DEA / EPC Accreditation - Training, Costs, Providers etc

[whinmoor]

Maybe this answers our question?


Q: What is a DEA?
A: An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) in England & Wales can only be completed by a qualified Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) who is accredited with a government approved Accreditation Scheme.
A DEA will inspect the property and collect all the necessary information from which an EPC is prepared and made available.


GoEco Energy Surveyors

 

[SRE]

I was surveying yesterday and it brought it all back into focus. Our customers wanted to ask so many questions (all relevant) about the systems that by the time we'd covered that and the info needed for the structural survey it would have been a) longer than is polite to have spent in the customer's house and b) over the REAL allocated time.

So it's either £50 for another visit from the DEA or another visit from us to collect the data - coupled with the time it takes to input the data once you've got it I'm tipping back towards getting someone else to do the legwork, but using EST for an indicator of EPC.

For those who like me are considering paying the £50 -
when will you get the EPC done,
will you charge the customer if their house doesn't meet the band d?
Has anyone found an insulation company who doesn't do solar to send referrals to?
Are you changing your terms and conditions to reflect the need for the EPC band d and the cost of the EPC if the band isn't met?
If Real doesn't provide a template does anyone want to share the cost of having a legal document drawn up?

 

[MorganPVI]

Not properly looked into it, but during a solar survey it would be easy enough to make a quick assesement for a ball park? Then send in the EPC dude when the contracts are signed.

We will probably charge the customer £50 if they do not proceed with the quote due to ecessive cost of other inprovements
I have a contact to get any cavity wall insulation or loft done easily in the south.
Yes there will have to updated T&Cs - not that there is any point due to sales of goods act.
I'm tempted to say yes, but not sure if it would be enforceable

 

[JulianC]

Here are my thoughts today, which may differ from those yesterday and tomorrow.

when will you get the EPC done
Ideally, after quoting for PV and the customer has expressed interest in giving me their money. No point creating extra work if customer isn't going to order from me. However, depending on the customer, property and my mood at any given moment in time, I would expect things to be quite fluid. Some may get done early on, some later. Think, initially at least, I will be judging each case as it comes.

will you charge the customer if their house doesn't meet the band d?
I will charge the customer regardless and will offer a full refund of the fee if they subsequently give me their money for a PV system. It's their EPC, they need it, not me. I expect that they will need educating in this respect but I'm buggered if I'm shelling out 50 quid a time for the privilege of quoting someone!

Has anyone found an insulation company who doesn't do solar to send referrals to?
Plenty of local ones so don't see that as a problem for us. Will do loft insulation ourselves, if that's all it needs.

Are you changing your terms and conditions to reflect the need for the EPC band d and the cost of the EPC if the band isn't met?
Will be giving it some thought soon

 

[infinity]

Ive been offfered a course at epctraining.net for £995, but they are adamant there is no exam required or portfolio. To be able to carry out domestic EPC's,

Is this true?

 

[SRE]

Well I've been told no exam - quoted £395 or £495 for online training but need portfolio of 5 properties. The 5 properties all have to be different - eg different age, build etc but their assessment will be turned round in a couple of days.

 

[infinity]

So if i do not do an exam, or a portfolio, can i be a qualified DEA and carry out the EPC'?

 

[morpheus75]

All the courses i have enquired about say that 5 property portfolio plus an exam at your local test centre to get the DEA quals


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TedM]

See http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/domesticenergyassessor.pdf and http://www.assetskills.org/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.aspx?lID=423&sID=439 and
BRE: BRE Global Domestic Energy Assessor Accreditation Scheme

Don't forget that energy assessors come in the domestic (DEA) and non-domestic (NDEA) flavours.

 

[SRE]

Thanks Ted - looks like the exam is needed.

Nice tweet to Mr Barking earlier

 

[SRE]

I've just been looking at the area we cover for our jobs, taking into account we're rural there's no way we will get one DEA to cover all of our jobs. I reckon we're probably looking at 6 or 7 DEA's which means we're less likely to build a good relationship built on regular work - I think I'm maybe leaning towards training again :-(

 

[SRE]

Just been talking to REAL to see what their view was about when and how we should be getting an EPC for our customers.

Apparently Ofgem is issuing some guidance but it's not quite ready yet. I was explaining to REAL that none of us can really afford to wait until April because there's a lead into sale and installation of about 4 weeks already and not knowing what to do about EPC's is leaving us potentially with a huge gap with no installations again. I've stressed my worries that we won't be able to withstand yet another month without sales because of the lack of guidance.

Real are saying that you don't have to have an EPC at the time of pv installation so if you're sure that the house will meet band D requirements then you can go ahead do the installation and order the EPC later - no issues with losing your hard earned solar lead and no issues with paying for an EPC that doesn't result in a sale. So for houses built with cavity walls with cavity wall insulation and loft insulation in and a relatively new boiler (easily checked on sedbuk.com ) with proper heating controls this solves a lot of problems. It gives the customer a slight delay in claiming their Fit payment but if that becomes the "norm" few people will question it after a few weeks.

The big issue then becomes what happens with a house that is borderline D rating and unless you have an EPC you're not going to know whether it meets the criteria or not. This is likely to be in rural areas that are off the gas grid and who have solid walls.

So is it worth getting your DEA qualifications to do the jobs that are borderline?

From our point of view it's going to be better to install and then EPC where we are certain. Or at the very least EPC after the cooling off period with a caveat that the contract can be cancelled if the EPC doesn't achieve D rating. Not sure what we'll do about those solid wall houses - lots of our jobs just won't meet the requirements.

 

[SRE]

I'm having a conversation with myself now!!!!

Just been told EPC's from April will be more expensive because of the top up training needed before April. Green-tech consultancy offering £80 a pop booked online and allocated to a DEA nearest the job - anyone got any thoughts - apart from me

 

[whinmoor]

Poor SRE - being ignored is no fun, is it? ;-)

To make you feel even worse, I now have a friend. Morpheus and I are going to PPL Training in York to do their 6 day DEA course from 19th March. I believe it's full now as the lady told me I was the 9th participant (although they might say that to everyone to get them to register quickly). Morpheus and I expect to pay half the advertised fee (£960 instead of £1920) under a scheme run by the European Social Fund for small businesses in Yorkshire. Morpheus has also agreed to split his 7.5% commission for referring me to PPL so that demonstrates the effectiveness of this forum. We spoke on the phone but we live quite far apart so won't share transport to the course but it also means we're not direct competitors for customers on the ground either.

 

[morpheus75]

Its £800 plus vat as we get vat back anyway and the 7.5% recomend a friend is based on the full £1600 fee so £120 total cashback. £60 each so effectively we are paying £740 plus vat each. Either of us can refer you if anyone is around this area plus as long as your in Yorkshire or Humberside you can also get the 50% funding aswell


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk