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sean

Getting an Energy Audit Done (Work not Home)

Any ideas where to look/who to ask?
It seems fairly likely that work is going to attempt to install a PV array on our heavily shaded north-facing flat roof.
Given that the building has single glazed sash windows, ancient gas boilers, inefficient lighting etc it seems self-evident that this is an utter waste of money. However, unless I can come up with some credible figures the Council of Management will go with what the Director wants so I could do with suggestions on this please.
tahir

This is the firm that did the environmental audits at our house:

http://www.brilliantfutures.co.uk/

They appear to do the sort of thing you need
sean

Ta. Will contact them. Anyone else got any bright ideas? Ones that don't involve assassinating numpties would be good.
kGarden

Re: Getting an Energy Audit Done (Work not Home)


Given that the building has single glazed sash windows, ancient gas boilers, inefficient lighting etc it seems self-evident that this is an utter waste of money.


Son't see why that should matter? in the sense that if we need loads of PV generation then any available roof will do?

When I had mine installed it was a requirement, to get a KickBack, that the building already had cavity fill / loft insulation / something similar and there were bands from A to E (from memory) that the energy audit assigned in order to determine if it qualified.

The heavily "shaded North facing roof" doesn't sound good though! The guys that fitted my PV advised me to take the top off a Conifer that was to the NW of the site. I didn't think it would make much difference, but they showed me some gismo they had which detailed what obstructions there were and what the reduction in energy was likely to be, so the top will be coming off that tree!

Either then energy audit, or the gizmo, might tell you that north facing is not brilliant!

The Kick Backs reduce periodically, so make sure you are getting anything commissioned (not just installed) before the next anniversary date.
Cathryn

We have just used Thornton's Engineering. Just and I mean just before Christmas.

I am now jumping up and down with excitement as the work starts tomorrow, scaffolding goes up next week!
tahir

Re: Getting an Energy Audit Done (Work not Home)

Son't see why that should matter? in the sense that if we need loads of PV generation then any available roof will do?


If it's a question of where to spend limited budget then reducing demand is the ONLY sensible thing to do, most ways of doing this are quite easy but obviously harder to explain to people. We still have to explain why we don't have wind turbines, PV, ground source heat pump etc as all the stuff we put our money into (airtightness, windows, insulation) is invisble.
sean

Re: Getting an Energy Audit Done (Work not Home)


Given that the building has single glazed sash windows, ancient gas boilers, inefficient lighting etc it seems self-evident that this is an utter waste of money.

Son't see why that should matter? in the sense that if we need loads of PV generation then any available roof will do?



We (as an organisation) have little money and extremely high overheads for energy. In terms of ROI we don't need to generate a bit of electricity we need to cut our costs long-term. Plus IMHO the PV won't generate anything like the amount of leccy that we actually use with our present set-up.
Treacodactyl

Would one of these bods who produce an EPC for house sales be able to help? I noticed the latest ones actually list some ideas about what could be done and what savings it would provide. You might even be able to get someone to do it free. sean

I'll have a chat to the estate agents in town. One of them sponsors us so they might be up for helping. Nick

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/business/energyefficiencyfund

Ninety seconds googling for free business energy survey gave me this. Might not be suitable, but the government are throwing money at your problem.
sean

Ta Nick. This is all grist to the mill. I'm not in work until Monday morning, so keep the suggestions coming folks. kGarden

Re: Getting an Energy Audit Done (Work not Home)

We (as an organisation) have little money and extremely high overheads for energy. In terms of ROI we don't need to generate a bit of electricity we need to cut our costs long-term. Plus IMHO the PV won't generate anything like the amount of leccy that we actually use with our present set-up.

Fair enough, but electricity you generate goes into the grid, or reduces your usage (either way reducing dependency on foreign oil imports and cutting CO2 etc). Government, or industry with its arm half way up its back, will subsidise your purchase such that "investing" in PV is at least as good as sticking the money in a long term deposit account. Assuming energy prices rise above inflation, notwithstanding a dramatic fall in oil prices, then the investment will improve with time.

I'm in favour of encouraging that - if we want alternative energy we need to install enough that the skills are developed, R&D finds better solutions and economies of scale drive price down, up to each individual / company to decide if they want to invest, or not.

But I'm sure I'm not saying anything that is new to folk here.
RichardW

Re: Getting an Energy Audit Done (Work not Home)

work is going to attempt to install a PV array on our heavily shaded north-facing flat roof.

How do you have a north facing flat roof?

Shading is a big issue & most installers do not design for it or calculate its affect very well.

Whilst reduction in demand is the first step having a regular income from FITs can then help finance extra measures.
sean

Re: Getting an Energy Audit Done (Work not Home)

work is going to attempt to install a PV array on our heavily shaded north-facing flat roof.

How do you have a north facing flat roof?

Shading is a big issue & most installers do not design for it or calculate its affect very well.

Whilst reduction in demand is the first step having a regular income from FITs can then help finance extra measures.

If you imagine a north facing room that's had the ceiling and the northernmost wall removed...

The other bit is my point. We're looking at doing this first when it should come after all the other stuff.
tahir

Re: Getting an Energy Audit Done (Work not Home)

If you imagine a north facing room that's had the ceiling and the northernmost wall removed...

Sounds like a proper sun trap Laughing
kGarden

Re: Getting an Energy Audit Done (Work not Home)

We're looking at doing this first when it should come after all the other stuff.

Is the other stuff subsidised? If not then no harm in doing this first? (North facing aspect apart!)

We looked at trying to improve the energy efficiency of our house. Not the same as an industrial lot, I'm sure, but perhaps similar in some ways. It was a nightmare ...

We put Fill in the cavity several years ago. That changed the balance of the building and the cold-bridging of the sills then started to give us some damp problems - solved by heating the rooms continuously, or opening the windows - negating the benefit of the energy saving from the cavity insulation!. The building already had double glazing (an earlier retro fit). We increased the insulation in the loft.

Next up from that would have been to insulate the walls. For us that would have been external insulation boards, render over the outside of that, and in the process move all the windows further out (so insulation layer was continuous) and upgrade them to triple glazed.

Our house was already relatively air tight (around 2 ACH), so the extra insulation combined with an air-tight membrane would have enabled us to get to Passive House standards (0.6 ACH), at that point we would need mechanical ventilation (combined with heat exchanger for heat recovery) which would have been disruptive to decorations in every room in the house.

We would not have been able to insulate the floor, so that would have presented a problem to the balance of heat in the building - probably could have offset that by excavating the foundations and insulating them on the outside. Existing radiators (cast-iron skirting type, so no easy "replace-with-smaller-ones" option) would then be oversized and, as we have very little control over the system - no zoning - we probably would have had a problem with radiators providing too much heat.

We opted to build a passive house extension instead!!, and hibernate in there during the winter. If we win the lottery we'll upgrade the original part of the house.

The economics of making your existing building very efficient will probably look better by knocking it down and starting again ... which to my mind is horrendous from a "green" standpoint. Good luck to the next generation in finding ways of retro-upgrading the existing housing stock, and I wish the government would hurry up and mandate Passive House standards for new housing stock - the less we build to current Building Regs the less will have to be upgraded later.
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