Green Deal

[ecoboost]

Is IES going to release an update for Green Deal assessments? If so do you have a time scale?

[PCully]

Hi,

We still haven't seen a fixed plan for this, I believe the product managers are still observing if Green Deal takes off (been a slow start) before we commit any development to it. If it does take off I would imagine we will quickly get the product out there but at the moment it doesn't look so likely so iSBEM would be the route to take with it (through BRE)

Phil

[ecoboost]

Thanks, I was in the process of deciding if I should go for my accreditation with IES and this has made my mind up, If they do not have any definitive plans for green deal then it is going to be a waste of time for users like myself. Perhaps you should advertise this on your web page as I almost spent £££ I could not afford.

[PCully]

That is a shame to hear that, I'm sure you would be far happier and more productive using our interface for Compliance (either SBEM or DSM) but can understand if Green Deal will be a large part of your work then you have to consider that.

Being flippant but our website advertises what we do do rather than what we don't. I know what you mean and anyone from our Sales enquiry team would have been more than happy to speak to you regarding this or other queries you had prior to making a purchase. I'll drop you a private message in case you would still like to hear from them.

Phil

[ecoboost]

Perhaps it was wrong of me to expect the IES version of SBEM to offer the same functionality as iSBEM (if not now then at some point in coming weeks/months). Hopefully other users interested in the Green Deal ask the question before paying the fee for exam and then find out they're stuck with iSBEM and need to fork out again for that.

[Terence]

Following on from what Phil said and as you may have read in the media this week there has been no market demand at this time and with a lack of clarity from DCLG on the future of the NCM software approval system we cannot prioritise any development on Green Deal.

The large divergence between compliance and monitored energy data has been known for some time (carbon Buzz et al) and is the subject of considerable concern in the industry. The use of SBEM and its output energy data as the basis of securing a loan for lifecycle (ROI) for real world energy reduction measures is therefore similarly a matter of concern; market feedback suggests the industry is not convinced of the validity of such ROI assessments (there is too much to go wrong).

The VE has / is successfully used in large scale real world calibrated building models (within 5% of monitored data is achievable) and as such is capable of delivering realistic simulated energy data; the use of NCM base data is not used in such models as it tends to be unrealistic or too generic. The recent Impact project (IES with BRE & Wilmott Dixon) brings detailed lifecycle cost modelling to such high resolution energy models. Calibrated and detail lifecycle cost models such as these are in our opinion a far better basis for assessing ROI.

[ecoboost]

What media?

From what you are saying you don't want to include the Green Deal in IES SBEM because you don't agree that is as accurate as...I don't know what exactly. Do you have something else (better) that can be used for Green Deal?

What I don't think you understand is I (and probably other IES users) have potential clients asking us about this and I am not in the business of turning down business.

I have contacted other software providers regarding this and the consensus seems to be, "no one is doing the Green Deal so why should we bother", but how are we meant to do these assessments without the tools?

[Terence]

I've read a few articles this week on building.co.uk and the guardian website discussing Green Deal. I think the figures were around 380 or so assessments carried out since it went live with only 12 completions.

From what you are saying you don't want to include the Green Deal in IES SBEM because you don't agree that is as accurate.

The primary reason is there is not a great demand for Green Deal (at present) and I don't think it would be a good idea for our developers to spend a few months creating an interface for Green Deal that may only be of interest to a handful of our users and may (if you believe the articles) be made redundant in a year or so.

Again, we will keep reviewing this to see if the government gets the uptake in Green Deal that it expects.