Domestic Energy Assessor for EPC certificates (DEA)

[rak5a]

My DH is out of work after closing his business. He is early 50s and needs a new career although I'm the main breadwinner. Doesn't have a uni degree and his background was running a smallish online retail business so tricky to transfer (trust me he has applied for loads of things to no avail - a jack of all rades, master of none). Looking at getting a Level 3 qualification to become a DEA to do EPCs. Does anyone have any experience with this? Not looking to become rich from it but if it could bring in some income he is willing to put in the graft to establish relationships with landlords, estate agents, etc. Or is this just too difficult an area to get into?

Sorry you haven't had a reply yet. I can give you some information, and hope that helps, but I'd recommend you get opinions from others too. I'm in my 50s, gave up previous work in IT, and although my main income now comes from renovating and re-selling properties, I also qualified as a Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA). I was really interested in this area, and also chose this because I could fit this type of work in and around school drop offs and pickups etc. For me it has not been a financially worthwhile endeavour compared to the renovation work, but I find it really intertesting and that keeps me going, and shortly I should complete my commercial EPC qualification too. If you can establish a relationship with local estate agents that's a good position to be in, but where I am they already have good relationships with existing DEAs and like to stick with them due to previous bad experience with others. You have to market yourself really well, which is something perhaps that I have not been so good at. Members of the public tend to either arrange an EPC through their estate agent (reasonable rates) or do a generic search for 'EPC' on the Internet and go through a 'pool' company that farms out the work to local DEAs who recieve very low fees for the work. Some of the rates I have been offered from these types of companies have been ridiculously low, for example £30 or £35 per assessment, others have been better £50 or so, but the best rates would be from estate agents, landlords with multiple properties or individual direct clients. Only a few clients seem to look up a local DEA directly on the government's central register, but the ones that do tend to be really down to earth as they make that choice on purpose. The training is okay, but the field is vast so you learn as you go along after qualifiying. You sign up with an accreditation scheme (Elmhurst, Quidos or ECMK etc.), they provide the 'software', technical support, a level of insulrance, but there's a fee for lodging EPCs on the national register which you have to take into account when pricing up assessments, you have to retain information for a long time after lodging each EPC, you will need to carry out a certain amount of training or research each year to keep up the accreditation, and the domestic EPC methodology is about to go through some significant change in the next coulpe of years so there might be another set of training to go through when the Home Energy Model (HEM) comes out in 2026 (or later if it gets delayed, which is usually the case with changes in EPC methodology). I really like the work, although I can't work out how other DEAs can assess a property in 30 minutes and be happy with the quality. I'm still taking perhaps 90 minutes minimum but I produce good accurate assessments. Perhaps if I did more I'd get slicker at them. Last thing, I'd recommend taking a look on the government's national register of energy assessors and see what other DEAs are around you, centered on your postcode - ie check out the competition! Hope that helps.

Wow, thank you so much this is really helpful. I will pass this on to him. He has found some freelance work but this still might be something he wants to do on the side (for extra income and for interest). Thanks!!

It may also be worth looking for Inventory Clerk work

Ah yes.
That's made me think of some other roles too:

• On Construction DEA (OCDEA) - for EPCs for new builds
• Display Energy Certificates (DEC) - for public buildings
• Non-domestic Energy Assessor (NDEA) - for EPCs for 'commercial' buildings.
• Air Tightness Testing - mostly for new builds but RDSAP10 will soon allow test results entry for existing dwellings too.
• Air Conditioning Inspection certificates - for Non-domestic buildings with systems above 12kW in size.
• U value calculation services
• For Sale Signs - 'man in a van' travelling round fitting For Sale signs up and taking them down when required by estate agents - I met one once when dropping my sales leaflets.
• Floorplan drawing for property adverts - using an app on ipad
• Photography services for estate agents