Your NABERS Licensed Assessor just got better!
A Licensed NABERS Assessor will carry out physical assessments of buildings to collect and then verify the data for a NABERS rating. Mainer Associates can offer much more because our NABERS Assessor, Chris Stevens-Barnes, will not only carry out the assessment, providing the rating and certificate - but he will also look to provide a holistic, end-to-end service to improve NABERS’ ratings in a cost-effective manner. We ask Chris how he can help you…
Firstly, a quick recap about NABERS UK
NABERS stands for the National Australian Built Environment Rating System.
As its name suggests, the scheme started in Australia in 1999 and it is widely considered to be a world leading environmental performance rating tool for commercial buildings.
The NABERS UK rating scheme measures the operational performance of a building. Historically, Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) have been used as a target and measure of a building's energy performance. However, EPCs are based on the predicted or designed performance, rather than what has actually been used or measured.
NABERS currently have 2 products, ‘Energy for Offices’ and ‘Design for Performance’ and a Star Ratings system, for buildings, of 1 to 6 Stars.
To see if your building is eligible for a NABERS rating, please read our handy guide below
To learn more about the NABERS product, please refer to our previous article below
'10 Questions you must ask about NABERS'.
Is my Building eligible for a NABERS rating?
So, Chris, what do NABERS Assessors do?
We collate all the required data from the client (utility bills, hours of occupation, etc.), and then carry out a physical assessment of the building to collect – and then verify – the data for a rating according to the NABERS’ rules and validation protocols.
Once that information is collected and the rating is calculated, the Assessor submits it to the NABERS Technical Team who carry out an audit of the information before certifying the building with the final rating.
The NABERS ratings will then be certified by the NABERS National Administrator.
NABERS follows the mantra “what gets measured gets managed”, and they have shown that rated buildings have saved an average of 30–40% of their energy over 10 years.
Why is the NABERS scheme better than the previous EPCs?
The NABERS UK rating scheme measures the operational performance of the building; this is major change for the UK, which is more used to using Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) as a target and measure of building energy performance.
The issue with this is that EPCs are based on predicted or designed performance rather than what has actually been used or measured, hence the ‘performance gap’ that has been continually raised over the years as buildings rarely perform as they were designed.
As a NABERS Licensed Assessor, how do you see the scheme developing?
NABERS UK currently rates the energy performance of offices only, however, in Australia NABERS ratings are used to rate office tenancies, apartments buildings, data centres, shopping centres, hospitals and hotels with more building types coming online. The types of ratings also cover water, waste, indoor environmental quality and carbon neutrality, in addition to energy. So, there is certainly scope for the scheme to expand in the future – once it has become more established in the UK market.
Are there any NABERS updates we need to know about?
Yes; NABERS UK are introducing Whole Building and Tenancy ratings. This means that in addition to the current Base Building rating, the whole suite of calculations for the NABERS UK Energy for Offices will now be complete.
The current Base Building rating accounts for central services like heating and cooling, lifts and lighting, and common areas like lobbies. The Tenancy option will assess energy used by a specific tenanted space, which would commonly include lighting and power, any particular tenancy requirements and local air conditioning. This tool is tailored for the tenancy market so that businesses can look at the actual energy performance of the space they plan to rent.
The Whole Building option essentially combines both the Base Building and Tenancy assessments into one rating; this could be undertaken on single tenancy buildings or by building owners who want to see how their building is performing overall. Another important aspect for the Whole Building option is that it can also be used by owners where there is not appropriate sub-metering in place to allow a Base Building calculation to be completed. This could be the case for a lot of older buildings, which until now could have been penalised under the Base Building option.
So, the big question: How has our NABERS Licensed Assessor just got better?
Firstly, as well as being Mainer Associates’ NABERS UK Licensed Assessor, I am also a Senior Sustainability Consultant with 10 years' experience in the building energy sector. So, not only would I carry out the assessment and provide the rating and certificate, I would also look to provide a holistic, end-to-end service to improve NABERS’ ratings in a cost-effective manner.
This could be through options like a review of the current building data, such as the sub-metering strategy, or looking at undertaking CIBSE TM54 reporting to understand the gaps in the overall building performance. At Mainer, we pride ourselves on offering a whole service to our clients – rather than just an assessment or report in isolation.
As awareness of NABERS UK grows, and clients begin to see what benefits there are, Mainer Associates are now looking to be involved in more projects both for Design for Performance and Energy for Offices.
So, if you want to talk to me about a NABERS Estimate, NABERS Rating, or advice on how you can improve your NABERS rating - contact me at Chris.Stevens-Barnes@mainer.co.uk
For more information about NABERS, please see our service page.
Can Mainer Associates can help with NABERS on your project? please feel free to get in touch.