Insulate Magazine Issue 10
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The only independent insulation industry trade magazine<br />
<strong>Insulate</strong> Debate<br />
Domestic Energy Assessors<br />
and Energy Performance Certificates<br />
Opportunity or a Declining Breed?<br />
Neil Marshall, Chief Executive of the National Insulation Association (NIA)<br />
Explains the current situation and future opportunities<br />
Several years ago the Government encouraged companies to invest in training and accreditation<br />
to become Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs) in order to support its new flagship<br />
energy efficiency programme the Green Deal and the Energy Company Obligation.<br />
Unfortunately the Green Deal failed to take off<br />
and in April 2017 Government made the<br />
decision to replace Energy Performance<br />
Certificates (EPCs) with a new deemed<br />
scores methodology in the Energy Company<br />
Obligation Transition in order to reduce the costs<br />
of administration and compliance. Unfortunately<br />
the new deemed scores approach has actually<br />
increased the complexity and costs of ECO but<br />
that is a separate matter.<br />
Neil Marshall<br />
www.nia-uk.org<br />
“Similarly, there are several million SME businesses<br />
that have similar characteristics to domestic<br />
households such as shops, pubs, clubs and hotels<br />
that require insulation - again a DEA and an EPC<br />
could open the door.<br />
Finally in April 2018, Government is introducing<br />
new regulations that will require Private Landlords<br />
to improve the energy efficiency rating of their<br />
properties through the installation of energy<br />
efficiency measures - another significant opportunity<br />
for DEAs and EPCs.<br />
Effective Engagement<br />
So we see DEAs as having a crucial role in maximising<br />
the opportunity to support the uptake of insulation<br />
measures but the question is how to most<br />
effectively engage with potential<br />
customers?<br />
At the NIA, having identified the opportunities we<br />
are now inviting qualified, accredited DEAs to become<br />
NIA members and work in partnership with<br />
our installer members to deliver a ‘one stop shop’<br />
from them to potential customers.<br />
30th November 2017<br />
Given the above, DEAs who have invested<br />
heavily in training and accreditation are now left<br />
wondering where the work is going to come from<br />
to provide a return on this investment.<br />
Important Role<br />
At the NIA we firmly believe that there is an<br />
extremely important role for DEAs and EPCs in<br />
stimulating the uptake of energy<br />
efficiency measures. The Energy Company<br />
Obligation is focussed on providing<br />
free energy efficiency measures to fuel poor<br />
households and there is very limited support<br />
for the ‘able to pay’ consumers. Yet there are<br />
millions of ‘able to pay’ homes that could benefit<br />
from insulation and householders who are<br />
prepared to pay for it but need encouragement<br />
to do so - a visit from a DEA to carry out an<br />
EPC provides an excellent opportunity to engage<br />
with them.<br />
So far we have received an excellent response<br />
from DEAs and once we have the new network<br />
fully established we will be heavily promoting EPCs<br />
along with NIA’s DEA’s and Installer members in all<br />
relevant market sectors with a strong marketing<br />
campaign.<br />
34<br />
insulatenetwork<br />
www.insulatenetwork.com<br />
WWW.INSULATIONAWARDS.CO.UK
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