This is a common question asked of Estate Agents across the board and one that is not always fully understood.
Since the Home Information Packs or HIPS, as some of us know them better were scrapped a few years ago, the government decided to keep the ‘Energy Performance Certificate’, EPC as they are better known as a legal requirement when selling or letting out a property.
As part of a European directive
- The UK has agreed to reduce its CO2 emissions by 80% by the year 2050.
- It is currently believed that 50% of the UKs CO2 emissions come from property.
- 30% from domestic property and 20% from commercial property.
An Energy Performance Certificate is
- A legal document outlining the thermal aspects and properties of your home such as whether or not the property has cavity wall insulation, modern double glazing, loft insulation and what type of boiler and heating system is present.
- It shows two ratings out of 100 for the property’s ‘energy efficiency’ and its ‘environmental impact’, where 100 is very energy efficient and environmentally friendly, and 0 is not.
- This is also broken down into letter bandings from A to G where A is the most energy efficient and G is the least.
- An estimated running cost for the property is also shown on the certificate, along with an estimated saving you could make should you carry out any suggested improvement measures.
- The document lists these improvement measures, relative to each different property, and these can be taken to help improve the property’s rating even more.
- Having said this, the certificate does not take into consideration the lifestyle habits of the property’s occupants, such as appliance use and television/computer use etc.
Green Deal – How to improve your home for no up front cost!
The government has recently put in place a scheme called the Green Deal.
This is a scheme dedicated to helping fund the cost of improvement measures to UK homes without having to pay for the work upfront, since the cost of the measures should be covered by the energy they save.
On an Energy Performance Certificate you will notice the green and orange ticks next to some of the recommended measures.
If the measure has an orange tick next to it this means that the Green Deal will partially fund this measure but an up-front contribution from you may be required. But, if a measure has a green tick next to it this means that the Green Deal are likely to fully fund the cost of this measure, which is paid back over time through your energy bills at a level no greater than the estimated savings to your energy bills.
This is a fantastic opportunity to help lower the running costs for your home as well as keeping it warmer in those long winter months.
Better still, for landlords and tenants I thoroughly recommend using the Green Deal to improve your property as the cost is repaid through the electricity bill. Bear in mind though that as a landlord you will need permission from existing tenants first and vice versa before opting for a Green Deal as in most cases the tenants will be the ones paying the bill.
Further to this if and when you sell your property, if a Green Deal repayment is still existing this stays with the property and the new owners will take over the repayments against their energy bills.
So, all in all I thoroughly recommend looking into the Green Deal to see whether it works for you and lets see whether we can hit that target of an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050!…
For more information on the Green Deal and ways to improve the energy efficiency of you home please do not hesitate to contact me on 01923 285886.
Martyn Drabik
Domestic Energy Assessor