If a home is on the market for renting or selling then it needs to have a valid EPC, it’s as simple as that. But rather than being a pointless piece of bureaucracy, EPC Bromley considers that it can actually be used as the instruction manual telling you how to make your property more energy efficient.
However, EPC Bromley has discovered that although people have the certificate they have trouble deciphering the information within it. So we’ve put together this guide.
What are EPCs for?
On a very basic level an EPC lets you compare the energy efficiency between one property and another. This is obviously useful information if you are looking to buy or rent a property.
Secondly it tells you which energy efficiency improvements can be done, how much they will cost to install and how much money they will save you once installed.
EPC Explained
Page One – Current Costs and Potential Costs
This shows you the estimates of how much your house costs to light up, to heat and produce hot water. It then shows you what these costs could be if you had the recommended energy efficiency measures installed and how much you could therefore save.
In this case you can see that this house could potentially save over £1,000 a year.
Energy Efficiency Rating
This is the main data that people are concerned with. It looks a bit like the ratings that are given to electrical appliances because it is.
The ratings are scored out of a total of 100 and these then correspond to the letters A-G, with A being the highest.
The two ratings show the level that the property is currently at, compared to the level it could achieve if all measures were installed. In this case the property is ‘F’ rated but could potentially achieve a ‘C’.
Top Actions
The top actions are also featured at the bottom of page one. These are the measures that could see the property reach its potential the most quickly. A full list is shown further on in the document
Page Two – Energy Performance Summary
This breaks down each and every element of the property into a description and a rating. This is to give you more information as to the construction of the property, the way it heats up, the way that heating is controlled and how the property is lit.
This property has energy inefficient solid walls and no insulation in the loft. However the boiler is considered pretty efficient.
Low and Zero Carbon Energy Sources
This list shows if the property gets any energy from low carbon sources. this includes renewables such as Solar PV or Solar water heating panels. In this case the property has none.
Heat Demand of the Property
This shows the expected heat demand of the property and how this will change if insulation is installed. This section is used for people considering installing renewable heating into their home, it enables calculations for Renewable Heat Incentive payments.
Page Three – Recommended Improvements
This is in fact the most important part on the EPC. It shows you in detail all of the recommendations, their costs, their savings and how much the property’s energy rating will go up once they are installed.
They are also shown in order of how important they are. It is a good guide as to how you should decide which energy efficiency measures to install first. In this case installing wall insulation will increase the rating from a 31 to a 50, an increase of 19 points which would take the property from an ‘F’ to an ‘E’.
The latter recommendations are aimed at people who want the property to achieve the highest possible rating.
Alternative Measures
This is a list of other measures that could further improve the efficiency of the property. This could list things such as air and ground source heat pumps. In this case it recommends Micro CHP.
Page Four – Other Information
This part has disclaimers about the EPC, who completed it, when and how they are qualified to do so.
Environmental impact
The last section shows the amount of carbon emissions from the property and how this impact could be lowered if all recommended measures were installed.
EPC Bromley hopes this guide has been useful. Remember, your EPC is public domain and can always be viewed at epcregister.com.