Before you price anything, check what's assumed
The cheapest line item on this page isn't a measure – it's evidence. Before spending on any of the work below, find out how much of your rating rests on assumption rather than evidence. Assembling documents costs a fraction of even the least expensive measure in the table, and on an under-evidenced building it can move the rating further than the cheapest item on it would.
Once you know what's real and what's assumed, the table below tells you what the remaining work actually involves.
| Measure | What it involves | Practical window | How the cost is established |
|---|---|---|---|
| LED lighting with presence and daylight controls | Luminaire replacement throughout, with controls and zoning to match occupancy | Void or out of hours | Lighting schedule priced by three installers |
| Heating controls, zoning and optimum start | Controls and zoning so plant runs to demand rather than to a time clock | Occupied, minimal disruption | Controls contractor, against a points list |
| Building management system upgrade | Head-end and field devices, with a commissioned control strategy | Occupied | Controls specialist, priced against the strategy |
| Roof insulation to an existing void | Insulation laid or fixed within an existing roof build-up | Void preferred; cheapest bundled with a planned re-cover | Roofing contractor, subject to survey |
| Draught-proofing and air-tightness works | Sealing the leakage paths an air test identifies | Occupied | Priced from an air permeability test report |
| Cavity wall insulation | Fill to an unfilled cavity, subject to survey and exposure | Occupied | Installer survey; guarantee provider |
| Secondary glazing | Internal secondary units, often where the primary glazing cannot be altered | Occupied, room by room | Specialist, measured survey |
| Double or triple glazing replacement | Replacement units or full window replacement | Void | Window contractor, measured survey |
| Air source heat pump, full plant replacement | Heat pump plant, emitters and distribution, sized after fabric work | Void or plant end-of-life | M&E consultant then three tendered prices |
| Solar PV (roof mounted) | Array, inverters and connection, subject to roof condition and DNO capacity | Any, subject to roof | MCS installer; DNO application may govern size |
| External wall insulation | Insulation and render or rainscreen to the outer face | Void, planning permitting | Facade contractor; planning may govern |
| Variable speed drives on fans and pumps | Drives fitted to constant-speed motors, with control integration | Occupied | Controls or M&E contractor |
The number that matters is the payback, not the price
For MEES the question is never "is this expensive". It is whether the measure pays for itself within seven years from the energy it saves. If it does, it is a relevant energy efficiency improvement and you are required to install it – there is no cost cap on commercial property, so the amount does not excuse you from it.
That calculation needs two things, and both are yours rather than ours: the installed cost from three quotations, and the saving valued at the tariff you actually pay. Using a national average price when your own contract is very different is the most common way these calculations are successfully challenged.
Test a measure on your own numbers
Put in a cost from your quotations and the saving at your own tariff, and see whether the measure falls inside the seven-year threshold.
The order is not the price list
The cheapest measures are not always first. Two sequencing rules earn their keep on almost every commercial building.
- Fabric before plant. Insulate and seal before sizing new heating, or you buy plant for a demand you were about to remove – and pay for the capacity twice.
- Controls before capacity. A great deal of commercial energy waste is plant running when nothing needs it. Controls and zoning are cheap relative to plant, fast, occupied-building work, and they change what the plant needs to be.
The third rule is about timing rather than order: bundle with work that is happening anyway. Insulating at a planned roof re-cover, or replacing lighting during a fit-out, is a different proposition from doing either as a standalone project around a trading tenant.
Why we do not quote points per measure either
SBEM publishes no per-measure point value. The gain from a given measure depends on what it replaces, how the building is zoned and serviced, and what your certificate currently assumes about it. Anyone quoting you a precise uplift for a measure in isolation is extrapolating from something, and it is worth asking from what.
Common questions
What does it cost to move a commercial building from D to B?
We do not publish a figure, because an honest one does not exist until somebody has surveyed the building. What we can tell you is the shape: the first points are usually cheap and come from lighting, controls and air-tightness, and the last are expensive and usually mean plant or fabric. The number itself comes from quotations against a specification.
Why will you not give me a cost range?
Because a range published without seeing your building is a guess wearing a decimal point, and it gets used as a budget. Access, building height, occupancy, asbestos, out-of-hours working and the state of what you are replacing move real prices by multiples, not percentages. We would rather tell you how the number gets established than invent one.
How is the cost established for MEES purposes?
By three quotations from three separate installers, on headed paper, dated, for the specific measure at the specific property. That is what the seven-year payback test runs on, and an indicative figure from a cost consultant is not a quotation.
Can you tell me how many points a measure is worth?
No, and neither can anyone else. SBEM publishes no per-measure point value. The gain depends on what the measure replaces, how the building is zoned and serviced, and what your certificate currently assumes. Anyone quoting you a precise uplift for a measure in isolation is extrapolating.