EPC - Energy Performance Certificate

Tesla · 29 May 2014 at 11:36

Hi,

Do you take much notice of EPC when viewing property?

A properties EPC rating I don't think would ever deter me from buying.
However, a recent conversation with a friend and he said he was unsure about buying a certain property due to it's low rating.

With this in mind, any tips for improving the EPC rating?

I insulated my loft up a couple years back, how does insulation thickness have an effect?

How about things like low energy bulbs. Should I put the ~10W spiral bulbs everywhere?

Cheers!

blues_r_best · 29 May 2014 at 12:13

Not really bothered. Poor ratings would most likely be from an old boiler, single glazed windows and no insulation, you'd probably notice most if having a viewing. I just took it to mean higher fuel costs until things are replaced.

According to the EPC on my place a few years ago, putting low energy bulbs everywhere would improve the energy efficiency rating by one point.

postbox · 29 May 2014 at 12:38

I certainly did (currently going through the exchange of contracts of 1st buy) and it definitely me made me avoid the houses where they needed significant costs to improve it by a few letters. With energy costs rising each year it's definitely something worth improving on anyway especially with the cheaper / grant options of wall and loft insulation.

Kimi · 29 May 2014 at 12:56

Not bothered, only thing i look for is if its got double glazing

Derek W · 29 May 2014 at 13:10

When buying an older property I wouldn't be put off by a low rating on an EPC because i know high rated EPCs realistically only come from well insulated / air tight modern buildings built to a certain standard.

Although adding in more insulation to the walls / roof or replacing old windows will help the EPC rating it calculation encompasses all aspects of your building, insulation, windows, boiler efficiency, low energy bulbs, and use of 'new technologies' the latter I've found have the largest impact but are also the more expensive elements to implement!

I do SAPs calculations in my office to produce EPCs although this is only for new build houses rather than the reduced data SAPs for existing houses.

bazzabear · 29 May 2014 at 13:59

Never really pay any attention to them when house hunting.

Tesla · 30 May 2014 at 00:20

Thanks chaps.

LeeUK · 30 May 2014 at 02:00

If I see that the cavity walls have been filled then I'd want to know the quality of the work. I know someone who bought an old house that had it done according to the EPC but when they knocked a wall down to build an extension they noticed the wall hadn't been filled.

Also 20 year old PVC double glazing gets the same score as modern up to date PVC double glazing. Double glazing in those days was nothing better than single glazing and wooden fame apart from being 2 sheets of glass and a plastic frame.

DarrenM343 · 31 May 2014 at 12:08

They're rubbish in my opinion. I've lived in a rented place where the EPC company gave it a green 82 rating but when it later came on the market for sale it was given a rating of 46 by someone else who did it. A lot of assumptions are made, and these vary depending on who is doing it.

I expect for new houses they are pretty accurate as the exact build is more easily known, and the same for recent conversions, but for older buildings they're not worth paying much attention to. New builds I reckon will all be the same anyway or thereabouts because of building/insulation standards today.

To give an example. If a block of flats has a flat roof put on in the 70's it will not rate well on the EPC. If the same block of flats has a new replacement roof it will score much better. If the EPC evaluator is not told the roof is recent they will probably rate it based on the original build date of the flats.