EPC report

NoNameNoNumber

NoNameNoNumber

NoNameNoNumber

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Our EPC when we bought the property was a D 64. With a potential of C 76.
We have since inadvertently taken of the steps and more. What does that do to our score and does it really matter?

Step 1- increased loft insulation to 270mm +

Step 2- floor insulation, none assumed but it turns out we have XPS under our floor slab

Step 3- low energy lighting, LEDs everywhere now

Step 4- solar water heating.

Step 5- solar PV, 2.5kWp, we have 6.7kWp

And now after all that we have replaced the oil central heating with a heat pump and started replacing 20 year old double glazing and frames with triple glazing.
To be eligible for the BUS grant we had to have an updated EPC, which has all gone through but the government website only shows the original.

Should our new score now be higher than the potential?
 
I would have thought so, but unless someone here is an energy assessor or smart enough to know the criteria well, I think all you are going to get is guess work.

I'll guess you might get a C or B after doing all that, I'm guessing the heat pump/solar combo will be a big factor, but I don't really know.
 
Keep in mind that the criteria for these assessments has changed over time. For instance, we took our loft insulation from 100mm to 270mm and our overall score went down from the previous assessment as the goal posts had moved. What is the purpose of chasing the score? Sounds like you've done just about everything you can do, now just enjoy the lower running costs!
 
My mid-terrace 2 bed was recently rated at C 74. Still has single glazed wood frame windows (though secondary Perspex glazing was counted which surprised me) but I upped the loft the insulation to 300mm to match the knew minimum recommendation (new houses now at 500mm). I already notice the lower heat loss. Also unscrewed a light fitting to show there is insulation between the outer stone skin and the inner stud dry-wall. Potential is A 92!

Neighbours 3 bed end-terrace with similar construction was D 61. Same wood frame single glazing noted as very poor (no secondary like mine).

Survey for heat pump calculated 3.2KW loss so already decent. Currently going through the process for a 4KW heat pump.

If you really want to play. Create an account on Heatpunk and re-create your house (takes some fiddling) and play with materials. Smallest change to my house was actually going from single to double glazing. So not bothering until my windows rot!
 
you can access the epc register and see what it is for your prroperty and it will tell what extra points you can achieve by adding elements and then work out yoru new score based on that.
 
In Scotland it will be a requirement to be EPC C or better to sell your house in the near future (2032 I think), England I think was talking about doing the same thing, not sure if it’s in law yet.
 
Jokester said:
I fitted 2 LED downlights in my kitchen to replace old halogen ones and mine went from C to B :cry:
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Yes, they're a joke and an EU load of crap.

My old rented place was a "C" when I moved in...fast forward and LL had not done it for years, no changes other tyhan my own LED bulbs and it dropped to an E.

For example, double glazing is not made equal. different quality makes absolutely zero difference to the EPC as it's just "double glazed".

I hate that it is used as something official when it is a complete lie 99% of the time.
 
I found out why we didn’t get a new EPC. Our old one was suitable for the BUS. But given we paid for one with the heat pump install, we’re getting a new one. A company is coming out of Friday, I’ll let you know how that goes.
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
I found out why we didn’t get a new EPC. Our old one was suitable for the BUS. But given we paid for one with the heat pump install, we’re getting a new one. A company is coming out of Friday, I’ll let you know how that goes.
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I could have told you that and the information is also out there :p You just need a valid EPC that's no more than 10 years old. Plus they're a huge waste of money and don't stand for anything, you just need a valid one when selling up.

Please don't just throw money at all these "low carbon" fixes willy nilly. Think strongly about real world payback and if you'll be there to see the benefit.

How old is your house? I'd highly recommend a USB-C phone FLIR type camera. You may have cold bridges and drafts in certain areas that can be identified and remedied, making a huge difference compared to the trivial cost. I think mine is a Topdon and was just over £200.
 
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-Ad- said:
I could have told you that and the information is also out there :p You just need a valid EPC that's no more than 10 years old. Plus they're a huge waste of money and don't stand for anything, you just need a valid one when selling up.

Please don't just throw money at all these "low carbon" fixes willy nilly. Think strongly about real world payback and if you'll be there to see the benefit.

How old is your house? I'd highly recommend a USB-C phone FLIR type camera. You may have cold bridges and drafts in certain areas that can be identified and remedied, making a huge difference compared to the trivial cost. I think mine is a Topdon and was just over £200.
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Ah see my understanding was that as we didn't have enough loft insulation as per the old EPC, we'd need to address that, then get the EPC to satisfy the BUS.
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
Our EPC when we bought the property was a D 64. With a potential of C 76.
We have since inadvertently taken of the steps and more. What does that do to our score and does it really matter?

Step 1- increased loft insulation to 270mm +

Step 2- floor insulation, none assumed but it turns out we have XPS under our floor slab

Step 3- low energy lighting, LEDs everywhere now

Step 4- solar water heating.

Step 5- solar PV, 2.5kWp, we have 6.7kWp

And now after all that we have replaced the oil central heating with a heat pump and started replacing 20 year old double glazing and frames with triple glazing.
To be eligible for the BUS grant we had to have an updated EPC, which has all gone through but the government website only shows the original.

Should our new score now be higher than the potential?
Click to expand...

I'll stick down some thoughts after I've finished work albeit I only do new build epcs and you'll have had a reduced data sap carried out for your new EPC. The way things are assessed has changed from April 1st since oil and gas were removed from the regs and some benefits you got from pv panels have been reduced as a result. I'll expand on this later on.

BUDFORCE said:
but unless someone here is an energy assessor
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Hi there! :p
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
Our EPC when we bought the property was a D 64. With a potential of C 76.
We have since inadvertently taken of the steps and more. What does that do to our score and does it really matter?

Step 1- increased loft insulation to 270mm +

Step 2- floor insulation, none assumed but it turns out we have XPS under our floor slab

Step 3- low energy lighting, LEDs everywhere now

Step 4- solar water heating.

Step 5- solar PV, 2.5kWp, we have 6.7kWp

And now after all that we have replaced the oil central heating with a heat pump and started replacing 20 year old double glazing and frames with triple glazing.
To be eligible for the BUS grant we had to have an updated EPC, which has all gone through but the government website only shows the original.

Should our new score now be higher than the potential?
Click to expand...

Step 1 - Increasing the insulation envelope will always help and its a relatively cheap fix albeit it does have a relatively low improvement factor. To go a bit more technical the energy calculation models how your house is insulated, heated and cooled and compares it to the backstop values or notional building. So for examples if you've got a roof with 270 mm insulation you'll typically get a U-Value of around 0.14W/m2k where as the back stop value might be around 0.16W/m2K so you're only improving by 0.02W/m2K across your roof area.

Step 2 - Always tricky trying to guess how much insulation you have in a concrete floor when its underneath the concrete unless you've got access to the original drawings. You'll always have something depending on the age of the property of course. You won't see real world improvement for this but if it wasn't included in the original calculation you may get a small bump.

Step 3 - Again LEDs will give you a small bump in your overall SAP calc

Step 4 - Is the solar water heating from solar panels or is it through your PV installation and use of a diverter?

Step 5 - Great to see a system over and above the 'standard' max that people are pursuaded to get (4kW). The only downside is that the use of PV Panels aren't getting the same benefit in previous years calculation packages as electric is now the base standard and energy suppliers have absorbed the benefit since they're using greener energy to produce the energy and sell it to Joe Public. Also do you have battery storage to go with the PV Panels? This will also get more of a benefit since you'll be able to store it on site to use later rather that it just be 'wasted' or sold back to the grid?

Heat Pump - I'm still sceptical of their usage on existing houses but that's mainly from the point of view if the insulation envelope hasn't been improved sufficiently so that you're not just leaking all that heat straight back out of the house and therefore firing through an electric bill which defeats the purpose of using green energy! But again the notional builidng (at least from the new build stuff i do) default heat source is a heat pump so you may not get a big leap in the rating that you used to get. I don't have access to the RdSAP guide book so i can't check to see what youre calculation defaults will be set at.

Windows - Triple glazing over Double glazing is where you should see a good offset in the calculation at least 10 times that of the differences between the insulation figures above e.g 1.6W/m2K to 1.2W/m2K will give an improvement across the area of windows of 0.4W/m2K

I'd be pretty confident regardless though that you'd be reaching a high 70s C rating or perhaps getting into a low to mid 80s C / B rating with all of those improvements.

One thing to note though is the EPC rating is slightly less important as it relates to the amount of carbon that a house produces and since the evil carbon producing heating systems have been removed from the regs its now the environmental impact side of things that will be getting looked at more often (certainly with new builds at least). As we head towards net zero and a passive house outlook we're looking at having a 'fabric first' approach where we have a well insulated house with little or no thermal bridging, air tight so minimal heating required (or none in some cases where the general day to day use is enough to maintain temperature) with the ventilation provided mechanically by one unit and buildings designed in such a way that they won't overheat in summer and not rely on large amounts of heating during the winter.
 
Macky said:
Did the floor insulation you've done get taken in account?
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Nope - it doesn't even count from what I can tell. It says floor - assumed insulated instead of floor - assumed not insulated.

Will have a proper side by side tomorrow.

Biggest impact to the score was loft insulation and led lighting, lol.

Path to c/b is solar or external wall insulation
 
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