Energy Performance Certificates
The EPC efficiency rating – what is it?
In a nutshell, your home can now be assessed to see how well it saves energy and each property can be certified to prove the performance by means of an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). All homes when they are rented or bought & sold will need a certificate. The certificate is valid for 10 years and there is a cost but that will depend on who does the survey, where you are located and the size of the property.
The EPC will give details of the current thermal efficiency of your home and also the potential improvement that can be made by making improvements to your property. You can only get an EPC once your property has been surveyed and assessed by an accredited domestic energy assessor (DEA).
The DEA should be properly accredited to do the job as the accreditation covers:
- Code of conduct
- Standards & procedures
- Insurance
- Proper registration of assessor
- Complaints procedure is in place
Who needs an EPC? Basically, all new buildings or any building when it is rented, sold or bought, with the exception of temporary buildings (if they are going to be used for less than 2 years), places of worship, holiday homes if they rented for less than 4 months a year, buildings that don’t provide living accommodation and are under 50 sq. metres in floor area and some non-residential industrial sites that use very little energy.
What does an energy performance certificate look like?
A typical EPC would be about 4 pages in the form of a report with charts that summarise the current energy ratings with suggested work that could be done to improve the property (For example, you could insulate the loft and replace doors & windows) and also whether the work suggested qualifies to be funded under the governments’ “ green deal”.
An example of an energy performance certificate can be found here
Commercial buildings, that are occupied by public institutions and are over 1,000 sq. metres in floor area, should have a DEC (display energy certificate) which shows the energy efficiency – it should be clearly displayed and updated every year.
The law says that you should be provided and EPC free of charge when you buy a home (new or old) or rent a property (unless it is exempt)
