Place an order for a statutory energy certificate

Benefits of the energy certificate

You will achieve the best benefits if you combine the energy certificate with a Raksystems Housing Trade Condition Evaluation RS3. This allows you to achieve an overall idea of the technical condition and energy efficiency of your home, as well as provides you with proposals on how to repair any defects or improve your home. Furthermore, the price of the energy certificate is slightly lower when an order is placed in connection with a Housing Trade Condition Evaluation.

A carefully prepared energy certificate includes recommended actions for the building owner to improve energy efficiency and allows a prospective buyer to compare properties based on their energy consumption.

Expertise and qualifications

Raksystems’ experts have decades of experience from preparing energy certificates for more than 10,000 sites. The certificate is always prepared by a qualified person, and the calculations are made in accordance with the instructions and regulations specified in the National Building Code of Finland.

Our extensive expertise and experience guarantee that we are able to offer our customers financially feasible improvement proposals.

Site visit

An energy certificate can only be issued after a site visit. The calculations will be made after the site visit, and the energy certificate will be delivered to the customer in the agreed manner. The energy certificate calculations are based mostly on decrees, regulations and surface area information obtained during the site visit or submitted construction drawings, building plans and consumption data.

• The client will receive a service description for the Energy Certificate RS21 service, preparation instructions for the site visit and an interview form. The preparation instructions list all of the matters for which the client is responsible and the required preparations (a link to the instructions).
• The site visit will take approximately 1–8 hours, depending on the size of the site.
• You will be interviewed before the site visit to determine the site’s initial data.
• The calculations will be made after the site visit. The calculations take into account all instructions and regulations specified in the National Building Code of Finland.
• The energy certificate will be delivered to you in accordance with an agreed schedule.
• The price of the energy certificate includes one visit to the site, and the site will be surveyed to the extent possible during that visit. You must ensure that the instructions have been followed before the site visit and that the inspector is able to access all rooms and premises to be inspected. If some structural elements cannot be inspected because the instructions have not been followed or because the structural elements are covered with snow, for example, and these structural elements must be inspected during a second visit at a later date, a separate order for the subsequent inspection must be placed and a separate fee for additional work based on our price list will be charged.

Content of the energy certificate

The energy certificate includes the following, for example:

• Basic data of the building: name, address, real estate register ID, year of completion and intended use
• Energy efficiency comparison figure (E figure) and the energy efficiency class on a scale of A to H using the grading scale for new buildings
• Calculation bases, such as information on building structures, their properties and heating methods
• Actual energy consumption figures
• Amount of purchased energy using an energy form factor
• Contact details and qualifications of the person who prepared the certificate, certificate date and validity period
• Action proposals and their calculated impact on the E figure

Preparations for the energy certificate process

• Read the preparation instructions with care and make sure that the expert has all the necessary documents at their disposal.
• Be present during the site visit to answer any questions the expert might have, or make sure that a property manager is present.
• The documents required for the energy certificate (the drawings listed in points 1 and 2 are mandatory, and we will charge an extra fee for the investigation if they are not available):

1. Master plans (to scale):
   • floor plan
   • profile drawing
   • exterior face drawings
2. Structural drawings, list of structures and/or building specifications
3. Heating, water, plumbing, ventilation and electricity system drawings and specifications
4. Maintenance records and other documents on ventilation units and air source heat pumps
5. The building’s electricity consumption data for a full calendar year
   • Electricity, water, any fuels (wood, oil or pellets)

The following information would be useful:

• Maintenance records and similar documents
• Information on any repairs and any documentation on the repairs
• Reports for any previous humidity surveys or condition evaluations, or any similar surveys performed

Other issues to be taken into account

• You must ensure that you have the necessary authority to place an order and that the site can be inspected.
• The site must not be effectively ventilated/cooled before or during the site visit; normal ventilation/air conditioning systems must be kept on.
• If the site is in a housing company, you must notify the housing company of the site visit and acquire permission from the housing company for the site visit.
• We will trust that the initial data you provide is correct and will not separately verify the data.
• The purchased energy figures in a calculated energy certificate may be significantly different from the building’s actual consumption level due to consumption habits of the occupants and the energy factors used in the calculations. The purpose of the energy certificate legislation is to make all energy certificates comparable by ensuring that the calculations in all certificates are made in the same manner.
• The recommended actions are based on Raksystems’ own databases and experience of the person who prepares the certificate on similar renovations or actions. The costs of the repairs or renovations may experience significant changes when offers are requested from a variety of parties with an invitation to tender prepared by competent structural, HVAC and electrical engineering expert.

Make sure that the expert can safely move on site

• Large pieces of furniture, goods, non-fixed cupboards and any other furnishings that could prevent the expert from inspecting the premises must be moved so that the premises can be inspected. Special attention must be paid to moving any large obstacles close to any ground supported walls, washroom walls and exterior walls, as well as clearing the floors of all washrooms, walk-in closets and storage rooms.
• The opportunity to open any manholes leading to an attic must be verified and safe access to the attic must be ensured before the site visit.
• There must be catwalks or other safe access routes in the attic so that the entire attic can be safely inspected.
• If there is a crawlspace below the base floor, it must be ensured that there is proper access to the crawlspace in order to inspect all accessible parts.
• Access routes to the attic and the crawlspace must be kept open and safe so that the inspection can be safely performed without compromising the expert’s safety or harming the structural elements, pipelines, etc. In the summertime, wasp nests must also be taken into account.
• The existence of are ladders, catwalks, etc. to the roof must be ensured and they must be made safe to use in order to enable inspecting of the roof.

Recommended additional services

• Energy Savings Survey RS25;
• Air Leakage Measuring RS23;
• Thermal Imaging RS9;
• Housing Trade Condition Evaluation RS3; or
• Condition Evaluation RS15

will provide more important information to support the Energy Certificate RS21. We warmly recommend combining these services.