Energy Efficiency, EPCs and DECs

This document contains a guide to the rules relating to energy performance certificates in England and Wales.

The Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 introduce requirements for Energy Performance Certificates from April 2008.

These regulations require:

• EPCs (with recommendation reports for the improvement of the energy performance of the building) to be produced when buildings are constructed, sold or rented out;
• Display Energy Certificates (“DECs”) to be displayed in buildings with a total useful floor area over 1000 sq. m. “occupied by public authorities and by institutions providing public services to a large number of persons and therefore frequently visited by those persons” , and the production of advisory reports with recommendations for improvement of the energy performance of the building;
• air-conditioning systems to be inspected at regular intervals not exceeding 5 years. This regulation came into force on January 1st 2008, so that larger units (in general, with an output exceeding 250Kw) will require inspection by January 1st 2009, and smaller units (systems with an output of more than 12kw) by January 1st 2011.

For further details of these regulations, see below.