Is there anything you can do to enhance your home’s EPC rating if it receives a bad one? If you ever decide to put your property up for sale, you may want to consider raising its energy efficiency rating in order to make it more appealing to prospective buyers while simultaneously saving money and resources.
What exactly is an EPC?
If you want to put your house on the market, you must obtain a current energy performance certificate (EPC) (EPC). Ten-year certifications show prospective buyers how much the home would cost to heat and power, how energy efficient it is, what features it could have (cavity wall insulation, solar panels etc.) and what can be done to increase its efficiency.
A surveyor will visit to your home to evaluate its size, number of windows, level of insulation, and kind of heating system before issuing you with a certificate. After the work is finished, you will get a certificate indicating your home’s energy efficiency level, which will range from A (very efficient) to G. (poor efficiency).
There is no need to renew the certificate after it expires unless you want to sell your house. The certificate may be reissued if you make substantial upgrades to your house, such as installing new insulation, so that you may see how these changes have affected your home’s energy efficiency rating.
EPC ratings: how to acquire a good one
Getting a high EPC rating may help you save money on your utility costs while also helping the environment, and the information provided here will help you achieve just that.
Enhance the insulation of your house
Heating a house consumes more energy than drying clothing in a tumble dryer, preparing meals, or running a bath. Fortunately, the heat slowly escapes via the building’s many openings and surfaces.
As a result, improving your home’s insulation is a great method to make it more energy efficient and raise your EPC rating. As it keeps the heat inside your house for a longer period of time, good insulation may assist to reduce heat loss.
If your house is presently under-insulated, you may want to consider adding 270 mm of loft insulation, as well as cavity wall insulation and improved floor insulation. Your home’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating might be significantly impacted by any of these factors.
Install a solar panel system (Photovoltaic)
Even while solar panels may need a substantial investment to install, they are a fantastic method of generating renewable energy for free and are one of the most efficient methods to generate your own power. As the amount of power generated by your solar panels increases, you will need less energy from the National Grid. As a result, you’ll save money on your energy costs while also lowering your home’s carbon impact.
Switch to LED lighting.
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) replaced halogen and incandescent bulbs as the standard lighting option for many years. One of the fastest, simplest, and least expensive ways to boost your home’s energy efficiency is to convert to LED lighting. You may either change the bulbs one at a time, or you can do it over a period of time.
A little increase in EPC may make a big impact if you follow the other recommendations in this article.
Incorporate solar thermal energy into your home.
Solar thermal panels vary from solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in many ways. Thermal panels utilise the sun’s heat to warm water, while PV panels use the sun’s power to create electricity. Pipes run throughout the panels, which are filled with a variety of liquids. Water held in a house’s attic is heated by a fluid that may be circulated through a sealed circuit to warm it from the inside. Though it may not be able to meet your whole hot water demands, this system may help to increase your home’s energy efficiency and lower your monthly utility expenses.
Do you think your boiler has an impact on an EPC?
This might lower your EPC rating if you have an outdated or inefficient boiler in your home. This is due to the fact that older systems use more gas to heat your home. Limescale and other debris that has built up in the appliance over time may be to blame for this.
A new gas boiler may thus increase the EPC rating of your property. This is particularly true if your current boiler is more than a decade old.
Read more: Saving money on your energy bills with a new boiler.
What is an air source heat pump’s EPC rating?
Although an air source heat pump does not have its own EPC rating, owning one may have an influence on the overall rating of your house. A product’s efficiency is measured by its energy performance label, which is not the same as this label.
With a heat pump, will your EPC rating go up?
In theory, a highly efficient device like a heat pump would raise your EPC score since it is linked to house efficiency. Heat pumps may actually lower your EPC rating, which is why there has been considerable dispute on this matter. EPCs still favour the installation of gas boilers.
There are two main causes for this.
The cost of heating a building is one factor in determining an EPC grade. Energy expenses might seem greater in surveys because electricity is more costly per kilowatt-hour (kWh) than natural gas.
Based on whether or not they have a listed rating on the product characteristics database https://www.ncm-pcdb.org.uk, EPCs may make heat pumps seem less efficient than they really are (PCDB).
A heat pump is still a very effective method of heating your house despite this. Elmhurst Energy has further information on the heat pumps and ECPs problem that you may find interesting. The projected home efficiency measures will have a more favourable emphasis on electrification of home heating as a result of planned revisions to building standards in 2022.
