EPC compliant?
of energy consumption
Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
Some people might consider an Energy Performance Certificate as a grudge compliance measure and expense that could not come at a worse time. At RMS Sustainability Services we see things differently – an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is a valuable decision-making tool for property owners considering investment in projects that will reduce the energy consumption of buildings and property portfolios.
An EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) provides property owners with insight into the energy saving potential of a building. Utility costs are increasingly a driver of operating costs; initiatives that reduce the energy consumption of a building will have a direct impact on operating costs. Energy Performance Certificates will help to identify those buildings where the greatest potential for energy cost savings exists and funds can be directed to harvest these opportunities.
WHAT IS AN ENERGY PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATE?
An EPC is a certificate that shows the energy performance of a building as a rating from A to G, with A being the most efficient and G the least efficient rating. According to legislation that was gazetted in December 2020, all privately owned buildings with a net floor area of more than 2 000sqm and all public buildings with a net floor area of more than 1 000sqm, belonging to specific occupancy classes, must have an EPC rating by 7 December 2025. Furthermore, the EPC must be displayed in the building, visible to the public.
The relevant occupancy classes, as defined in SANS 10400 XA, are:- A1 – Entertainment and public assembly (occupancy where persons gather to eat, drink, dance or participate in recreation)
- A2 – Theatrical and indoor sport (occupancy where persons gather for the viewing of theatrical, operatic, orchestral, choral, cinematographical or sport performances)
- A3 – Places of instruction (occupancy other than primary or secondary schools, where students or other persons assemble for the purpose of tuition or learning and occupancy where school children assemble for the purpose of tuition or learning)
- G1 – Offices (large multi-storey office buildings, banks, consulting rooms and similar uses with lifts and energy consuming services that operate on a typical daytime occupancy and stand-alone blocks and / or campus of buildings that form and office park but operate separately)
WHAT ABOUT STATE-OWNED BUILDINGS?
The same rules apply to buildings owned by an organ of state, EXCEPT that the threshold is a net floor area of only 1 000sqm.
WHAT IMPACTS MY BUILDING RATING?
The rating is derived from the annual energy consumption of the building per square meter of the net floor area, as defined in SANS 1544, the standard that regulates how EPC ratings are calculated.
Factors that drive the rating of a building include the size of the building, the occupancy type, the building location, and how much energy the building consumes. Buildings with a higher energy consumption per square meter will have a lower rating than a similar building, in the same climate zone, that consumes less energy per square meter.
If you want to know more about the EPC calculations, please click on button below to provide your contact details and we will get in touch with you for a detailed EPC briefing.
FOR HOW LONG IS AN EPC VALID?
Your EPC is valid for a maximum of five years. However, if a building receives a poor rating, the property owner can invest in energy efficiency enhancement initiatives to improve a building’s rating.
Once the building’s energy performance has improved to the extent that the building achieves a better rating, a certificate can be re-issued before the end of the five-year period.
This new certificate with the better rating will then be valid for a further five years, or until a new certificate is issued, whichever comes first.
HOW IS A BUILDING'S RATING AFFECTED BY A SOLAR PV INSTALLATION?
Because an EPC considers ALL forms of energy used by a building, the energy produced by a solar PV installation is included in the calculation of total building energy consumption.
For instance, consider two buildings with the same net floor area (in the same climate zone) consuming the same amount of energy. The one building derives all its energy from diesel generators and the national grid while the other generates half of the energy it uses from a solar PV plant. Both these buildings will have the same EPC rating because they used the same amount of energy, no matter what the source of the energy was. However, because an EPC must show all the sources of energy used in a building, it will show the contribution of the solar PV plant to the second building’s total energy consumption.
The EPC provides transparency and visibility to property tenants who occupy buildings where the property owners invested in solar PV upgrades to reduce the carbon footprint of their buildings.
If you want to know more about how a building rating is calculated, please click on the below button to provide your contact details:
Appoint an Inspection Body
SANAS Accredited
Gather the Data
Consumption, Floor Plans and Occupancy
Process the Data
Exclusions, Vacancies and Mixed Occupancy
Validate the Results
Validate Information and Check Calculations
Issue the Certificate
Inspection Body and Technical Signatory
Display the Certificate
In Building, Visible to Public, 5 years
Submit to SANEDI
Building Energy Performance Register
Gathering the data needed to perform the calculations required for the issuing of a certificate is likely to be the most challenging part of the process.
To calculate a building rating, a SANAS accredited EPC inspection body would need at least the following data for the 12-month assessment period:
- Consumption data of all energy sources consumed in the building. Valid sources of consumption include council (or Eskom) bills and supplier invoices for other energy sources such as diesel, gas, and coal. When available, the use of measured data is strongly recommended.
- Approved building plans or architectural drawings of the building that will provide the information needed to calculate the building net floor area.
- Occupancy information that clearly states the percentage occupancy of the building per month and per occupancy type.
We aim to issue a certificate within 10 business days after receipt of the information. An important activity of the inspection body is to validate the information supplied to us by the property owner. The validation process includes a physical building assessment in the form of a site walk-through audit.
The Regulations for the mandatory display and submission of energy performance certificates for buildings was made by the Minister of Energy under the section 19(1)(b)of the National Energy Act, 1998 (Act 34 of 2008). In terms of the regulations, “Failure to publicly display the energy performance certificate in terms of these Regulations is an offence in contravention of the Act.”
The National Energy Act clearly stipulates that “A person who contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of the Act shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on conviction to – a) a fine not exceeding five million rand; b) imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years: or c) both such fine and such imprisonment”.
It would not be prudent to speculate on whether this would be enforced or not. That is a decision for every property owner to make based on legal counsel. But the Regulations and the Act are clear – there could be dire consequences for those who do not comply.
RMS launched an EPC briefing campaign in 2021 to raise awareness and provide relevant information to property owners.
The amended regulations provide a deadline extension for the mandatory display of energy performance certificates for the requisite buildings to 7 December 2025. Despite the deadline extension, property owners must register the type, size, and energy performance for those buildings requiring EPCs to the National Building Performance Register by 25 November 2023.
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COMPLETE BELOW FORM
If you are interested in learning more about Energy Performance Certificates, Please provide us with the following information regarding your need for EPC certification services so that we can respond effectively. Please indicate for how many buildings you need an EPC. Remember that an EPC is issued per building and not per property. For every building:
- Who is the property owner
- Name of the property as well as the building – for example New Office Park Block A
- Number of floors (excluding basements) in the building
- Number of basement floors
- Building type – e.g. is this a standalone building or part of a campus property
- Occupancy type – e.g. is this an office, a retail building, a place of instruction, etc.
- Can you indicate whether the building has mostly open plan office areas or mostly closed offices (if this is applicable)
- What is the building floor area (GLA) in square meters.