Energy performance, want a better rating?

The energy performance certificate, which  is touted  as the way to reduce Carbon emissions from your home. Is open to blatant abuse. So our advise to you as home sellers is wait until exchange of contracts before getting the EPC.

With no checks in place to oversea how the Energy report is compiled any home can have any rating. 

Picture this, one of these A level qualified assessors comes to your home, gives your home a D energy rating.

A few pounds change hands and you now have a C or B rated home..Energy performance certificate.

To go from a D rated home to a C rated home, would cost you in excess of £10,000 giving you a saving of £126 per anum on fuel bills.

1. Fitting double glazing £4000
2. cavity wall insulation £380 [can cause cavity bridge which = Damp.]
3. solar panels £4500

Pay back time 79 years that’s seventy nine years. Just another reason they are open to abuse.

The ruling is always “caveat emptor” buyer beware, so no purchaser will rely on anything commissioned by the seller, without doing their own investigations so what is the point of a HIP or the EPC?

From Baroness Deech: I was not reassured in studying the material before the committee that there will be sufficient checks on those who make the energy inspection.

There seemed to be no assurance that the accuracy and helpfulness of the energy certificate would be properly checked.

In other words, the certificate might not be worth the paper it was written on.

To see how farcical the the EPC really is, it states all homes are assumed to be heated for at least 9 hours per day, and 16 hours on the weekend…

Not all of us use our homes in the same way so to allow one home to be directly compared to another, energy ratings are calculated using ‘standard occupancy’ assumptions.

Standard occupancy assumes that the house is heated for 9
hours a day during weekdays and 16 hours a day at weekends, with the living room heated to 21oC and the rest of the house at 18oC.

Which means the carbon emissions from your home are already wrong, as is your energy rating…