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The UK's Energy Performance Measurement March
The march toward universal energy performance measurement is on in the UK.
After subscribing to the minimum requirements of the 2002 Energy Performance of Building Directives (EPBD), the UK has been steadily expanding the pool of eligible properties and stringency of compliance.
The EPBD requires the use of energy performance ratings on commercial, residential and government bulidings. In the UK, these ratings take the form of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and Display Energy Certificates (DECs). The main difference between the two breeds of energy label is that a DEC is based on actual consumption (an operational, or measured, rating) and an EPC is based on calaculated energy use (an asset rating). Also, a DEC must be prominently displayed in the window of its building.
Initial EPBD legislation in the UK outlined a progressive mandate to publicly disclose Display Energy Certificate (DEC) results for all public buildings in an online database. With the Recast of the EPBD in 2009, the UK lowered the floor for public buildings required to acquire DECs from 1,000m² to 500m². The legislation made possible a further reduction of the threshold after 2015.
On top of these revisions, the UK government announced in March of 2010 the consideration of extending DEC requirements to the commercial industry. MPs have since supported the move. DECs currently only affect public buildings, unlike their private sector counterparts, EPCs (Energy Performance Certificates). But the property industry, too, endosed the expansion of the DEC into the private market. In an open letter to the Prime Minister in May of this year, the UK Green Building Council and British Property Federation requested the government expand the DEC requirements to include commercial buildings as well.
UK government agencies have made clear their resolve to support energy performance rating, too. Chris Huhne, the UK Government’s Energy and Climate Secretary, announced this month that after 2018 it will be illegal to rent a residential or commercial property with less than an "E" rating on it's EPC.
The compendium of revisions to the UK's EPBD legislation should lead to an explaision of EPCs and DECs in the next decade. If corresponding energy services and retrofitting accoutrements keep up, and if energy labels are accepted by the market as valid, this could mean a huge boon to the green UK enconomy. That's surely the goal of legislators, and perhaps of private businesses, who are cheering on the UK's march toward expansive energy performance measurement.
