Level of Service

Having found the LCEA you want to engage, you must then decide what sort of service you want from them.

All LCEAs will be able to provide the basic, low cost, energy certification which is available from other energy assessors, but LCEAs can also provide a higher quality service offering additional value if you wish. A higher quality certification service might include:

A full survey of your building

A full survey may reveal simple, low cost improvements which will make a significant impact on your energy use.

A detailed examination of system components such as boilers and chillers

A standard recommendation report using inference values might indicate, for example, that boilers or chillers might usefully be replaced. By looking at the real boiler or chiller efficiencies being achieved and the way the system is operating, an LCEA might find that boiler replacement would be either unnecessary, or significantly less cost-effective than another energy saving measure which may be more appropriate for your building.

A full recommendations or advisory report, customised to be appropriate for your building

The standard advisory or recommendations report will be highly generic, and may be completed without full knowledge of your building and its services using inferred default values. A report based on a full survey will enable the assessor to identify the most appropriate and cost effective improvement measures suitable for your particular building.

In certain organisations, the availability of such a generic report may raise expectations that some or all of these measures should be implemented straight away, even if they are not, in fact, appropriate.

By engaging an LCEA to carry out a full survey and report, you can be confident that only those measures which are appropriate and cost-effective for your building will appear in the report.

Full costing of the measures in a report

A standard recommendations or advisory report will offer a fairly standard list of ways you could make your building more energy efficient based on generalised payback time information. Full costing information will be invaluable in making informed decisions about which measures should be implemented first, or to allow stakeholders to understand why a phased implementation programme may be necessary and to support the development of asset management plans.

A full implementation plan

Experience suggests that many energy surveys are left to gather dust because although their recipients are keen to reduce energy usage, many businesses lack the skills, in house, to implement the results of a survey. LCEAs have the skills to do this. In addition they are experienced in working with consultancies or contractors who can implement energy saving measures or systems for you.