MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
So I'm selling one of my houses and I have to have one of these blasted EPCs. For those of you who don't know what they are, they cost ~£45 for some moron to come to your house and tell you to close your windows and put in new light bulbs, and you have to have one by law in order to sell your house. Some gems from my EPC report include:
Replace boiler with new condensing boiler:
Cost: £1,500 - £3,500 Saving per year: £33
Solar water heating
Cost: £4,000 - £6,000 Saving per year: £33
Solar photovoltaic panels, 2.5 kWp
Cost: £11,000 - £20,000 Saving per year: £214
Utter lunacy.
utter utter tripe arent they.
You also need them as a landlord before letting a property now too.
Oh god I didn't know they extended to rentals too. As if dealing with the bottom feeding scumbag twunts that comprise the solicitors and estate agents wasn't stressful enough!
EPC's will form part of the green deal in the end. And force the reduction of domestic co2 emissions. So you will be able to get the high cost reduction measures you have listed with a reduction in your bills. for no outlay in cost.
The bigger picture is that the government's are having to fall into line with the amount the fines they will incur. If they dont meet there targets on reduction. And the biggest savings to be had is in the reduction of domestic energy. So the EPC are being used to collect data on best reduction to be made.
To be fair they are pointless if you have a bit of common sense, as you'd already have done the financially viable things they suggest (energy saving lights, insulation etc). If you're an idiot you might need it spelling out.
The 24 halogen spots in my kitchen nearly caused a tut-related seizure to the woman who did my EPC.
rpc's are a handy way of the govt surveying every domestic and commercial property in the uk to see how a bad problem we have got with enery effeciency. unfortunatly the measurement method is bollocks.
Personally I'm kind of in favour of them, they were pretty handy when looking at several similar other houses on our street, just as a quick way to see what people had done in terms of making the houses not cold ours is a lovely warm house because of cunning secondary glazing stuff, loft insulation and adecent boiler .
Having said that, the one for our 1790s, stone house, listed building etc.
did suggest we should get someone in to put cavity wall insulation in between the two layers of bricks in the wall (that'll be the wall that is made from big lumps of stone then!)
Also had a 'full' survey previously suggesting we get a sweep in / have the chimney checked for the open wood fire, in a house with a four bar gas fire. So it isn't just epc things that are done poorly.
It's quite interesting that the EPC assessors don't appear to have a particularly good grasp on the energy market. I'd certainly be suggesting researching the feasibility of an Air Source heat pump for most properties now. They work in a very different way to a boiler, but if the property is suitable they are a very sensible alternative to a condensing combi boiler, especially with the likely spiralling costs of gas as a heating fuel.
Whilst there is a considerable initial investment, a combination of Solar PV, Solar Thermal and Air Source heat pump could be worth very serious consideration.
We installed an air source heat pump and are about to install 3.4kW of solar PV. The PV will effectively heat the house and hot water all year with a net heating bill of approx £0.00 pa.
And a significant amount of free electricity during the summer.
Don't get me started on EPCs. Ours had to be redone after I pointed out that we had full double glazing throughout our flat - a mix of sealed units and secondary glazing, but the woman who allegedly carried out the check hadn't spotted this and said that the first thing that needed doing was double glazing.
We got a revised certificate through a day or two later which had improved our ratings by about 2 points, but I [u]know[/u] she hadn't been back...