False Claims Scandal Exposed

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‘It does exactly what it says on the tin’. Does it? Apeer’s CEO, Asa McGillian warns against taking thermal performance certification claims for doors at face value.

You can’t get a blunter claim than the phrase originally coined by the famous Ronseal advertising campaign. And in many circumstances, this candour is precisely what a customer needs to make a buying decision. They have a problem. This solves it. End of.

But not all slogans are equal. And sometimes it is important to read the small print to find out whether what you are buying actually meets your expectations. Because you may be led down the wrong path.

 

False claims

You may have read in the press recently about our concerns regarding the false claims of thermal performance made by a number of different door brands. These claims stated that some door products had a certain level of thermal performance. But we had our doubts. The construction of the door products could in no way fulfil those claims. It was impossible for a hollow monocoque residential door to meet the same stringent standards on equal footing as our own Apeer 70mm range – yet these were the comparisons being allegedly made.

To prove that our concerns were not just driven by market rivalry but by genuine concern for the reputation of the market as a whole, we invested in the independent testing of a number of different door slab samples, sending them to the TUV Institute Rheinland. There, an impartial team undertook full thermal resistance testing to an approved ISO standard and methodology.

The results that we received back confirmed our suspicions – that there are a number of false claims being made by seemingly reputable door manufacturers that their products met the Irish and British Building Regulations of a minimum 1.4 W/m²K for replacement doors and 1.0 W/m2K for New Build doors.

The question is, why would a company want to deliberately lead their customers down a false path? What do they gain by it?

 

Follow the money

I believe that it comes down to a lack of forward planning and the desire to cash in on a consumer market that – there is increasing pressure on homeowners to comply with net zero demands. With governments determined to stick to the pathway towards net zero by 2050, it falls on those working within the construction and home improvement sectors to produce solutions that are focused on this goal. If your current products are not up to standard, you are immediately on the back foot – and catching up with building regulation compliance will require significant financial investment.

Is it not therefore easier to fudge certification, using more woolly terms such as ‘in accordance with’ or ‘manufactured to the standard of’, to give the impression that certain standards are met, even though, to be perfectly blunt, they are not?

 

Building distrust

If we don’t fix this chain of misinformation, there is going to be an increasing amount of distrust across the sector. The installers have unwittingly fitted a non-compliant product in a customer’s home. The homeowner believes their property has become thermally efficient according to forthcoming statutory requirements. Once they realise that they have been mis-sold, both the homeowner and the installer will turn back to the manufacturer, who, by its very actions, will have tarnished the industry as a whole.

Apeer takes third party accreditation extremely seriously. Having already invested significantly in testing and standards across its range (not just the top performing products) we are committed to ensuring this damaging trail of misinformation is highlighted across the supply chain.

 

Sense of duty

2050 may still be a couple of decades off, yet for many homeowners ensuring they fit doors with the correct thermal performance, even if it is not currently compulsory, fulfils their own sense of moral obligation and sense of duty. And helps with saving on the energy bills too!

The Apeer door range not only exceeds the current minimum U value of 1.4 W/m²K but has the certificates to prove that they have been independently tested as well. Indeed, we have open invitations to all of our trade partners to visit our Ballymena factory so that they can scrutinise our processes, including all third-party independent testing. The investments we are making at the moment will be crucial as the next government settles in and the inevitable tightening of the screws towards net zero makes itself felt. If Apeer is ready, so are our trade customers – and so are their homeowning customers.

 

Picture:  One of Apeer’s fully tested, certified and compliant doors.

www.apeer.co.uk

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
16th September 2024

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