Brighton Coffee House

Certus Commercial was instructed to carry out a Commercial EPC assessment for an established coffee house on Portland Road, Hove. The assessment was completed for a private (non-marketed) property sale, providing the owner with a compliant Commercial EPC certificate.

As the café remained open throughout the survey, the assessment was carefully carried out around staff and customers to minimise disruption to normal trading. The building comprised a customer seating area to the front with the serving counter and preparation area to the rear.

Although relatively compact, the property required careful zoning within the SBEM model. A virtual thermal partition was created to accurately represent the different areas of the café, while the building's traditional single-glazed shop frontage and older construction required detailed assessment. Building services included instantaneous electric hot water, LED lighting throughout and simple electric fan heaters, creating a straightforward but efficient servicing arrangement.