-EPC I haven't been paid!

I noticed today that Express-EPC have dropped their price for an EPC from £39.95 to £29.95. Does no-one ever question how they can run a call centre, accounts department and get domestic energy assessors to do the work for such a low price? I don't suppose clients give it a second thought. They don't seem to mind having to pay up front, with no guarantee they'll get their EPC at the end of it - if the process goes wrong with Express-EPC then they may have to find another assessor to do the work.

The reason Express-EPC are so cheap is that they set up a bid for each job, whoever puts in the lowest bid gets the job. The bid can be anything from £1 to the price Express-EPC advertise on their site; this guarantees them a margin every time. OK that's not great for assessors, but clients are probably happy so long as the job is done quickly and they get an EPC.

However, Express-EPC are bad payers! They say that they will settle the account for domestic energy assessors in 30 days. Not true, I now have 6 invoices outstanding for the period 23 June to 12 July and not one has been paid. They actually responded to my chasing of payment by sending emails stating that 3 invoices had been paid. Not true, I've not received a penny.

I'm probably not alone in this experience; they are likely to be other assessors who have not been paid. I hope they are not taking on any more work from Express-EPC.

Be warned!

And to all those people out there needing an EPC for sale or rent of a house or flat; cut out the middle man and go direct to your local Domestic Energy Assessor, an accredited professional giving you a fair price.

EPC's - Getting rid of the Cowboys

The Government department with responsibility for EPC's has finally made a move to tighten up the requirements so that the cowboys will find it harder to continue their bad practice.

There have been so many anecdotal stories of "the assessor was only there for 10 minutes" or "they didn't go up in the loft despite there being a loft ladder". These assessors have saved time on surveys by using the "unknown" or "no access" options on the survey form, so that the software made a default assessment based on the property age. Most of the EPC's they generated were almost identical.

Not only was this dishonest practice, but it meant that those householders who had made energy saving improvements to their home weren't getting the right score and banding for their property. This puts them at a disadvantage when selling or renting their house - if a house appears to be more expensive to heat than an otherwise very similar house, then surely anyone renting or buying would opt for the cheaper to run house.

As energy prices get higher the cost of heating a home is going to become more important. It's nice to move into a house with a modern bathroom or kitchen, but then if it's not to your taste you may opt to change it anyway, which is a one-off capital expense. Whereas a poorly insulated home means that your heating bills are unnecessarily high year on year, this expense doesn't contribute to the cosmetic improvement of your house, and lots of the heat is just leaking to the outside - you may as well burn money.

A properly assessed EPC will give you the information you need to choose well in terms of energy efficiency of a home and how it can be improved further.

Even though the cost of EPC's has really dropped some of us still strive to provide a really professional service and produce high quality EPC's.

So CLG please carry on getting tough on the cowboys and introduce some credibility to EPC'S.

Passivhaus

Last week I went on an AECB CarbonLite course on understanding the Passivhaus standard, principles and methodologies.

It was a really good day for learning what the standard means and getting an introduction to the software. It's encouraging that there is also a standard for renovation, not just for new build. It's great that it's possible to build new houses to a high standard of insulation and airtightness with proper ventilation that will use 75% less energy for heating than a conventional new build. However, we can't build new houses quickly enough to replace all our existing houses and we probably wouldn't want to. Therefore, if we are to have comfortable homes that don't cost a fortune to run then it's important to renovate our existing housing stock to a high standard, so that they are warm, properly ventilated and with good air quality.

One issue I have is that all the emphasis is on the use of energy post-construction/renovation to heat the house; the embodied energy in the materials used is not considered. This is something that must assume more importance in future so that there is a reduced energy demand to produce construction materials and build houses.