What is a Display Energy Certificate?

A DEC is required for any public building, and will indicate the relative energy efficiency of the property

based upon actual energy usage.

The DEC will be issued after an inspection by a qualified DEC energy assessor. The certificate produced

will contain the following information:

- Details of your property, its address, date of report and property size in square metres;

- A table with headline performance ratings calculated in terms of the average energy use per square

metre of floor area showing your property compared to a typical property of its type and size;

- Recommended measures to improve the building's performance ratings. These may typically include

changes to lighting, insulation or installing a moreenergy-efficient boiler. It will not state the cost of these

improvements - which will vary according to the cost of local labour and the materials used - but it will band

them into low, medium and high cost relative to the typical payback period.

The DEC will be accompanied by a Advisory Report and a full technical table listing of the property can be provided at no extra charge.

The EPC will measure overall energy efficiency using OR (Operational Ratings), which takes account of the size of the property, its structure,

insulation, heating, etc but concentrates heavily on the utility bills and the fuel used.

The Government's own information about Display Energy Certificates can be found here.