When it comes to non-domestic EPCs, most properties are relatively easy to access and survey. Warehouses, offices and shops will generally be open during working hours, and there’s usually someone available to open up for the survey if not. However, with certain properties there can be issues surrounding access – schools and nurseries are a prime example of these situations.

EPCs and Accessibility: Working Around Business Hours

When carrying out an EPC, it’s essential to be able to take photos in and around the property. Earlier this year, we were called out to undertake an EPC on a nursery in the Streatham area, and because of the various sensitivities around a school/nursery environment, the only way we could do this was out of school hours. This particular nursery closed at 6pm, so we travelled to Streatham for an evening site visit.

Nursery EPC Ratings: Feed-in Tariff Eligibility?

The nursery was in the process of having solar PV installed, and wanted to know their rating in order to apply for the feed-in tariff. However, the fact that the nursery was connected to a church further complicated matters, as the owners wanted to know if they could apply for the feed-in tariff on the church as well. Places of worship are exempt from EPC requirements, but the nursery is not. If applying for the feed in tariff, the church would need to meet EPC rating requirements.

A D rating is required to meet the requirements of the higher rate feed in tariff, but this is often very difficult for older buildings such as a church.

We discussed the issues with the client and agreed to carry out separate draft EPCs for the church and the nursery in order to determine if either would be eligible for the grant. Following the visit, the data was entered into the software and drafts generated.

Nursery vs. Church EPC ratings

As expected, the old draughty church scored badly with a G rating, meaning that even with improvements such as new lighting, it would be very difficult to make the PV system viable. Nevertheless, the nursery came out to a D rating, meaning it was eligible for higher rate FIT.

The end result meant that the client could confidently go ahead with installing their panels safe in the knowledge that the nursery met all the efficiency standards for the higher rate FIT.

We recently helped a client in Leyton, East London who had a very low rated EPC. On the face of it, they were really worried that the whole property was unrentable and that it would cost thousands of pounds to get that E rating they needed (according to the MEES regulation). They should not have been worried, we were on the case!

Initial Low Rated EPC

We arrived at the Leyton retail unit in July, and did an initial EPC. The property has electric heaters only and a combi boiler for hot water. The shop has a ground floor and basement, with a residential property above. Lighting throughout the property was halogen, which was an immediate red flag, and sure enough, the rating produced when the EPC was entered into the software was a G. This means that the new lease that was due to be signed could not go ahead until improvements were made to the efficiency of the building.

How We Improved Their EPC Rating

In some cases, there is quite a bit of work involved figuring out how to get the rating up, but in this example our years of experience told us that dealing with just one aspect would get the rating up significantly. Let’s call it a light bulb moment.

Lighting is really important for both office and retail spaces. The lights are likely going to be on all day long, which means any improvement in the efficiency of the lighting is going to save money and make the building much more efficient. We ran a simulation through our software whereby the client installed LED lighting throughout the building – the good news is that by installing LED lighting the property suddenly went from a G to a C rating!

The Final EPC Rating

We held off lodging the EPC as it was, and the owners of the retail unit decided to go away and get the new lighting installed. They contacted us a month or so later once the work had been done in order to arrange a revisit to Leyton. The good news is that, because we hadn’t lodged the original certificate, we could offer a discount for the revisit and we only charged a call out fee to collect the evidence we required in order to lodge a revised certificate. A simple short visit to collect this photo evidence was done, and the next day the EPC was issued at the C rating.

The client can now be content with a property that more than meets the current regulations, and indeed they will be covered for most conceivable increases in the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards as well. The certificate I valid for 10 years on any future leases the client takes out on the property.

Most landlords will now be aware of the new energy efficiency legislation coming into play in 2018. The legislation is called MEES – which stands for the ‘minimum energy efficiency standard’ and it was introduced in March 2015 by the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015. Most landlords will now be aware of the new energy efficiency legislation coming into play in 2018. The legislation is called MEES – which stands for the ‘Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards’ – and it was introduced in March 2015 by the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015.

Basically, this new legislation stipulates that from 1st April 2018, landlords of buildings in scope of the MEES regulations must not renew existing tenancies or grant new tenancies if the building has less than the minimum energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of E.

This means that if they rent a property in the private rental sector it basically needs to have a rating of E or better or else they won’t be able to rent it out!
So, the first thing you need to do is get your EPC rating – this can be found on the first page of the EPC report. It is likely if you are renting your property already, there will be an EPC already lodged on the government software. You can check for this by clicking here and entering your postcode and address.

If there is no valid EPC for your property, you will need to get a new one. An EPC report is valid for 10 years and we have assessors all over the country who can complete the EPC report for you – all at a fixed cost depending on the number of bedrooms – you can find more details on our residential EPC services by clicking here.

Once you have established your EPC rating – this will determine whether or not you need to take any action. So, should the number on the EPC report be 38 or less (i.e. Band F or G) then you will need to improve the energy efficiency of the property in question. If the rating is 39 or more (so band E or better) then you don’t need to do anything else to meet the legislation.

So, should you be in a position where you need to improve the energy efficiency of the property, which energy improvements will give you the biggest bang for your buck?

1. The biggest bang for your buck comes from updating an old heating system – it is pretty easy to gain a double digit improvement by installing a modern heating system. That means new storage heaters or a new condensing gas boiler. Most new boilers come with a 10 years warranty if you opt for a decent make like Worcester Bosch or Valliant – so opt for one of these if funds allow.

2. Swap all the lighting in the property for LED bulbs – this is really cheap to do since an LED bulb can cost as little as £1 now, but should you be hovering on an EPC score of 37 or 38 then it might just get you to a Band E (39 points).

3. Loft insulation is a really easy DIY job. Even if you buy the insulation online, the material prices will work out at just £5-10 per m2. This again can make significant improvements on your EPC score.  It is worth mentioning though if you already have 150mm or more of loft insulation then adding an extra layer of insulation won’t really bring the rating up that much. If you have less than 100mm of loft insulation then this should definitely be considered.

4. There are still a few grants floating around for energy improvements so you can essentially get them installed for free. This is because the Government are very keen for overall energy demand to drop – so our advice here is get cavity wall insulation if possible. This is normally fully funded by ECO funding, and is a quick and easy way to boost the EPC rating on the property – again you can get double digit increases in the EPC rating if you can get this done.

5. The last suggestion might seem a bit strange, but get a decent company in to carry out the EPC survey. A decent surveyor will be able to input specific details about your property giving you potentially a higher rating. For example – did you ever put insulation under the floor, or insulate one particular wall? While most assessors will ignore this, a decent surveyor will be able to enter this detail into the Government approved software which will therefore give a more accurate (and normally higher) energy rating.

If you are interested in getting an EPC carried out on your property, or you would like London-EPC to help improve the energy efficiency of your property portfolio please get in touch. We work with TheGreenAge, which has a network of qualified installers up and down the country all approved and ready to provide quotes for energy improvement works.

Commercial EPCs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes – from small shops to huge warehouses and everything in between. In this blog, we are going to take a look at how office EPCs differ from the norm, and some for the things you need to bear in mind.

Multiple occupancy and office EPCs

Offices, more than any other type of commercial property, tend to have multiple tenants in a building. You could have 10 different companies operating over 10 floors, for example. When organising your EPC, it is really important to decide what parts of the building need the EPC – do all the floors need to be included, or can you just do the EPC on the floor being sold/let? This is something you can discuss with our team over the phone, as it really depends on the purpose of the EPC and the way the building is laid out.

Access is key for an office EPC

The other issue with multiple occupancy properties like this is the question of access. There have been a few times where we visit an office building at the request of the landlord, only to find that some of the companies have not been informed and cannot provide access to their floor/area. This may mean that the EPC cannot be completed, so ensure that all parts of the property are accessible for the assessor.

This goes for things like the boiler room and air handling units as well. The boiler room may not be accessible for the tenant, so alternative access may be required. The air handling units are often located on the roof, so make sure that the roof is accessible if this is the case.

What rating should you expect with an office EPC?

Offices use a lot of heating and cooling, as well as lighting on a day to day basis. They have a high occupancy, which means they use a lot of space heating and cooling to get the occupants comfortable. If you have efficient lighting, a modern heating and conditioning system, and some insulation present, then you can expect a good rating on the EPC. Usually the easiest way to improve the rating is to add LED lighting in the property, as lighting is used very often in an office environment and the software accounts for this.

How much do office EPCs cost?

This will vary by the size of the office. The best way to get a quote and a great price is to send any plans you have for the building to us – we can then get a very clear idea of what will be involved in the EPC. Prices start at £120 for a small office floor, with some larger office blocks costing several hundred pounds.

We have looked at how to get an A on a domestic property, but now we take a look at commercial buildings and how to get the energy rating up here.

Typical A-rated property

To give you some idea of a commercial property that reaches an A, you will need the following as a minimum:

• Current building standard levels of insulation in the walls, roof and floor.
• Current building standard windows and doors.
• Documentation proving all of the above meet these criteria, preferably with u-value calculations.
• Modern heating system with heating controls.
• LED or equivalent lighting, ideally with a lighting design for the building identifying the wattage and lux values for each space.
• Some renewable energy installation. The size will be relative to the size of the building.

Getting an A on a commercial property is fairly standard for a new build – it is what’s expected. Retrofitting a property to these levels is going to be very expensive, however.

New Builds and A Ratings

In order to pass their Part L sign off, a new build has to meet some very high energy efficiency standards. We regularly carry out Part L surveys for new builds and can tell you that passing this is pretty much equivalent to getting an A rating. Even where the building regulations have been followed precisely, there are times when we have to go back and forth with the client trying to add every detail into the software in order to get over the line and reach that A rating.

In order to retrofit a building up to these standards, you are going to have to make some very big increases in insulation as well as changes to the heating and lighting in many cases. Solar or wind is going to be required as well, and probably fairly significantly to make up for any areas that cannot be upgraded elsewhere.

Recommendations Report

Just like with a domestic property, we can produce a recommendations report to let you know exactly what you need to do to reach your desired efficiency levels. Because commercial properties are a little more involved, we can produce a more in depth report for you with various scenarios analysed and costed to give you the best path to efficiency.

Is it worth getting a higher rating?

Whilst it is admirable to strive for better energy performance, and savings are likely to be made in many places, you will need to carefully consider how you want to go about any upgrade work. There are several approaches: you can take a purely economic view and only make upgrades that pay for themselves in a given payback period, you could go beyond this and make upgrades that may not payback quickly but will befit the company or building in other ways, such as PR for example, or you could make wholesale changes to the building and incorporate energy saving measures as part of a larger project, making the payback better than with specific standalone upgrades. Again, this can be discussed with an assessor as part of a recommendations report survey.

Getting an A on your EPC is incredibly difficult, and may even be impossible for some properties. In this blog, we want to give you an idea of what it takes to get an A rating on a domestic property, and what, if anything, you can do to get your home near that level.

The average UK rating

The typical property in the UK is rated at around 60, which comes out to a D rating. A B rating requires a score of 81, whilst an A needs 92. New build properties hitting the market today should be up at the A level or just below at B. Most older properties will be much lower than this.

Improving the rating with documentation

If you have an existing property with a low rating, it is sometimes possible that the existing EPC has used some default values in the calculations. This usually happens when an EPC is carried out quickly and with little communication or disinterest from the client. If model numbers and insulation values can be added to the report, then the rating is likely to go up, in some cases by large margins. To add this information, documentation proving what has been installed needs to be made available to the assessor.

Renewable technology

Whilst insulation and model numbers are likely to get you up to a better rating, in order to get the very best ratings there is very little room for poor performance. The following will need to be in place as a starting point to get to the very highest rating:

• High thicknesses of insulation throughout the property, in the roof, walls and floor. This is essential, and the levels will need to likely surpass even the most stringent building regulations.
• High performance heating system – you will need either a modern condensing gas boiler with a good control system, or a renewable heating system if you are off grid.
• Windows will need to be modern double or triple glazing.

All this is likely to get you up to a B rating, if fully installed and documented throughout the building. To get up to an A, you are likely going to need some renewable energy generation – this means solar or wind energy in practicality. If you live in a rural area then wind might be a good option, but for the majority of people solar is the best way to product your own electricity.

Can your EPC go over 100?

In theory, the EPC scale goes up above 100. In practice, there are probably only a handful of properties in the whole of the UK that achieve this sort of rating. They would require considerable renewable generation, creating more energy than the building itself requires to run

Get a recommendations report

If you are in any doubt as to whether the improvements are going to be enough to get to the required rating, you can always get an energy assessor out to carry out an EPC without lodging the resulting report. The information gathered can then be used to work out exactly what is required to get to the desired rating.