A Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) for

efficient energy use Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the process of reducing the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a building allows it to use less heating and cooling energy to ...

is an accredited position in the UK that is approved by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Under the UK's Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations, an

Energy Performance Certificate Energy performance certificates (EPCs) are a rating scheme to summarise the energy efficiency of buildings. In the European Union, EPCs are regulated by the European Directive on the energy performance of buildings. Turkey EPCs are mandatory ...

is required for the sale or rent of a domestic dwelling. DEAs are qualified and accredited for the production of RdSAP EPCs - these are specifically for use on existing buildings, which would include an dwelling built after 2008 which had already received an on-construction SAP EPC. As of November 2018, DEAs had produced 16,849,375 RdSAP EPCs since the inception of the industry.

Qualifications

"If you’re a DEA you must: * carry out energy efficiency assessments on existing dwellings only * collect data on the dimensions, construction, heating and hot water provision of the property and enter it into an approved software programme - Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure (RDSAP) * produce energy performance certificates (EPCs) for homes being marketed for sale, for other homes sold and for homes when rented."

Importance of the role

Domestic energy assessors will be commissioned by householders or their agents to visit homes, initially those that are about to come onto the market. The owners will be obliged to make EPCs and advisory reports available to buyers, and later to tenants. In this way, DEAs will be a key part of helping homebuyers,

homeowner Owner-occupancy or home-ownership is a form of housing tenure in which a person, called the owner-occupier, owner-occupant, or home owner, owns the home in which they live. The home can be a house, such as a single-family detached home, single-fa ...

s and tenants contribute to the “green agenda”. Research confirms that householders want to know about the energy efficiency of their homes, and about how they can make improvements.

Skills and knowledge

These are defined in the

National Occupational Standards National Occupational Standards (NOS), also known as professional standards, specify UK standards of performance that people are expected to achieve in their work, and the knowledge and skills they need to perform effectively. NOS, which are appr ...

(NOS). The NOS are a specification of both the technical knowledge and the skills required to be a competent DEA They include a requirement to understand the legal background to the role, to possess relevant

interpersonal skills A social skill is any competence facilitating interaction and communication with others where social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning these skills is called social ...

and make accurate judgments consistently, aided by the

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

, on the recommendations for cost effective improvement measures. They may be downloaded free of charge from the Asset Skills Energy Assessors website.

Training to achieve a qualification

DEA qualifications will be provided by three awarding bodies–the Awarding Body for the Built Environment (ABBE),

City and Guilds The City and Guilds of London Institute is an educational organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded on 11 November 1878 by the City of London and 16 livery companies – to develop a national system of technical education, the institute has ...

and the

National Association of Estate Agents NAEA Propertymark (formerly National Association of Estate Agents or NAEA) is a membership organisation for estate agents (called ''real estate brokers'' in the US). It is based in and covers the UK. It is the UK's leading professional body for ...

(NAEA). Each will include a

multiple choice Multiple choice (MC), objective response or MCQ (for multiple choice question) is a form of an objective assessment in which respondents are asked to select only correct answers from the choices offered as a list. The multiple choice format is m ...

examination and detailed assessment of not less than five EPCs. Many providers in both the

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

(usually

Further Education Colleges Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...

) and

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...

are offering or planning to offer training to become a DEA. Professional bodies and private providers will also do the same, whilst larger companies will almost certainly provide the learning in-house. Asset Skills, awarding bodies and

professional association A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) usually seeks to advocacy, further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that professio ...

s can all give advice about how to locate

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or Physical fitness, fitness that relate to specific practicality, useful Competence (human resources), competencies. Training has specific goals of improving on ...

relevant to your needs and where you live. The amount of training you require will depend on your current level of skills and knowledge–obviously much less for an experienced practitioner than someone entering the world of Energy Assessment and buildings for the first time. Some

funding Funding is the act of providing resources to finance a need, program, or project. While this is usually in the form of money, it can also take the form of effort or time from an organization or company. Generally, this word is used when a firm uses ...

support may be available in certain circumstances–approach a local or regional

Learning and Skills Council The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England. It closed on 31 Marc ...

(LSC) or in Wales, the

Welsh Assembly Government Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

After qualification

In order to practise, DEAs need to join an

accreditation Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

body. This will entail a check that the individual is fit and proper and a commitment to maintaining appropriate

Professional Indemnity In contract law, an indemnity is a contractual obligation of one party (the ''indemnitor'') to compensate the loss incurred by another party (the ''indemnitee'') due to the relevant acts of the indemnitor or any other party. The duty to indemni ...

, updating your skills and knowledge regularly ( CPD), participating in the accrediting body’s

quality assurance Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...

scheme, and abiding by their advice and guidance.

Accreditation Schemes for DEAs

Domestic Energy Assessors are able to join any of the following accreditation schemes to be able to practice. Multiple registrations are common within the Industry. * ECMK * Elmhurst * Quidos * Sterling * Stroma * Bacra (Scottish only)

References

{{Portal bar, United Kingdom, Energy, Society Energy in the United Kingdom