History
The name Elmhurst Energy Systems comes from the original organic premises we occupied - Elmhurst Farm, Warwickshire. We operated at this location up until June 2007 by which time the growth of the business necessitated a move to much larger office accommodation in Lutterworth, Leicestershire.
Elmhurst Energy Systems was founded in 1993 by Rod Pattison and Bob Love. Prior to forming Elmhurst, Rod Pattison had previously developed the MVM Starpoint system which was a proprietary system for the energy rating of existing dwellings on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, 5 being the best. During the same period a competitor developed their own proprietary system, which produced a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best. However, having multiple proprietary systems in the market place led to confusion and the Government wanted a single standardised approach which ultimately lead to the development of the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) for the Energy Ratings of dwellings using a scale 1-100, 100 being best.
Elmhurst Energy Systems was subsequently set up to provide SAP ratings for the Energy Rating of dwellings. Our main customer at the beginning was Nationwide Building Society which required an Energy Report to be provided with all their mortgage products. To this end we developed our Streamline SAP product which was designed to allow a surveyor to quickly and accurately provide an energy report with recommendations for homeowners. Our Streamline product had its inputs structured around what a surveyor would already be doing on site when they were completing a valuation or homebuyers report.
The Elmhurst Streamline product was then promoted and adopted by various other mortgage lenders such as Abbey, Woolwich, Co operative Bank, Norwich and Peterborough, Ecology Building Society, NatWest and others. These energy reports continued up until the introduction of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) in 2007/2008.
Streamline was also provided to social landlords as a means to manage the energy efficiency of their stock. In order to meet complicated requirements, additional functionality was added: an energy database, stock reporting and additional survey types such as Wizard (a very simplified survey that a non surveyor could complete). This was taken up by a large number of Local Authorities and Housing Associations for both housing and environmental management programmes.
In 1995 Part L (conservation of fuel and power) of the Building Regulations in England Wales was updated and for the first time allowed the use of SAP calculations to show compliance. There were a number of alternative ways to show compliance and because many of these were simpler methods SAP wasn’t often used initially. However, Building Regulations have changed over the years and subsequently become more complicated, this enabled SAP to emerge as a vital tool to gain compliance. In 2006, the SAP calculation became the only way to show compliance via a dwellings CO2 emissions route.
In 2001, Elmhurst began work on the development of Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure (RDSAP) which is a cut down version of SAP, used when surveying a domestic dwelling. This work was funded by Government undertaken in conjunction with a competitor, and then adopted by DEFRA (Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and CLG (Communities and Local Government). Elmhurst was one of three organisations who were tasked with trialling and developing the RdSAP software, resulting in the RDSAP software we are familiar with today.
In 2007, the EU EPBD (Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) required the production of EPCs (Energy Performance Certificates) for the sale (and later rental) of existing domestic properties. The EU EPBD also required the set-up of Accreditation schemes to allow people to train and become qualified Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs). DEAs are qualified to use the RdSAP software and produce an EPC for a domestic dwelling. Elmhurst subsequently set up one of the first Accreditation schemes for DEAs. The Government decided to include the EPC inside Home Information Packs (HIPS).
Since 2007, there have been many developments, it is now a requirement that all rental and new build properties require an EPC. Commercial and public buildings now also require an energy calculation and the production of a Display Energy Certificate (DEC). Elmhurst have been at the heart of these developments, producing software, delivering training and setting up Accreditation schemes to ensure that such buildings have energy calculations conducted by highly qualified Energy Assessors. To date Elmhurst has over 4000 Accredited Energy Assessors across all its schemes.
