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EPC Energy Performance Certificate Shock Surprise

AncientMariner

Our village halls attached house is due to be rented out again and a couple of days ago had a EPC Energy Performance Certificate survey.

Due its form of construction, its a late 1890s Grade II listed building, no cavity walls, no floor insulation etc I was pleased that it achieved a D rating which means that it is OK to rent out, since the current minimum is E for rented property. However I was a little nervous when the surveyor told me that from 2025 the minimum will be C but as a Grade II listed I should be able to get an exemption.

However, the house that my wife rents out scored a D in 2019 and in order to become a C requires, in the suggested order: Floor insulation, Solar Water heating and Photovoltaic panels with a typical expected cost of  £20,000 as per the certificate! I've ignored the sloping ceiling insulation which was Number 1 on the list at £1500, this due to the previous owner converting a utility room into a breakfast room and removing the ceiling and creating a pyramid style ceiling.

The certificate (like all others visible on the UK Gov website) reminds all that the UK average is D.  These rules apparently were from the EU and take into account that the average age of a house is higher in the UK compared with the EU, so theirs have been built on average to a better spec.

Interestingly electric central heating makes the situation worse, my wife's property luckily has had a condensing combi-boiler fitted 2 years ago.  I joked(?) with the surveyor whether an EV charger is good or bad, she was not too sure.  

If you want to check EPCs then go to 

Clive

  • 0

    “yet it is listed so cannot be demolished.” 

    It would be ironic if the current building regs succeeded where Guy Fawkes and the Luftwaffe both failed.

    Arguably all that is needed is not to heat it and to ask MPs to bring a coat.

    Or relocate parliament to a real building, ideally out of London, and open the old place as a museum for tourists.

    More generally we get  very sentimental about old buildings, probably more than we should , certainly we have a lot of very crummy housing stock, and even that  is in short supply let alone a shortage of the well built stuff.

    Mike.

  • 0

    I bet there’s nothing in the SAP software for cast iron roof tiles

    https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/lords-information-office/2013/architecture-building-fabric-factsheet.pdf

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    “This vast amount of glass, much of it set in bronze framework, no longer provides weather resistance and generates significant heat loss from the Palace.”

    No, it's the temperature gradient which generates the heat loss. The place may be full of “law-makers” (I hate that term), but they obviously don't understand the laws of physics. ?

  • 0

    I have been surprised how low the rating was each time I have had an Energy Certificate.  The latest was a flat we rented, but were about to sell where the rating went down from C to D on the grounds that the floor has no insulation (it has but the inspector could not see it without lifting the floor) and no roof insulation (it has but again, it cannot be inspected and is assumed not to exist).

    It is the same with all these inspections, minimum work, and assume the worse if it means effort.

    David

  • 0

    On one of the “How do they do it” type programs on the telly they showed how a small foundry was casting new cast iron roof tiles for Parliament from old brake discs, the tiles are eco friendly in that they are completely recyclable and can be made from recycled materials.

  • 0

    Yes, but what do I do with my old brake discs, callipers, and other scrap iron? I haven't seen a rag and bone man for decades.

  • 0

    It will be very interesting when the Parliament building comes to be refurbished.

    I always thought the Palace of Westminster was self-heating … due to the unlimited supply of hot air.

       - Andy.

  • 0

    AJJ        ?Priceless

  • 0

    Chris Pearson: 
     

    What is floor insulation please? I assume that it refers to solid floors in contact with the ground.

    Yes floor insulation in recently built houses tends to be solid thick sheets of a foam like material upon which a concrete type screed, maybe with underfloor heating is laid. In my wife's house case the house has a solid concrete floor, with "plastic" tiles on top. Typical of the late 50's to later. Same as our previous house built in 1973.

    The house in question is typical of the era, brick cavity walls now insulation filled, a pyramid style roof with the full amount of insulation, a 2 year old condensing combi boiler, full double glazing.

    It was rated D in 2019 which is also the England Wales average (not sure about Scotland).

    Yet from 2025 it has to achieve a C.

    The suggested route, which is in the order listed is:

    Floor Insulation est £6K  massive job.

    Solar Water Heating £6K - What about the 2 year old boiler? And how would it be plumbed in? Does not bear thinking about.

    Solar Panels £8K Only one of the roof's "triangles" faces south, the front elevation. 

    All the above takes it to a C.  At a mere cost of £20K plus lost rent and redecoration - pay back time? And leaves the most unsightly appearance that I can imagine.

    Have a look at 

    Any house that has been sold in recent years will have an epc and since 2018 (I think) all rented accommodation.

    Clive

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    0 Former Community Member

    Simon Barker: 
     

    dcbHow would you set the rent, before discount?

    If a landlord wanted to let out a flat that was impossible to keep warm in the winter, and they wanted £1000 a month for it, they could say that the flat is £1200 a month, but with a £200 a month discount.

    The tenant pays the same price as before, and still struggles to keep the place warm.

    There is an informal "going rate" for accommodation which is well known to letting agents and easily accessible to the general public .   If a landlord asked £1200 for a flat where the going rate was a £1000 then she wouldn't get many takers, whatever the energy efficiency.

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