Tag Archives: Energy Efficiency

Polished Concrete Floors For Increased Profit In Denver Retail Space

Retail stores are all over Denverso what sets one apart? Great customer service is of course absolutely essential, but so is the actual space in which your products are displayed. Even with a fantastic product, the design of retail space weighs heavily on its competitive nature. For this reason, it is vital to take inventory of the value of your retail space, and devise a way to improve it for a more appropriate atmosphere and better sales. One important aspect of that space is your flooring. Polished concrete floors are a great asset to any retail or commercial area, and can be a wise investment.

Concrete vs. Stone

If your business already has concrete flooring, then you understand how durable it is. Once installed, it will last forever. Taking care of it, then, is a matter of sprucing it up here and there. Polished concrete floors are a cheaper option than natural stone flooring, but have the same great benefits. Maintenance is incredibly simplesweeping and a periodic mopping will do the trick. This saves time and energy.

Beauty and Versatility

Many think of drab gray when concrete comes to mind, but in actuality polished concrete floors are elegant and classy. They look clean, are easy to clean, and can be incredibly versatile. You may have to look for quite a while to get the right color of marble, but concrete can be stained a variety of shades and colors. Concrete can also be painted for a different coloror stamped to have an edgy, textured look to your flooring. The possibilities may be limited with other flooring choices, here they are endless.

Energy Efficiency

Every owner would jump on the opportunity to save on the electric bill, right? Polished concrete floors have a fantastic, reflective surface that increases the efficiency of your lighting. This way, you dont have to install as much lighting, or at the same brightness as you would otherwise. This gives your retail space a financial edge, but also improves the atmosphere of your spaceparticularly if you have sources of natural lighting.

If youre looking to gain a competitive edge in the Denver retail sector, polished concrete flooring could help you to maximize the value of your space and make more for less.

Domestic Energy Assessors Help Homeowners Show the Energy Efficiency of Their Homes When Selling

There is a new breed of professionals who you will get to know about now when you start out to sell your home. They are called Domestic Energy Assessors and are out now in England and Wales performing a brand new service.

The role of the Domestic Energy Assessor is to produce Energy Performance Certificates for inclusion in Home Information Packs. If this is complete news to you then just think of these as being certificates, like those you see on new fridges, which will provide A-G ratings on the energy efficiency of a home, plus advice on how to make further energy savings.

Energy Assessors will use their in-depth knowledge and practical understanding of the thermal performance of your home to judge on the thermal energy efficiency of properties.

This requirement has been introduced by the UK government working on the theory that these assessments of the the capability of all buildings about to be sold will encourage us all to be energy efficient. This will be good for the nation as it will be thoroughly green. It will the idea is, help avoid the need for the energy whether renewable or not.

This type of certificate is required whenever the building is constructed, sold or rented.

In the short term home owners directly, and home buyers indirectly, will need to pay for these Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) and in order to possibly carry out work to improve poorly insulated properties, they will need to pay for general advice to clients on energy efficiency measures.

This is all very good in principle, but the UK government has chosen exactly the wrong time to do this. The credit crunch is hitting the house sales market hard, it is already very difficult to sell properties, and the value of most of them is falling.

The staff that produce Energy Performance Certificates are very experienced in construction technology, building condition surveying and domestic energy assessment and are Degree qualified professionals. They do not come cheap!

Now we do accept that most assessors will not simply stop at inspecting your property, they should also take the time to explain exactly what they are inspecting, how they are going to go about it and gladly answer any questions that you may have. But, most sellers are going to deeply object to being forced by the state to take on this additional burden of cost.

The energy assessor takes measurements to analyse the cost of heating, water and lighting for a house and makes recommendations to improve the energy performance of the house. To me it looks like you the government may think that an assessment is a quick hour in the property and thats it. I doubt they have fully considered the travel time to and from the houses to be assessed, time taken to assess, time to prepare and check the report, input the data, produce the certificate and then charge a fee which includes the professionals insurance, accountant fees, advertising and many other costs – the list goes on and on, after all they will have to make a living like everyone else.