Privacy Policy
DECLARATION OF INTENT.
From time to time you may be asked to provide personal information such as your name and email address to access or use services on our website. These services may include newsletters, competitions, Alert Email, live chats, message boards, and membership for support services.
By entering your details in the requested fields, you authorize Home Energy Model to provide you with the services you select. We will handle any personal information you provide in accordance with this policy. Our services are designed to deliver the information you want, and Home Energy Model will act in line with current laws and strive to follow current Internet best practices.
The following statement explains our policy regarding the personal information we collect about you.
In these Terms and Conditions, the following words shall have the following meanings:
We” “Us” and “Our” are references trading as Complete EPC.
“EPC Assessor”, “You” and “Your” means an accredited EPC Assessor registered on Complete EPC’s network of Assessors.
“Client”, means the individual, company, partnership or organisation issuing the instruction to use our services.
“Consumer” means consumer as defined in the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000.
“The Property” means the premises, being a building as defined under the national legislation as having a requirement for an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).
“Inspection or Assessment” means the study of those aspects of the property which contribute to the creation of an EPC carried out by the EPC Assessor.
“Instruction” means the agreement to require a Complete EPC registered EPC Assessor to carry out an Inspection under these terms and conditions.
“EPC” means the official document produced by computer software and as determined from time to time by UK government decree.
“Fee” means the amount in pound sterling agreed to be paid by the Client to Complete EPC. This Fee is determined in advance of the initiation of an Inspection. If the price is exclusive of VAT, this shall be clearly indicated in our literature and you will be additionally liable for the same (and for any other applicable taxes). We reserve the right at any time without notice to increase our prices.
“Information” means any information supplied by you to us in connection with the provision of the services, including any information supplied by the Client on any order forms.
“Literature” means our brochures, price lists and advertisements including the content of the website.
“Services” means the supply of services by the EPC Assessor to the Client (excluding any third party services), including but not limited to reports and photographs and other services from time-to-time and includes our instructions to third party suppliers on the Clients behalf.
“Website” means our website located at www.completeepc.co.uk
DATA ON VISITORS.
During any visit to Home Energy Model, the pages you view and cookies stored on your computer are downloaded (see point 3 for more details). Most, if not all, websites do this because cookies help the website publisher perform useful functions, such as determining whether the computer and its user have visited the site before. On subsequent visits, this is done by checking for the existing cookie from the last visit.
Cookies can provide information that helps us improve our service and analyze our visitor profiles. For example, if you previously visited the Search Engine pages, we may learn this from your cookie and highlight related Search Engine information on a later visit. We also use cookies to support features such as Shopping Carts, with the cart contents stored in a cookie on your PC.
We do not collect or use personal information from our website beyond what is needed for dispatching goods and invoices, or to contact you in relation to an enquiry or support request. We do not share personal information with other companies unless you specifically authorize us to do so.
We do not use cookies or spyware to gather information for marketing or any other purpose beyond what is described above.
WHAT IS A COOKIE?
When you visit a site, your computer may receive a cookie. Cookies are text files that identify your computer to our server; they do not identify you personally, only the device you are using. Many sites use cookies to track traffic flow.
Cookies record which areas of the site you visit and for how long. You can configure your computer to accept all cookies, to notify you when a cookie is issued, or to block cookies entirely. Blocking cookies may prevent certain personalized services from being available to you.
Note: Even if you have not set your computer to reject cookies, you can browse our site anonymously until you attempt to purchase products or register for services.
DATA AND STORAGE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.
When you provide any personal information to Home Energy Model for purchase, services, or support membership, we have legal obligations in how we handle that data. We must collect information fairly, explain how we will use it (see the notices on specific pages that state why we are requesting it), and inform you if we plan to share it with others. Generally, the information you give us will be used only within Home Energy Model and by our service providers. It will not be disclosed to anyone outside Home Energy Model without your consent, unless we are required or permitted by law to do so. If you post or send offensive or inappropriate content on or to Home Energy Model, or engage in disruptive behavior on our site, and we consider the behavior serious or repeated, we may use any information available about you to stop such behavior. This may include informing relevant third parties such as your employer, school, or email provider about the content and your behavior.
We will retain your personal information on our systems for as long as you use the service you requested and will remove it when the purpose has been fulfilled, or if you no longer wish to continue your support membership. For safety reasons, Home Energy Model may store messaging transcript data (including message content, member names, times, and dates) arising from services such as our forum for six months. Personal information for individuals who are not yet registered but have participated in other services (for example, competitions) will be kept only as long as necessary to ensure the service runs smoothly. We will ensure that all personal information provided is kept securely in accordance with applicable data protection requirements.
If our site indicates that your information may be used to contact you for “service administration purposes,” this means we may contact you for various service-related reasons. For example, we may send password reminders or notify you that a service has been suspended for maintenance. We will not contact you for promotional purposes unless you specifically agree to be contacted for such purposes when you submit your information, or later if you opt in to receive promotional information.
USERS 16 AND UNDER.
If you are 16 years old or younger, you must obtain permission from a parent or guardian before sharing any personal information on our websites. You may not provide us with personal information without this consent.
HOW TO FIND AND CONTROL YOUR COOKIES.
If you’re using Netscape 6.0, on the taskbar click Edit, then Preferences. Open Advanced, then Cookies.
If you’re using Internet Explorer 6.0, choose Tools, then Internet Options. Click the Privacy tab, then Custom Level. Click the Advanced button. Check the override automatic cookie handling box and select Accept, Block, or Prompt for action as appropriate.
If you’re using Internet Explorer 5.0 or 5.5, choose Tools, then Internet Options. Click the Security tab. Click Custom Level. Scroll to the sixth option to see how cookies are handled by IE5 and change to Accept, Disable, or Prompt for action as appropriate.
If you’re using Internet Explorer 4.0, choose View, then Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab. Scroll down to the yellow exclamation icon under Security and choose one of the three options to regulate your use of cookies.
In Internet Explorer 3.0, you can View, Options, Advanced, then click the Warn before Accepting Cookies button.
If you’re using Netscape Communicator 4.0, on the taskbar click Edit, then Preferences. Click Advanced. Set your options in the Cookies box.
HOW CAN YOU VIEW YOUR COOKIE CODE?
Here is a clear, step-by-step explanation of how cookies are created and used from both the client and the server, in a straightforward, easy-to-follow way.
Seeing cookies in your browser
In Chrome or Edge, open the site you’re testing and launch the Developer Tools (F12 or right-click and choose Inspect). Go to the Application tab. In the left pane, expand Cookies and click the site’s domain. You will see a table showing each cookie’s name, value, domain, path, expiration, and flags such as HttpOnly and Secure. You can inspect individual cookies, edit their values in place, or delete them to test how the site behaves when cookies change.
In Firefox, open the site and open Developer Tools (F12). Click on the Storage tab (or the Network tab and then Storage Inspector in newer versions). Under Cookies, select the site to view details such as name, value, and metadata. Firefox also shows HttpOnly and Secure flags and allows you to edit or delete cookies.
What you’ll see includes: the name and value, the domain and path that define the cookie’s scope, the expiration or max-age, and flags like Secure and HttpOnly, which indicate whether the cookie is sent only over HTTPS or is inaccessible to JavaScript. The SameSite attribute is also visible and helps prevent certain cross-site request forgery issues.
Seeing cookies set by the server
In the browser’s Network tab, open DevTools, go to Network, and reload the page. Click the first request to the site and look at the response headers. Look for Set-Cookie headers, which reveal the cookie name, value, domain, path, and attributes such as Expires, HttpOnly, Secure, and SameSite. Set-Cookie headers are how servers instruct the browser to create cookies, so this is where you’ll often find cookies created or updated during login sessions, preferences, or tracking.
Reading cookie code in the client (JavaScript)
If you want to see how cookies are read or written in the page’s code, use DevTools and go to the Console. Type document.cookie to view the raw cookie string for the current site. You may encounter helper functions in the page scripts that parse cookie strings into objects; they commonly split the string on semicolons and equal signs. Common patterns include setting a cookie with something like document.cookie = “name=value; expires=Fri, 31 Dec 9999 23:59:59 GMT; path=/”; and reading cookies with a simple parser that splits the string and decodes the value.
Reading cookie code on the server
If cookies are set by the server, you will typically see a Set-Cookie header in HTTP responses, for example Set-Cookie: sessionId=abc123; Path=/; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=Lax. In server code, examples include creating cookies with functions such as res.cookie in Node.js with Express, or setting cookies in Python with Flask using a response object. To inspect server-side cookie logic, look for code that builds responses or sets headers, and search for cookie parsing on requests, such as reading the Cookie header. If your framework provides a cookie helper, it may abstract these details, with calls like response.set_cookie or request.cookies.
Understanding the difference between client and server cookies
Client-side cookies, accessible via document.cookie unless they are HttpOnly, are useful for simple state or preferences and can be manipulated by JavaScript. Server-side cookies are set via Set-Cookie headers and are often HttpOnly, which makes them more secure for session identifiers and sensitive data since they are not directly accessible from JavaScript. The SameSite attribute helps protect against cross-site request forgery by controlling whether cookies are sent with cross-site requests.
Tips for practical debugging
If a cookie isn’t appearing or changing as expected, check the domain and path to ensure the cookie is scoped correctly. If a cookie is HttpOnly, you won’t see or edit it in document.cookie; only the server can modify it. Secure cookies will not be sent on non-HTTPS pages. Verify that the expiration is in the future and matches your test. For a clean slate, clear existing cookies for the site in your browser’s storage inspector, then reload to see new cookies being created. If you are building a site, consider using a cookie helper library or the framework’s built-in API to avoid errors and security pitfalls. Always set HttpOnly and, when appropriate, Secure and SameSite attributes for sensitive data.