Elmhurst Energy Reviews 

Enrolled on the Domestic Energy Assessors (online) course. I found the team to communicate very well prior to the course, although you do get several emails upon enrolling, make sure to look out for the email which highlights the pre-reading as that's an important one.

I attended the 3 days online zoom meetings, Michael was our groups tutor. Very knowledgeable on all things energy surveys, clearly had a lot of practical experience prior to joining Elmhurst, this made me feel confident that I had chosen the right training provider.

For the training be prepared to handle lots of information over 3 days, take notes as these will come in handy later on.

The team at Elmhurst are great, if you have a question they'll do their best to answer your queries.

All in all I have had a positive experience with Elmhurst and would recommend them as a training provider. Yes it's expensive but you really are paying for the quality they provide in their service.

The way they have taught us. How operate and Use these machines.

As a retrofit assessor, my training and accreditation through Elmhurst have been a game changer. From a user perspective, their software is incredibly easy to use, especially for an energy assessor transitioning to the retrofit side. The ability to use their app and desktop software to easily upload and organize the many photos required for assessments is a massive time-saver, preventing the tedious task of searching through hundreds of images. This is a huge advantage over competitors' software, which can be buggy and create submission issues.
I've also found Elmhurst's system to be much more versatile than others, like Pas-Hub, which is limited to iPads. While some in the industry consider Elmhurst to be the most expensive option, I've found that the extra cost is justified by the peace of mind and efficiency it provides. For me, the time and effort saved on each assessment are invaluable. As a result, I've made the decision to only work with companies that utilize Elmhurst for their accreditation.

I am a qualified EPC assessor, and the training and support I receive from Elmhurst Energy are exceptional. As leaders in the industry, they consistently provide the guidance and resources necessary to ensure assessors remain compliant, knowledgeable, and up to date with industry standards.

There are levels to my experience with Elmhurst.

Level 1: Before accreditation — the lecturers were patient, nurturing, and always willing to help.

Level 2: Ongoing support and constant updates — sometimes it feels like I’m in the same room with the staff because of how frequent and helpful the updates are.

Level 3: Customer care — I’ve had several reasons to contact the retrofit team, the DEA team, and more recently the accounts team. The standard has been the same across the board: excellent.

Their knowledge (all my questions answered), their patience (even when I can be worrisome), their professionalism, and their availability have been outstanding.

I have had no bad experiences so far — my journey with Elmhurst has been nothing short of amazing.

I use Elmhurst for all of my lodgments and courses. The support they give, out classes similar accreditations that I’ve used in the past. Any courses that I’ve been on are well run and again the support for portfolio is really good.

I recently attended the Level 3 Domestic Energy Assessor training course, a three-day intensive programme costing around £1,200. The advertising stated that no prior knowledge or qualifications were needed. Unfortunately, the reality was very different, and I left feeling frustrated, underprepared, and extremely disappointed.

1. Misleading Course Information
The course advertises that no prior knowledge is required. This is simply not true. Even with my existing knowledge of property, I found the course challenging. Other participants with no background clearly struggled throughout. The claim of being accessible to complete beginners is misleading.

2. Poor Structure and Engagement
From the outset, there were no introductions, no ice-breaker, and no opportunity to feel comfortable engaging. For three full days, we sat in silence on a Zoom call. Questions had to be typed into the chat, only to be answered later—often long after they were relevant. This created a disengaged, unwelcoming learning environment.

3. “Death by PowerPoint”
The first two days (9:30–4:30, not 9:30–5:30 as advertised) were essentially a non-stop stream of PowerPoint slides. The slides were overloaded with information, delivered at such speed that notes were almost impossible to take. There was no context, no practical application, and no real training delivery—just an overwhelming, box-ticking information dump. It was the worst training delivery I have ever experienced.

4. Poorly Delivered Practical Work
On day three, we finally moved on to two simulated property assessments. Instead of guided, interactive learning, we were left to work in silence. If we got things wrong, we weren’t shown how to correct them—we were simply given the answer. This defeated the whole point of practice and left me none the wiser.

5. Technical Glitches That Cost Me Learning Time
When I came to submit my first simulation, it became clear I had been set up with the wrong type of account. By the time this was corrected, I had to re-input all my work and completely missed out on the second, more complex simulation. This was supposed to be the most valuable exercise, with the trainer answering real-world questions, but I was excluded from it through no fault of my own.

6. Abrupt Ending, No Real Support
At 4:25pm on the final day, the trainer abruptly told us we had five minutes for questions before being “sent off into the world.” Unsurprisingly, I left feeling completely unprepared and unsure. Conversations with fellow participants confirmed this was a common feeling across the group.

7. Hidden Costs and Requirements
Only after completing the course did we discover:
• A DBS/CRB check (essential for qualification) must be paid for separately. This was never mentioned at sign-up.
• Additional equipment must be purchased independently, again with no warning in advance.

This is particularly problematic for anyone who may not pass a DBS check—something that should be disclosed before committing to an expensive course.

Overall Impression
This course felt like a money-making scheme rather than a genuine training programme. The communication was appalling, the delivery lazy and uninspiring, and the “intensive” three days amounted to little more than rushed slides and poor facilitation.

For £1,200, I expected structured teaching, meaningful practice, and to leave feeling prepared for the next steps. Instead, I left with frustration, disappointment, and the strong impression that this was a tick-box exercise designed to churn people through as quickly as possible.

I cannot recommend this training, and I regret investing both my time and money in it.

I did the OCDEA's course and found the whole experience terrible and very stressful. There were parts of the course during the sessions that I was unsure of and was told by the tutor that 'today is probably just a bad day for me' and that I should contact technical support after to get help. So that's what I did! waste of time! I was offered a 1-2-1 session which a technical person which I was told this will be a one off thing that Elmhurst offer, I attended the session to which the technical support person had no idea what I needed to be helped with and the 2 hour session was over before I knew it and not taken much from. I was then offered another session which on the day I had a family emergency and was told that no other session would be provided. The feedback from the assessors is pathetic, tells you what you've done incorrect but no guidance on how to put things right. So basically in summary, they take your money, claim to deliver a course then leave you to it with no help. DO NOT USE ELMHURST FOR DOING THE OCDEA COURSE!!!

Elmhurst Energy really does not deserve accreditation from the government. It is sloppy, unprofessional and is profiteering from the current 'green agenda'. As a customer, Elmhurst have at best been very poor and if there was a reasonable selection of alternatives, I doubt Elmhurst would still be in business. Just look at how many of the ratings on here are 1 star. They only achieve an 'average rating' above that by submitting bland responses to these complaints and also they get their energy assessors to write favourable reviews. I cannot stress enough what a poor company this is.

Do not use this training provider .

I was doing my DEA course I have completed all the task . Their said that I need don't understand the course . I need to do the course again their said that I have to pay .

Beware thier want to make money out of you !!

Awful, got the EPC wrong and took over 6.months to resolve without apology. Question the competence of their surveyors

Excellent training course with lots of information and a huge thanks to my tutor Brad who gave lots of useful tips and guided us clearly through the course!
Thanks
R

I booked two training courses with Elmhurst for around £3000 altogether.

Unfortunately, the DEA training proved to be of very poor quality. This was not the worst thing, however.

I had a poor internet connection and when I asked to move the NDEA course, I was informed there would be a fee. I could not attend the first day due to a poor connection, only to be told subsequently via email that there would be a fee (£300 altogether) to rebook it because I had not informed them about my non-attendance (they had not told me about the fee beforehand).

Elmhurst strikes me as a poorly-run and extractive company. Please find another provider.

Great training service provider with very enthusiastic staff. I have been dealing with Ajay Passan, who is always willing to help with any problems and it's very quick to respond to any queries

We had an Elmhurst Energy representative around to complete an EPC. We have a larger home and Alex Sage, Home Circle, Wraxall, Somerset was around for less than 90 minutes.

In that time he took 40 plus photographs and a drone presentation for the house marketing brochure and measured the size and layout of the property for the floor plan. He didn’t even have a set of ladders to inspect the loft.

The house was built by us to a high thermal standard with up to 300mm Celotex, Rockwall in the walls and ceiling. Our energy usage, considering the sq. footage, is very low when compared to neighbours and friends.

We made an appointment a few weeks previously with Mr Sage to do the survey, photographs and floor plan via our estate agent and had worked very hard to make it as easy for him as possible even getting a team of people in to move furniture around as required for the photos on the day. Five minutes before his arrival he phoned to cancel the appointment, to which we were not too pleased about considering the efforts prior to his visit and the fact that we had arranged a team to help us move the furniture around.

He probably spent less than 10 mins on the EPC, I had requested that when he was ready to start the EPC assessment, I would show him where the insulation was and what was used, as we had building control in a few weeks ago and had to take numerous pictures of the insulation, he agreed, but he did not speak to me.

As he was leaving in a hurry, my wife asked him if he had done the EPC as he had not discussed it with us, he assured her that it would meet the current proposed EPC rating of a rental, which was a C, so we were happy with this. When we realised that he submitted a F rating we were horrified, we asked our estate agent why would Alex Sage do this without discussion with his client, as we specifically asked him to speak to us before submission.

He is quite an arrogant man and we could tell he wasn’t at all happy about working on a Saturday and in particular working this Saturday even though he had agreed to do so as we were out of the country for the next two weeks and we wanted the property listed, again this was all agreed by Elmhurst Energy representative, Alex Sage.

Anyway, despite the assurances on the EPC rating, Mr Sage allocated a F rating, which reading some of the comments here, Alex Sage knew exactly what he was doing by this action. When we contacted him and asked him why he submitted it without discussion, he said basically it was tough and put the phone down upon us and even though we called several times from outside the UK, he wouldn’t pick up the phone to discuss the matter.

So, to conclude, this is the first time I have written a review but I just felt any individual who is looking to sell or rent their house, should carefully consider the Assessor and their energy performance knowledge, skills and equipment, which were totally lacking in this case. Having worked for a German passive/eco house company previously I would suggest you check the credentials of the Assessor before commissioning, as it doesn’t make sense to engage a EPC Assessor when there main skills are photography, as you read the rest of these numerous poor reviews. Regards Gary

As an accreditation scheme shocking quality of there assessors house grow by 30 sqm after the assessment :-(. We contacted the helpline/email a month ago no response so far after a month!

Used their website to engage with an EPC assessor. Assessor was a nightmare. Complained to elmshurst and was directed to their complaints procedure which is to watch a video that tells you its not their fault and they cant do anything - complete waste of time. AVOID THIS COMPANY FOR AN EPC SURVEY!

I have been working with Elmhurst for 5 years now and cannot recommend them enough to industry professionals and the general public. They are informative, empathetic and trustworthy in the knowledge they share and services they provide.

I have been lucky enough to experience their training, technical support and business development. Elmhurst are definitely at the forefront of the industry and provide their members with well deserved support.

5* training providers, always been happy with the courses me and my staff have done. Perfect accreditation body always answer the phone or ring you back!

Best accreditation provider in the Industry.