This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
[ Spotlight: Green Deal ] T


he recent spate of bad press on the Green Deal – the government’s funding scheme for energy saving improvements for home and businesses – should not put electrical contractors off getting


involved with energy effi ciency work across all fi elds. While the Green Deal may be the headline- grabbing initiative of the moment, it is just one way of fi nancing upgrade work for clients. The take-up of the scheme may have been slow so far, but the publicity surrounding it – raising the profi le of energy effi ciency measures with short payback – also has the potential to generate additional work that doesn’t involve Green Deal funding. Seeing the savings that can be made, clients may opt to pick and choose energy improvements and fi nance them directly themselves.


What’s it all about? As a reminder there are several stages in obtaining a Green Deal:  Obtain an energy assessment of the property. An accredited Green Deal assessor will survey the building, give it an Energy Performance Certifi cate (EPC) rating and make recommendations on the improvements necessary to increase the effi ciency.


 The client can accept this or obtain another assessment (obviously at a cost), and if they want to continue the process, they pass the report to a Green Deal Provider (GDP) and specify which improvements they want quotes for. The GDP will arrange for a full quotation to be produced, using accredited installers, and can arrange the fi nance required.


 If the customer accepts, then the work is organised by the GDP using accredited installers, and then the completed work is reassessed to give a new (improved) EPC.


 The customer than pays the loan back over an agreed period via their electricity bill. The cost of the loan should be less than the cost of the energy saved (the so-called ‘Golden Rule’). The loan is actually on the property, not tied to an individual, and remains with the property even if the original owner moves. The loan period can be anything up to 20 years, depending on the measures installed.


This is a complicated system requiring a number


of contractors, assessors and administrators to work together. There is, of course, a mark-up on the work, plus the interest cost of the Green Deal loan – which is currently about seven per cent. The Green Deal applies to both domestic and non- domestic properties but, as with many things, there are numerous complications in the commercial area, especially where tenants are involved. As a further encouragement, the level of


Feed-in Tariff s (FiTs) given for renewable energy installations is dependent on certain levels of EPC being attained, and a Green Deal assessment may


Improving the EPC rating of the property through such improvements can signifi cantly enhance the value of a property


be required for this. There is further encouragement in the commercial sector, where the government has announced that, from 2018, buildings may not be let if the EPC rating is below a certain value (currently expected to be ‘F’, but this may change). The government will be encouraging landlords to improve their property by using the Green Deal and its assessment process.


Where’s the money? In both domestic and non-domestic sectors, it is not necessary to use the Green Deal process if the client can fi nd cheaper sources of fi nance. Currently, interest rates available from fi nancial institutions are considerably below the seven per cent quoted for the Green Deal. This high rate is meant to refl ect the level of risk of default on the loan. However, the publicity surrounding the scheme is also having the knock-on eff ect of encouraging clients to look at ways they can improve their properties outside the Green Deal. If it is economic to install energy effi ciency measures using external fi nance under the Green Deal, it will, of course, be even more economic if the client uses their own lower cost fi nance. The administration costs are considerably lower too. The Green Deal Oversight and Registration Body


(Green Deal ORB) has recently published statistics that give a breakdown of the assessments already carried out and details of the recommendations. It makes interesting reading.1


As might be expected,


the majority of recommendations are for heating and insulation measures to be undertaken. However, 16 per cent were for microgeneration and, of those, 10 per cent of the assessments recommended solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. Another 12 per cent were for heating controls, heat pumps and storage radiators. These are all areas of work in which the electrical contractor is more than competent to carry out the work.


Case study: high flier


The Hughes Group, based in Ascot, Berkshire, has been working with a major cargo handler near Heathrow and identifi ed major potential savings that could be made in the lighting of its offi ce building. A high proportion of the lighting appeared to be permanently on. A full survey was carried out, and a scheme designed that replaced the existing luminaires or lamps with LED equivalents and used passive infrared (PIR) detectors wherever possible, taking care to leave a minimum level of lighting in access areas such as stairwells. The annual energy cost was reduced from more than £5,000 to less than £1,000 per year, giving a payback time of less than a year. Jon Hughes, MD, sees working in the energy effi ciency area as a major opportunity for the company: ‘Due to recent success with low-energy lighting and controls projects, coupled with the overwhelmingly positive feedback from our clients, I fi rmly believe that there is a fantastic opportunity for electrical contractors to capitalise on this new area of the industry. Our team at Hughes Group are proud to be pioneering the government’s Green Deal initiative.’


September 2013 ECA Today 23


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68