We are listed here on the Approved Traders website.

Buy With Confidence

The reality is these companies are good news for nobody.

OK the homeowner might get their HIP at an attractive price; but how long will that HIP take to be delivered? And who do they go to if something goes wrong? The panel company probably isn’t covered by the HIP Code. With the HIP being required from day one of marketing a property from April, speed will be of the essence.

The panel company has to use an accredited energy assessor. They will probably have a number regiestered with them that they distribute work to. But in order to make money, the panel company has to drive the certificate price right down. Leaving the poor energy assessor with at least two hours work to do at less than you’d pay a window cleaner. This ultimately leads to a rushed job, which leads to mistakes. The assessor’s heart isn’t in it. She has to drive 20 or 30 miles. And he’s working for peanuts, so peanuts is the result!

That’s why I’m putting forward the case for your LOCAL energy assessor. Yes he’s independant, but that means you’ll get a quality service because he’s got a local reputation to uphold. She might live just down the road from you! And you probably won’t pay any extra for the privilege.

So look in your Yellow Pages, or do a Google search for “yourcounty” energy assessor, or “yourcounty” epc. And phone a few of your local assessors, have a chat with them, get them to give you a quote and go with the one you’re most happy or impressed with. It’s that simple.

Then if you’re totally bowled over by their service, recommend them. Word of mouth is the best marketing tool ever!

Work was fairly steady in the early days. Whilst waiting to become fully qualified in the early months of 2008, I was able to get the website up and running. So we hit the ground running, so to speak, rating quite highly in Google’s rankings. Most of our work was sourced locally, coming from one independent estate agent in particular. We have had no luck whatsoever breaking into the national estate agents.

Thinking of becoming an Energy Assessor? I would certainly advise against it. And I’m not just saying that because I am one! There simply is not enough work to go around. I am certainly not making enough to live on and it’s a real struggle actually finding the work. Many ‘panel’ companies have set up to distribute the work nationally to local energy assessors that register with them. The trouble is, because the panels haven’t got enough work they have been driving the price paid to the DEA’s right down. Meaning we have to find even more work to make it pay.

That’s the end of my first blog post. Sorry if it got a bit ranty at the end there!