Copenhagen Climate Summit – How does it effect my commercial premises?
Ahead of the summit in Copenhagen there have been calls on the government to ensure that lighting and heating controls become standard across all 1.8m UK commercial properties in the UK within the next ten years. In some instances there are calls for greater improved glazing and heating to further reduce carbon emissions.
In many instances these are seen as costs that landlords can ill afford in these less than buoyant times.
What tends to be overlooked though is that improvements to the heating, lighting and energy comsumption of a building can sometimes be achieved at little cost. Simply switching your lighting from standard fluorescent tubes to more energy efficient lighting can be relatively inexpensive and it can make a considerable saving in the amount of energy used which could have a positive impact on the energy rating of the property.
We are not suggesting for a minute that by effecting such a change will suddenly find you a tenant or achieve a sale of the property ; but it may just make a prospective tenant / purchaser think twice about your property and the fact that the running costs are less than other properties under consideration, which in turn will provide the new tenant / owner with greater profits and may achieve an earlier deal for you.
Every commercial energy performance certificate completed on commercial properties will have a supplemental recommendations report (if it does not - then question whether you have a valid report). This recommendations report provides a range of suggestions as to how the energy efficiency of a building can be improved. It will encompass all aspects of the buildings use of energy and whilst some of the recommendations may take some considerable time to be cost effective there are, as mentioned, other more cost effective recommendations that can be implemented almost immediately.
Some landlords / property owners perceive this as a problem. What is the point of paying for an epc that identifies where savings can be made but then requires another epc that will rate the property with the improved energy efficiency actions taken. Here at CEAUK we are able to produce an epc for a commercial property with suggested recommendations and once some or all of the recommendations have been implemented produce the epc showing the improved rating.
To ensure that you are best placed to find a tenant or sell your commercial property then contact us today on 0870 770 8747 to see how we can help you.
Labels: commercial energy performance certificate, commercial property, energy assessment costs, energy efficiency