Energy Guides

Energy Performance Certificates explained

Thursday 03 June, 2010

By Dominic Welling

dominic.welling@consumerchoices.co.uk

The new government has finally sounded the death knell for Home Information Packs (HIPS) in a bid to save home movers time and money, but Energy Performance Certificates are here to stay.

Energy performance certificates originally formed part of Home Information Packs (HIPs) which have been abolished by the new coalition government.

HIPs - paid for by sellers - contained property information, title deeds, and local searches among other things like an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).

However despite the demise of HIPs, one thing home sellers will still have to pay for before they can sell their property is an EPC.

What exactly is an Energy Performance Certificate?

At its most basic, an Energy Performance Certificate is a document which tells you the energy efficiency of your home.

It is also able to tell you what impact your house is having on the environment - in terms of carbon dioxide emissions - compared with other homes of a similar size.

It is based on the A-G energy scale - the same scale people widely recognise from labels on white goods.

For those who do not know, this is a form of bar scale – A at the top indicated by a green colour, and G at the bottom, indicated by red.

It is the way of representing most energy-efficient (A) to least energy-efficient (G).

The technical assessment is carried out by a specialist domestic energy assessor who goes through the house and carries out an assessment.

The assessor looks for things like:

Other things the assessor will examine include:

The assessor will then process all the information and the data will be compared with homes of a similar size.

From this information the chart will show your home’s current efficiency rating as well as a potential efficiency rating.

Published alongside the rating is a list of recommendations as to how the homeowner can make the house more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly.

Why do you need an EPC?

About a third of our carbon emission comes from the home, and EPCs are a key way in which the government can encourage people to make homes use less energy and so emit less carbon.

Anyone who is renting out or selling their home should make sure they have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), by law.

The EPC has two main functions. The rating is designed to help tenants or buyers choose between properties.

For instance, tenants will want to know much the home will cost to heat.

For example, if a tenant looks at a property and it is G rated (and they know that it has got a really old boiler) then they know that the place is going to be pretty expensive to heat.

If, on the other hand, they see a similar property and that has a B rating then they know that will be much cheaper to run.

Secondly, the EPC comes with a set of recommendations that the landlord or the home seller can use to improve the rating of their property.

For example, if your property does not have any cavity wall insulation, the EPC will recommend getting that done – which does not cost very much – but which will save you hundreds of pounds in energy usage in the future and improve the EPC rating of your home.

How much do EPCs cost?

EPCs for home sales became mandatory from 1 August 2007, and for rental properties from 1 October 2008.

At the moment they cost between £40 and £75. The price varies on the size of property but it is also down to regional variation.

Furthermore, the price is set by the market. For example, domestic energy assessors compete against each other to produce certificates like in any other industry, so some areas are more expensive than others.

To get an EPC done usually takes around 45 minutes.

Selling your home and EPCs

Since Hips were scrapped the law has changed regarding EPCs.

For example, rather than in the past where if you were selling a house you’d have to have an EPC done before you put it on the market, now you can now put your house up for sale without an EPC as long as you have one booked in and have it available within 28 days.

For more information on EPCs, see the Energy Savings Trust’s website.