First measured energy performance course launches to drive skills vital to scale retrofit and boost heat pump uptake
A new course will deliver vital skills in measured energy performance to improve retrofit and heat pump specification accuracy, while delivering more detailed energy assessments.
The Measured Energy Performance (MEP) competency scheme from Elmhurst Energy, will the company say prepare the sector for future legislation and increased marketplace demand for MEP.
Teaching building heat loss measurement and holistic building performance evaluation, the course is set to drive a truer understanding of the real energy efficiency of UK homes and buildings.
Stuart Fairlie, managing director of Elmhurst Energy, said:
“We can’t truly benchmark our UK housing stock without measured energy performance (MEP). We’ve now reached a tipping point where it’s become vital to use MEP to inform both retrofit projects and heat pump sizing and specification to support meeting the Government’s 600,000 target by 2028.
“Around 20% of the UK’s carbon emissions are caused by heating our homes. At the moment, many of our efforts to decarbonise our dwellings are based on calculations which involve some assumptions – and that could be harming our journey to Net Zero 2050. MEP can help to avoid further retrofit down the line and ensure public funding for energy efficiency improvements via schemes like ECO and the Great British Insulation is used on the right measures.”
The course will deliver governance and a framework for MEP against future standards and government requirements, and focuses on upskilling professionals to:
- Measure thermal performance and energy performance of homes, teaching a method for measuring heat transfer coefficient (HTC). HTC measures all heat lost from a home through walls, roof, floor, windows, doors and other air movement paths. It produces the rate of heat loss per degree of temperature difference between inside the home versus outside
- Explore other areas of building energy performance measurement to determine specific areas of heat loss in a home, such as by ventilation and infiltration assessment through airtightness testing, as well as u-value measurement and thermal imaging
Chris Ricketts, Elmhurst Energy head of consultancy commented:
“MEP is quickly being realised as an important feature of the UK’s retrofit roadmap. It should be commonplace pre- and post-retrofit to support decision making on which energy efficiency measures to install and to help assess the efficacy of those measures once in use. It also provides the forensic data needed for older and more traditional buildings where it can be hard to see the effect of decades of change on a building’s energy performance.
“Use of MEP in new build housing will also swiftly increase when the Future Homes Standard comes into force in 2025, when housebuilders can opt to use MEP to prove their homes’ energy performance lives up to the promises of design.”
Caroline Postles, technical consultant at Elmhurst Energy and MEP Scheme lead, added:
“The launch of both the MEP training and the wider scheme is key to scaling up vital competency in this area, and emphasises our ongoing commitment at Elmhurst to growing understanding about building energy performance. We hope the course will play a part in developing and delivering skills the UK needs to drive further energy efficiency improvements and uptake in low carbon heating solutions.”
Elmhurst has been working to formalise the use of MEP through HTC testing for almost four years. It has supported projects through the government-funded Smart Meter Enabled Thermal Efficiency Ratings (SMETER) innovation programme and advised in the ECO4 (Energy Company Obligation) Scheme working group and Future Homes Hub (FHH) Building Performance Evaluation Scheme.
Elmhurst’s Measured Energy Performance (MEP) Competency Scheme training is delivered online on an on-demand basis, involving three hours of teaching and assessment. To practice measurement, professionals will also need training in relevant HTC technology.
Related Content
London boroughs call for £194m funding to retrofit 20,000 homes
Passivhaus is good for you!
- © Ocean Media Group