We carry out EPCs on thousands of different properties, and we do sometimes get questioned for giving a low EPC rating. There are a few reasons why the rating you receive isn’t what you expected, and here I want to run through some of them with you.
If we can’t see it, we can’t include it
An EPC is a very simple visual inspection. If you had insulation installed on your internal walls or in your roof room, and this is not apparent from a visual inspection of the area, then we will require documentation proving that the insulation is present before it can be included in the EPC. Defaults may have to be assumed for the heating and renewables if the model and other information is not apparent. Again – if you have any information on the model, this will help boost the rating.
It only takes one bad apple in some cases…
There are a few aspects of a home that can really drag a rating down. If you have one of the following then your rating is likely to be lower than you might first expect:
- No heating or electric-only heating
- High amount of poorly insulated heat loss walls
- Poor loft insulation or no evidence of loft insulation.
An A-rating is really hard to achieve.
An A-rating is reserved for only the very highest levels of energy efficiency. To get to this level, you will probably need to have renewable technology present, very high levels of insulation, a very efficient modern heating system, and documentation for all of this (to ensure defaults are not assumed). In my time carrying out assessments I am actually yet to see an A-rated property. This is usually only seen in new builds built to a very high spec with quality renewable heating and electricity systems.
Customers are not familiar with the rating system
Whilst we would be the last to say that our customers are wrong, there is very little knowledge outside of the energy assessors themselves as to what constitutes a certain rating level. Unfortunately, many people just don’t know what a C or an E rating actually means, which can lead to some confusion and reluctance to accept their rating as correct. Please bear in mind the average rating of a UK property is a D-60. Anything above this is actually a pretty good rating, and there a whole raft of reasons why you might have a low rating. It can take just a few poor aspects of the home to bring the rating down, whilst a couple of well-performing factors can have the opposite effect.
Get a Recommendations Report
If you are not happy with your rating, and want to get it higher, the best thing to do is look at getting a tailored recommendations report. This document will pick out the main reasons for a low rating and the easiest steps you can take to get the rating up, as well as the expected rating from following through with those improvements.
Depending on the detail you are looking for, there will be a report for you, so simply give us a call and we can discuss your requirements.
Can you get a bad assessor? I have just changed the boiler in my house and put new windows in. The rating still seems very low. Could my EPC assessor have put in the data she collected wrong.
I have a rental flat at the top of a period building which has no gas to the building only electricity. I cannot insulate the ceiling because it would involve redecoration of the whole flat and I have been quoted £10k plus. I put in the latest electric heaters in place of the old storage heaters and the assessor has said we should put storage heaters back because they use low peak energy. Tenants don’t want storage heaters and they can be dangerous which is why we replaced them. We can lag the boiler and put in LED where there are none already. What else can we do about getting a better rating when there is only electricity and no gas in the building. The windows on the back of the flat are double glazed but the sash windows on the front are not. It would be very expensive to replace those in a period building. I would like to get a new EPC report done after lagging boiler and replacing non LED bulbs with LED. What do you advise about the electric heaters which I am told are the latest models? Can anyone at your company advise me on how to improve my EPC rating and then do the new EPC inspection for me?
I have a rental flat at the top of a period building which has no gas to the building only electricity. I cannot insulate the ceiling because it would involve redecoration of the whole flat and I have been quoted £10k plus. I put in the latest electric heaters in place of the old storage heaters and the assessor has said we should put storage heaters back because they use low peak energy. Tenants don’t want storage heaters and they can be dangerous which is why we replaced them. We can lag the boiler and put in LED where there are none already. What else can we do about getting a better rating when there is only electricity and no gas in the building. The windows on the back of the flat are double glazed but the sash windows on the front are not. It would be very expensive to replace those in a period building. I would like to get a new EPC report done after lagging boiler and replacing non LED bulbs with LED. What do you advise about the electric heaters which I am told are the latest models? Can anyone at your company advise me on how to improve my EPC rating? Can you do the EPC for me once recommended works are completed?