ABBE Level 3 Diploma in
Domestic Green Deal Advice
12. Green Deal Occupancy
Assessment
Presented by [Name]
① Outline of the Green Deal Home Visit and
the Occupancy Assessment
② Occupancy Assessment – Considerations
③ Information Collection for the Occupancy
Assessment
Domestic GDA Training – 12. Green Deal Occupancy Assessment
Training Material © Stroma Certification 2013 | Version 1.1
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Outline of the Green Deal Home Visit
and the Occupancy Assessment
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Outline of Visit/Occupancy Assessment
1. Contact the customer in advance of the visit to explain what it entails,
and to ask them to have ready any relevant info, such as fuel bills,
receipts or guarantees for any work done. Also ask if they already have
an EPC (especially if they have recently moved into the home) – if so,
and they cannot find it, obtain their permission to look it up on
Landmark.
2. Visit at the agreed time and discuss the visit with the customer.
Explain all points on your sign off sheet/check sheet, to make sure the
customer is fully informed about the process before the assessment
begins.
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Outline of Visit/Occupancy Assessment
3. Inspect the property and talk to the customer to determine how the
occupiers use the home in practice, if possible taking information from
their fuel bills, and noting their usage of appliances (e.g. refrigerator
and tumble dryer).
Do not make assumptions. Ask the question
4. If possible, immediately enter the data gathered into the Green Deal
Advisor software and compare the customer's fuel bills with the
estimates in the EPC and OA.
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Outline of Visit/Occupancy Assessment
5. Talk to the customer about their use of the installed energyusing systems, particularly how they use any controls, to
establish if any high energy use is down to the way the customer
uses them.
6. Find out whether they fall into any category that may
receive funding help from the Energy Company Obligation
(ECO). The ECO works alongside the Green Deal finance offer
by targeting appropriate measures at those households likely to
need additional support – in particular those containing
vulnerable people on low incomes and in hard-to-treat housing.
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Outline of Visit/Occupancy Assessment
7. Use the outputs from the GDAR to consider what
improvement measures and/or behaviour changes would help to
reduce the customer's fuel bills.
Reviewing the recommendations produced by the GDAR
will provide estimates of the savings that can be expected
from them and an indication of whether the suggested
measures will satisfy the “Golden Rule”.
Be aware that some options for improvements will almost
certainly be beyond Green Deal funding, but might still be a
viable solution if the customer is willing to provide some of their
own funding, from savings or via a separate loan.
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Outline of Visit/Occupancy Assessment
8. Discuss these options, their relative costs, disadvantages and
benefits, with the customer, and agree the types of improvement that
the customer wishes to consider.
9. Discuss possible low cost, no cost measures with the customer to
improve their energy saving and to begin saving immediately
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Outline of Visit/Occupancy Assessment
10. Encourage the customer to adopt a programme of whole house
improvement, which is generally more cost effective and less disruptive
than making individual improvements one at a time; one large-saving
item may also pay fully for additional energy-saving items.
For example, for a solid wall home, internal wall insulation may be under
consideration; if the customer is considering refitting the kitchen, this would be
the ideal time to install wall insulation and also to replace older white goods
with the most efficient options. To an extent, this will depend on funding
availability and the financial circumstances of the customer, so again this
should be handled tactfully.
11. If applicable, discuss possible ECO funding that may be available
to offset some of the upfront costs.
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Occupancy Assessment –
Considerations
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Occupancy
Short Description: Number of occupants.
Long Description: Total number of occupants normally living in the
dwelling.
Notes: This is just a straight count of the number of people who sleep
in this dwelling on at least half of the nights in a year, regardless of their
age/size. The answer should be a whole number. Don’t attempt to
correct for children (e.g. counting as half). Students living away from
home during term time should be excluded from the count.
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Showers and Baths
Short description: Type of shower and frequency of use of bath and
shower
Long description: What type of shower is present (if any)? How often
is it used? How often is the bath used?
Notes: If more than one shower type is present, choose the one that is used most Frequency of use
can be asked in terms of uses per day/week/month, or whatever is easiest for the occupant, but record
in uses per day (for the household as a whole) for input to the software. Given the personal nature of
this question, some occupants may not wish to answer it, in which case default values are used,
resulting in a less accurate assessment of hot water use.
Choose from the following shower types:
• None: No shower is present in this home.
• Unknown: Unidentifiable, or occupant doesn’t know and won’t let assessor see it.
• Mixer: Shower fed from hot water cylinder (not pumped), or combi boiler.
• Electric: Shower with an electric heating element which heats water at the point of use.
• Pumped: ‘Power’ shower with an electric pump to increase the flow rate.
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Property Details
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Heating Systems
Define main and secondary heating systems:
Which heating system is actually used as the main heating system in
this household?
Which second main system is actually used in this household?
Which secondary system is actually used in this household?
This question is about how occupants heat this home in practice
in the winter. The choice of systems may therefore be different to
what was assumed in the RdSAP assessment.
Main, Second Main and Secondary systems can only be
replaced with Secondary Heaters.
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Heating Systems
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Main Heating
The main heating system is defined as:
•
•
•
A system which heats the largest proportion of the dwelling.
A system which is not usually based on individual room heaters
A system which usually also provides the water heating.
(although it can be).
If there is more than one heating system or device in a property, use
the following process to decide which is the main heating system:
•
•
•
•
The main system usually provides both space and water heating and should
heat at least 30% of the dwelling.
If no system provides space and water heating then select the system which
heats the greatest part of the dwelling.
If there is still doubt then select the system which supplies useful heat to the
dwelling at the lowest cost.
If the costs are the same then select the system which
heats the living room.
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Additional Main System
If a dwelling has an additional main system then the proportion of the property
heated by each system should be calculated. This should be based on heated
floor area to the nearest 10%.
• If two systems serve the same heating circuit then assume there is a
50/50 split.
• The main system should be the one which heats the living area.
Examples where an additional main system can be used:
• A large property has two different boilers fitted so the whole property can
be heated. One boiler is the main system the other is the additional main
system.
• A property has a boiler fitted to replace storage heaters, but some
functioning storage heaters are left in the property, the boiler is the main
system and the storage heaters are the additional system
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Secondary Heating
Secondary heating must be based on fixed room heaters.
• A fixed room heater is an independent heater not on a central system,
such as a gas fire or electric panel heater. The heater must be fixed in
place, so portable heaters are not included in the assessment.
Secondary Heater selection:
1. Select the type of heater which heats the greatest number of
habitable rooms.
2. If that does not resolve the choice then select the heater which is
cheapest to run, based on fuel cost.
3. If that still does not narrow it down, select the device with the
lowest efficiency.
4. Make use of the Second Main system.
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Heating Systems
The selection once the heating systems are defined are for
Room Heaters only. The selections are:
Main Heating –
As RdSap
Room Heater
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Heating Systems
Fuel Category:
• Gas
• Oil
• Solid
• Electric
Fuel: this refers to the type of fuel selected e.g. Mains
Gas, LPG etc…
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Heating Systems
Selection for Room Heaters depends on the Fuel they are burning.
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Rooms Heated By Each System
Short description: Habitable rooms heated by each system.
Long description: Identification of which rooms are heated and by
which heating system.
The living area comprises rooms normally heated to a higher temperature than
the rest of the house).
Indicate rooms as partially heated if normally kept at a lower temperature (e.g.
TRV set 1 or the frost setting because room rarely used).
It is possible to have more than one system for a room (commonly the main
living room having both central heating and a focal point fire). The following
table illustrates.
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Rooms Heated By Each System
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Living Area Temperature
Short Description: The temperature to which the living area is
normally heated
Long Description: The temperature reached on a normal day in
winter in the living room when the heating has been on long enough to
reach the occupants’ desired temperature.
If the thermostat is in the living room and is used in the normal way (i.e. generally left in
one position) record the thermostat set point.
If the thermostat is not in the living room, add 3°C to the set-point to estimate the living
room temperature.
If there is no thermostat, or it is frequently adjusted, a reliable estimate cannot be made,
so record ‘unknown’.
(Where programmable thermostats are used (with the possibility of having a
variable set point) use the highest set point for the most common day type
(e.g. even if a higher set-point is used at the weekend, use the
weekday maximum).
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Heating Patterns
The hours of heating on a typical week in winter
On a normal day, the hours during which the heating is normally on and
on an alternative day, the hours during which the heating is normally
on. How many days of the week is the alternative heating pattern used?
Only need to provide alternative hours if the heating is used differently
on some days of the week (e.g. longer hours at the weekend).
Record up to 4 heating periods per normal day and up to 4 per
alternative day. More than 4 will be extremely rare, but if necessary
combine any remaining hours into the 4th.
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Heating Patterns
For each period of heating, record the on time and the off time. In cases
where a programmer is present, the occupant may know their on and
off time to the nearest minute, in which case enter them to this level of
accuracy, but in other cases times to the nearest half an hour would be
adequate.
Total number of hours on is not sufficient, because the hours the
heating is off between heating periods is needed to estimate how
much the house cools to get the right average internal temperature.
The number of days per week the alternative heating pattern is
used doesn’t necessarily have to be a whole number.
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Heating Patterns
Example heating pattern
Number of days per week alternative pattern used
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Tumble Dryer
Short description: Level of use of tumble dryer
Long description: During a year, what proportion of clothes drying is done
using a tumble dryer?
Enter zero if not present. If present, estimate proportion of drying that is done using
the tumble dryer over the course of a year, considering the alternatives (e.g. indoor
drying racks).
You must enter the figure as a percentage
Is there space for outside drying: Yes/No
There has to be physical space for external drying outside of the
property, rotary washing lines do not have to be seen as they are
removable.
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Cold Appliances
Short description: Number of cold appliances present
Long description:
How many are present (and normally plugged in)?
• Fridges
• Fridge-freezers
• Freezers
The only pitfall here is to avoid any misunderstanding with the customer of
definitions, by using the terminology ‘stand-alone freezers’, ‘stand-alone
refrigerators’ and ‘fridge-freezers’. This should avoid a fridge freezer being
counted twice as a fridge and a freezer.
Wine coolers / beer fridges are counted as fridges
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Appliances
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Cooking
Hob type and size, and oven type
What type of hob is present
What type of oven is present
Choose from:
• Gas
• Electric
• Gas/Electric
• Range, and the fuel used
• Other
Hob size
• Large (more than 4 burners)
• Normal
Beware ‘look-alike’ ranges, which are functionally just normal cookers. Record as a range
cooker only if it stays hot all the time.
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Cooking
Range cooker selection:
Always Hot (All Year)
Always Hot (Winter) - Should have a Summer Winter Switch
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Bill Data
Bill Data = amount of each fuel used during a recent 12 month period and a
code number indicating the reliability of the data.
This should be based on the best evidence available,
Bill data (Fuel bills which often contains an annual usage figure)
Fuel delivery receipts/invoices (e.g. for oil, LPG etc…)
This evidence must relate to the current occupants and the current dwelling. In
some cases there will be no evidence and ‘unknown’ should be recorded, for
example if the occupants have recently moved in. The reliability code is used to
set an appropriate range of uncertainty for the outputs.
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Bill Data
Reliability
Level
Description
1
Metered mains gas/electricity consumption based on actual
meter readings, not estimates.
2
Metered gas/electricity consumption based on estimated
reading, or oil/LPG consumption based on invoices/receipts
3
Solid fuel consumption based on invoices/receipts
4
Unknown: no reliable data; includes fixed charge community
heating
5
Unusual energy-using item affecting this fuel*
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Bill Data
The annual fuel should be recorded in kWh where possible for electricity and
metered gas. For other fuels record the quantity:
- mains gas: cubic metres or cubic feet
- LPG: litres or kg
- heating oil: litres
- solid fuel: tonnes or kg
If the data does not relate to 12 months, a period between 11 and 13 months
is acceptable but there must be no gaps. Record the period to which the bill
data relates.
In some cases information may only be available on the amount paid for fuels.
In this case record the total amount for each fuel concerned.
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Fuel Tariffs
The fuel tariffs paid by this household.
Obtain the information from fuel bills. Tariffs for electricity and mains
gas are either in the form of a:
standing charge and a unit price
or a
unit price for a first number of units and another unit price for
additional units:
Record all details. In the case of LPG, oil and solid fuels record the total
number of units purchased and the total amount paid.
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Information Collection for the
Occupancy Assessment
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Data to be Collected for Input
Item
Data
Comment
Number of occupants
Whole number
Main heating 1
“as RdSAP assessment” or
heating code from SAP table
4a/4b
Main heating 2
“as RdSAP assessment” or
heating code from SAP table
4a/4b
Secondary heating
“as RdSAP assessment” or
heating code from SAP table 4a
Domestic GDA Training – 12. Green Deal Occupancy Assessment
Use “as RdSAP assessment”
whenever relevant. Identification
of particular systems is needed
only where the occupancy
assessment assigns different
systems
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Data to be Collected for Input
Heating by rooms (enter “1” in each applicable cell)
Habitable
Rooms
Heated by
main system 1
Heated by
main system 2
Heated by
secondary
heaters
Partially
Heated
Not Heated
Living Room
Other Room 1
Other Room 2
Other Room 3
Other Room 4
(continue as
necessary)
Comments. Enter data for habitable rooms only; omit other rooms (e.g. kitchen) and circulation spaces
whether heated or not. Living area comprises rooms normally heated to a higher temperature than the
rest of the house. Each room must be indicated as heated by at least one system or as unheated. A
room can be heated by two systems (e.g. main and secondary). In the case of a partially heated room
indicate also the system that provides heat to it.
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Data to be Collected for Input
Item
Data
Living Area Temperature
“unknown” or value
Nearest 1°C
Heating pattern, normal day
On 1
Off 1
On 2
Off 2
On 3
Off 3
On 4
Off 4
Include times for the
identified number of separate
periods per day. Enter time in hours
and minutes.
Heating pattern, alternative day
As above; also record
number of days per week using
alternative
Showers and baths
Shower type: one of
- none
- mixer
- pumped
- electric
- unknown
Baths per day (if known)
Showers per day (if known)
Domestic GDA Training – 12. Green Deal Occupancy Assessment
Comment
If more than one shower
select value for the one used most
often.
Number per day is for the
household as a whole and is a
decimal number, e.g. 2.6
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Data to be Collected for Input
Item
Data
Comment
Tumble dryer
Fraction (0 to 1)
0 if no tumble dryer. Otherwise
householder’s
estimate of proportion of all clothes
drying done in dryer.
Cold appliances
Number of each of:
- stand-alone fridge
- stand-alone freezer
- fridge-freezer
“stand-alone” means it
performs only one of the two
functions (a small freezing
compartment as is present in
most fridges does not make it
fridge-freezer, which is a unit
with two separate compartments)
Cooking
type, one of
- gas
- Electric
- Gas/electric
- range
- other
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Data to be Collected for Input
Item
Data
Comment
Community heating
Yes/no and if yes one of
- charging based on amount of
heating used
- fixed charge
If based on amount of
heating used in kWh per year
Fixed charge includes cases
where charge is incorporated
in rent
Electricity bills
- kWh
- Period to which this relates
complete tariff data below
Period in months e.g. 12, 12.5,
should be approx 1 year. Where
spread over more than one bill,
add up and enter total
Gas bills
- kWh
- Period to which this relates
complete tariff data below
Period in months e.g. 12, 12.5,
should be approx 1 year. Where
spread over more than one bill,
add up and enter total
Other fuels purchased
Complete “other fuel” below for
each other fuel
Unusual energy-using item
present
Yes/no and if yes then short
description and the fuel it affects
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e.g. heated swimming pool
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Data to be Collected for Input
Electricity tariff – standard domestic tariff
Select “actual” if that applies
to the first and last reading of
the total period. If unknown omit the
data in the remainder of this table
Reliability level
One of
- actual readings
- estimated readings
- unknown
Charging basis
One of
- standing charge and unit price
- two unit prices
If standing charge
- amount (£ or p)
- period p/day or £/month or
£/quarter
- p/kWh
If two unit prices:
Initial unit price
Follow-on unit price
- p/kWh
- units at this price
- per month or per quarter
- p/kWh
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Data to be Collected for Input
Electricity tariff – off peak tariff
Select “actual” if that applies
to the first and last reading of
the total period. If unknown omit
the data in the remainder of this
table
Reliability level
One of
- actual readings
- estimated readings
- unknown
Charging basis
One of
- standing charge and unit price
- two high-rate unit prices
If standing charge
- amount (£ or p)
- period p/day or £/month or
£/quarter
- high-rate p/kWh
- low-rate p/kWh
If two unit prices:
Initial high-rate unit price
Follow-on high-rate unit price
Low-rate unit price
- p/kWh
- units at this price
- per month or per quarter
- p/kWh
- p/kWh
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Data to be Collected for Input
Gas Tariff
Select “actual” if that applies
to the first and last reading of
the total period. If unknown omit
the data in the remainder of this
table
Reliability level
One of
- actual readings
- estimated readings
- unknown
Charging basis
One of
- standing charge and unit
price
- two unit prices
If standing charge
- amount (£ or p)
- period p/day or £/month
or £/quarter
- p/kWh
If two unit prices:
Initial unit price
Follow-on unit price
- p/kWh
- units at this price
- per month or per quarter
- p/kWh
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Data to be Collected for Input
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Data to be Collected for Input
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Bills
We will now look at a couple of example bills and how to take data from
them
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Questions?
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Web Links
www.stroma.com/certification
Contacts
Stroma Certification Ltd.
4 Pioneer Way, Castleford, WF10 5QU
0845 621 11 11
training@stroma.com
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