Home EPC ratings ‘often wrong’, consumer group claims
Which? says energy performance certificates need an urgent overhaul because they are often inaccurate.
Energy performance ratings for homes are often inaccurate and need an urgent overhaul, according to consumer group Which?
A home with an EPC A rating is not necessarily net zero, Which? claims in a policy paper that has won support from technical company Aira.
Which? says: “There is now considerable evidence that too many EPCs do not provide an accurate assessment of the energy efficiency of a home.
Too many EPCs do not provide an accurate assessment of the energy efficiency of a home.”
“The metrics that are used are confusing for consumers, and there is a need to provide new information that would support consumers in the decisions they need to make.”
Kept up-to-date
Which? also says the presentation of EPCs needs to be improved to make them more accessible and useful to consumers.
And EPCs should be kept up to date by requiring that every property that is sold or let has an EPC that is less than five years old.
Badly designed
Daniel Särefjord, Aira UK CEO, says: “The Which? policy paper shows that the Energy Performance Certificate regime is outdated, counter-intuitive and badly designed to meet consumer demand for accurate home energy efficiency ratings.
“EPCs should have a greater focus on the impact of the home on the climate, a metric that is lacking at this time.”
Transparent
He says that under the current regime, a homeowner with a net zero home, will not necessarily be awarded an EPC A rating.
“Future reform of the EPC system should reflect the reality of a home’s financial and environmental cost with a transparent, easy-to-understand methodology. This is the sort of information that is increasingly being demanded by the modern consumer.”
The Government extended the deadline for energy efficiency targets on buy-to-let properties last year, which means landlords have until 2028 to comply.
Read the Which? policy paper here
I have just had two new semidetached houses built in Northampton for rent.
The houses were built to the latest standards, they could only achieve a D.
The assessor told me to fit storage heaters.
How out of touch is he?
I should have have helped him tightened his kipper tie, as long as he took off his platform 1970s shoes.
Utter rubbish.
Have they not heard of The Building Research Establishment (BRE) in Watford?
The left hand does not know what the right one is doing.
EPCs are discrediting themselves.
I have seen EPC’s in identical flats have vast differences in EPC rating. One a B and the other a D. D was more correct. I used to be a DEA and when I questioned the EPC guy he refused to take my calls. Also everything is skewed around having a gas boiler instead of sustainable energy. Surely electricity from wind solar and nuclear would be more efficient and drive the price down. Also there needs to be a lot bigger push towards insulation as the EPC does no not emphasise this enough. On the ground insulation drops bills substantially. The EPC does not reflect this.
Also electric water heaters should be replaced with electric showers with instant heat for baths also. Taps replaced with instant electric water. They are cheap to run and readily available. No need to heath 100 litres of water all day and night for reason at all. Technology has far surpassed the EPC.