Approved Certifier costs
Please contact an AECB Approved Certifier from our approved list to determine the cost of engaging a suitable person for advising and certifying to each standard. This will be a contractual arrangement between you and the Approved Certifier.
AECB certification fee
A modest submission fee is payable by the Approved Certifier to the AECB for certificating each project. This also contributes towards managing the AECB Low Energy Buildings Database on which certified projects are hosted, and carrying out certifier training, CPD and QA for the scheme. This fee will be included in your Approved Certifier’s quote. For non-domestic buildings the submission fee is based on floor area and complexity of the project. For domestic projects Certifiers will discuss with you alternative submission options, which may affect the AECB submission fee cost.
There are three alternative options used by Approved Certifiers. They are:
1) Dwelling by Dwelling
2) Dwelling Type and Energy Sub-type
3) Building-By-Building
Dwelling by Dwelling
Some clients want each dwelling-type to be certified. This approach closely reflects the methodology used for EPCs. This approach is the most labour intensive and results in a certain amount of duplication. As processing takes longer for the certifier and the AECB this certification approach incurs a higher certification fee. There may be good reason why this is the clients’ preferred approach.
Dwelling Type and Energy Sub-type
On the basis that all dwellings have the same orientation and that there are terraces or flats (rather than detached homes), energy sub-types often occur. This happens when you have mid-terrace and end terrace units. From the perspective of energy performance and certification each dwelling-type could have two (or more) energy sub-types due to the exposure/sheltering of mid-terrace and end terrace units. Energy sub-types also occur where changes to orientation or shading. Whilst the certification fee can be a little lower than other options, because this approach is labour intensive the total cost of certification (which includes the certifiers’ time) is higher.
It may depend on what the end user would like to see: for example in a project where the future owner of a mid-terrace unit wanted to see their exact energy performance a separate calculation (with additional fees) was required.
Building-By-Building
Where a number of different self-contained units are contained within one continuous thermal envelope it is possible to certify a complete building rather than each unit or energy type. Compared to the ‘Dwelling by Dwelling’ and ‘Dwelling Type and Energy Sub-type’ models there are advantages to adopting a ‘Building-by-Building’ strategy, these include: reduced modelling (saved time) and; reduced evidence collation management (saved time). The house numbers for all the units in each building must be included in the project name which is included on the AECB certificate for that building.
Whilst the certification fee can be a little higher the total cost of certification (which includes the certifiers’ time) is significantly reduced. This strategy typically tends to be used by designers and certifiers certifying to the Passivhaus Standard.
Building an extension as part of a retrofit project
If you are also building an extension as part of a retrofit your AECB Approved Certifier will advise on an appropriate specification for this part of the project. Typically, this will involve building a new extension to levels of fabric performance expected from the AECB Building Standard, i.e., excellent U-values and airtightness for walls, floors, roofs, and windows.
