What is an energy performance certificate?
An EPC is a certificate that shows how energy-efficient your property is. The document includes estimated energy costs, as well as a summary of your home’s energy performance-related features. EPCs also include recommendations on measures that would make your home more energy-efficient, along with estimated costs for implementing the changes and the potential savings you could make.
Your property will be given an energy-efficiency grade between A and G, with A being the best, and G being the worst
New-build homes tend to have high EPC ratings, while older homes often have lower ratings of around D or E. The average EPC rating for a home in the UK is D. But with modern-day energy performance measures, even our beautiful period properties can achieve very high ratings.
Do I need an EPC if I’m buying or renting?
Sellers
It’s a legal requirement to have an energy performance certificate for your home before you sell it. This can be arranged through us.
Buyers
Make sure you receive an EPC from the seller. You can use its recommendations to inform any renovations you might want to carry out and budget for the future running costs of the property.
Landlords
If you’re a buy-to-let landlord, it is now a legal requirement that your property has an EPC rating of E or above before you can take on a new tenant or renew an existing contract. By 2020, this rule will apply to all properties with existing tenancies, too.
Tenants
Ensure your landlord sends you an EPC before you move in, and use the cost breakdown to help plan your budget.
Where can I find my EPC?
Once we have completed an EPC, it’s lodged on the gov.uk website. This database contains every EPC conducted in the UK.
You can use the website to look up your own certificate or look for one on a property you are considering buying.
What can I see on a certificate?
The EPC Rating
This is a simple A to G rating, A being the best! and G being… pretty cold! The rating allows anyone to glance at the certificate and quickly determine how efficient your home is, thus understanding how much it’s going to cost to heat and light. It also advises on what the property’s potential could be.
A breakdown of the energy performance of each feature
This allows someone to see exactly how each feature is preforming: walls, heating system, windows etc. Followed by a description of what has been installed.
The energy requirements per square meter
This allows us to bench mark the property’s overall efficiency whilst taking into account of size. This is made up of heating and lighting demands.
The environmental impact of the home
The average UK home emits a whopping 6 tonnes of CO2 per year. That’s the equivalent to driving an average-sized diesel car 22,000 miles! This section will tell you how much CO2 your home emits and will also tell you what the potential of the property could be.
Recommended measures
This part of the certificate will recommend a range of measures that could be suitable for your property. It ranges from simple draft proofing to the installation of solar panels, it will give you a UK average price of the cost of installing this measure, the estimated savings and finally with what your EPC rating could then be.
Estimated heating, hot water & lighting costs in £’s
This is so you can easily see the running costs of a home, allowing you to compare it to other homes and budget.
Heating and hot water demand
This is very useful for heating engineers, it enables them to correctly size a new boiler or heat pump so you don’t end up with an under/over-powered heating system, both of which would waste money.
The assessment details
Our details, who we are accredited with, and the date of assessment.
How long does an energy performance certificate last?
EPCs are valid for 10 years.
They can be done sooner for convenience or if the property’s energy performance has drastically changed.
How much should an EPC cost?
Unfortunately, there is no fixed pricing on EPC’s. This means costs can be from £45 to £145! Estate agents tend to be the highest, and going directly to an assessor like us is more often than not cheaper by a mile.
For a property, up to four bedrooms, we charge £45. And for a 5 bedroom or larger property, we charge £56. All the EPCs are done in the same way and lodged in the same location, so why pay more?
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