Award in Domestic Retrofit Assessment Level 4

As a reg­u­lat­ed qual­i­fi­ca­tion, the Lev­el 4 Award in Domes­tic Retro­fit Assess­ment has some spe­cif­ic eli­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria. The min­i­mum require­ment for all meth­ods of study is a Lev­el 3 Domes­tic Ener­gy Asses­sor qualification.

On suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of the Lev­el 4 Award in Domes­tic Retro­fit Assess­ment, learn­ers may progress direct­ly into employ­ment as a Retro­fit Asses­sor or progress onto high­er learn­ing in the Retro­fit field, such as the Open Col­lege Net­work West Mid­lands Lev­el 5 Diplo­ma in Retro­fit Coor­di­na­tion and Risk Management.

The mod­ules are as follows:

Mod­ule 1 PAS 2035 and Retro­fit Assess­ments
Gives an overview of PAS 2035 and how this impacts on the Retro­fit Assessor’s role. It also cov­ers the roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties of oth­ers in the PAS 2035 retro­fit process.

Mod­ule 2 Con­text of Dwellings
?‘Con­text of Dwellings’, is, in essence, look­ing at the areas that need to be addressed in prepa­ra­tion for car­ry­ing out a retro­fit assess­ment. So, know­ing what you need to have in order to do the assess­ments, as well as the infor­ma­tion that will under­pin them.

Mod­ule 3 Assess­ing the Con­di­tion of a Dwelling and Record­ing any Defects
This is the assess­ment of the con­di­tion of the dwelling and includes the record­ing of defects. It is crit­i­cal that defects, includ­ing leaks and cracks, are addressed pri­or to the instal­la­tion of new measures.

Mod­ule 4 The Require­ments of Occu­pan­cy Assess­ments
The occu­pan­cy of a dwelling; the num­ber of peo­ple who live there, ages, lifestyle pat­terns, etc. is a key part in the suc­cess­ful plan­ning of a retro­fit. The occu­pants are often incor­rect­ly left out of the process, so it is impor­tant this infor­ma­tion is recorded.

Mod­ule 5 Ven­ti­la­tion Require­ments of a Dwelling
Ven­ti­la­tion is an essen­tial require­ment for any home. It is need­ed to ensure there is fresh air for breath­ing, as well as for remov­ing and reduc­ing pol­lu­tants in the home. Ade­quate ven­ti­la­tion will also help to con­trol the amount of mois­ture in the air and thus reduce the risk of con­den­sa­tion and prob­lems such as mould growth. So, the key to a healthy home is a func­tion­al ven­ti­la­tion strat­e­gy, and for a design to facil­i­tate this, a com­pre­hen­sive under­stand­ing of a dwelling’s exist­ing ven­ti­la­tion sys­tem should be record­ed by the Assessor.

Mod­ule 6 Ener­gy Per­for­mance of a Dwelling
This mod­ule cov­ers esti­mat­ing ener­gy usage and cost, and car­bon diox­ide emis­sions using indus­try mod­els, such as the Stan­dard Assess­ment Pro­ce­dure (SAP) or the Pas­sive House Plan­ning Pack­age (PHPP). A Retro­fit Asses­sor should be famil­iar with the use of SAP or PHPP soft­ware to sup­port their work.

Mod­ule 7 Sig­nif­i­cance of a Dwelling
This mod­ule cov­ers the clas­si­fi­ca­tion of a build­ing, i.e. ?‘tra­di­tion­al’ or ?‘pro­tect­ed’ and report­ing on its age, built form, set­ting and so on.

Mod­ule 8 Retro­fit Assess­ment Reports
This mod­ule includes a vir­tu­al retro­fit assess­ment of a domes­tic dwelling, includ­ing being able to inspect for defects. Fol­lowed by the com­ple­tion of the assess­ment report.

Mod­ule 9 Retro­fit Advice to Cus­tomers
PAS 2035 spells out what retro­fit advice needs to be pro­vid­ed on a project, and by whom, so this mod­ule sets out what the Retro­fit Assessor’s respon­si­bil­i­ties are in this respect.