Independent Energy Assessors Ltd (IEA) announces the launch of a sister organisation called E Advantage Ltd.

E Advantage Ltd will be the new proposition to market for Energy Management Systems to the standard BS EN 16001 and Environmental Management Systems to the standard ISO 14001 from IEA.

Demand on IEA for these standards is growing and given the current market positioning which primarily focuses on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. (EPBD), means there is a need for a new offering and identity to the market for the provision of these services.

E Advantage is set to help businesses of all sizes with implementation and compliance to these standards, by providing a unique commercial approach to environmental issues, helping businesses to pull their environmental achievements through to their marketing and brand. Securing existing markets and discovering new business opportunities.

Visit E Advantage at www.e-advantage.co.uk for more information.

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IEA are now able to produce Land Registry compliant Lease Plans for our clients.

Lease plans are now required by Land Registry under Rule 24 LRR 2003. The plans must be drawn to specific rules laid down by Land Registry and submitted with the appropriate completed forms.

Let us know if you would like to know more about this service, we offer competitive rates and where we are instructed to produce an EPC at the same time discount those rates and produce your Lease Plan in one visit to the property.

Our environmental credentials extend well beyond producing EPCs. IEA can also produce environmental policies and environmental management systems (EMS). The aim of EMS is help a business manage their environmental impact through their trading activities and demonstrate this in accordance with ISO standard 14001. Once this is in place an functioning they can achieve this ISO accreditation. The benefits do not stop at achieving the accreditation, but implementing an EMS helps to reduce the running costs of the business through efficiencies made in almost every department and area. The system is managed using a web based software application that makes management reporting and accreditation easy.

Businesses are constantly striving to maintain their competitive advantage, holding their market share and keeping costs under control. EMS is a great additional tool in the box through which these things can be achieved.

If you are considering implementing an environmental policy or system then we can help. Call us to talk through the benefits to your business and the environment of having a robust easy to use system.

I have two buildings exactly the same why are the EPC ratings different?

This is a situation that crops up from time to time when we have assessed ‘sister’ industrial units with the same or very similar building design and layout.

One of the factors assessors take into consideration is the activities that occur within a building. When we model a building for an epc we assign specific activities, such as office, meeting room, toilet, industrial process area, workshops, warehouse ECT. Each activity has a different impact on the rating, so where two buildings are the same, the activities may not be. For example if we compare an office with a meeting room, the software model assumes less activity for a meeting room as it is likely to used less than an office and so emits less C0² producing a better rating for exactly the same floor space.

IEA demonstrates its capability for delivering a large number of complicated commercial EPCs on time and on Budget. An industrial site near Birmingham with 27 individual units ranging through 100 – 3000 square metres has been successfully completed. One of the main issues encountered while assessing these buildings was the fact that although these were essentially industrial type buildings, some had very complex industries operating within them, including clean rooms and laboratories, which required a higher than usual level of expertise and were visited by our Level 4 assessors. Despite the added complexity the contract was delivered on time and on budget and to the clients full satisfaction.

There is currently a wide ranging review of commercial EPCs being conducted by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG). With particular emphasis on the quality of work being delivered by assessors and the subsequent accuracy of any EPC lodged.

IEA welcome this review as we have always strived to put quality before price. We always use fully qualified assessors who visit every site in person and are responsible from start to finish for the EPC undertaken.

The review will take the form of a report which will be ready in the autumn of this year and we will keep you posted on any changes in practise that may be recommended.

IEA are pleased to be working with Lorraine Calcott a lighting consultant with many years lighting experience. Lorraine has worked on and won awards related to her work and has been responsible for lighting in Wembley Arena, Stratford Upon Avon Shopping Centre, New Look Fashion Stores, Tesco etc.

Lighting is responsible for a significant amount of the energy used in any building and poor lighting such as the use of tungsten lighting in a building is responsible for producing very poor energy scores when producing EPCs.

Efficient use of lighting in a building is a key issue when we are looking to improve the energy efficiency of a building. Where we have identified significant opportunities for improvement Lorraine’s advice is invaluable.