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.