Have a look a few from e.g. your own street
See how much is based on assumption, and what variations have an impact on the A-G rating, see how many thousand of pounds are typically recommended to be spent on improvements for a meagre few tens of pounds per year saving.
As "everyone" down this road has gas C/H and double glazing, the difference between a C or D rating seems to depend more on whether you have energy saving light bulbs than how much loft insulation you've got.
In our living room, we usually use up to three CFLs (will be LEDs when these fail) and an LED table lamp. We also having ceiling fans which have three halogen lamps in them, and have two wall lamps, none of which do we ever use.
Obviously the EPC was based on the halogen and tungsten wall lights only. So, quite right, it depends on what lamps they decide are the official lighting in the room. A few execrably awful low power LEDs might have lifted our grade, but who cares? No-one trusts the EPC ratings.
They totally ignore the power usage of the ceiling fans themselves.
From what I have seen of them they are so wildly inaccurate that you couldn't use them to compare both sides of a semi detached house. When first introduced vast numbers of hairdressers abandoned their salons and paid a few thousand pounds to go on a course to become "qualified" EPC assessors. They were promised large rewards and steady employment. Unfortunately (for them) neither came to pass and the few left are trying to undercut each other to peddle their services. You can get an EPC for about £30
One such assessed a friends house that had the thermal characteristics of a Chieftain tank. It was a single pre cast concrete wall construction with render on the outside. Surveyor put it down as an insulated cavity wall. The attic had at least 2mm of ancient insulation of unknown provenance or material. That was put down as
200mm of fibreglass because there was no loft ladder so he looked up at it from the landing. The fact that you could see light through the roof should have been a clue all was not well. One recommendation was to add solar water heating which it was estimated would save £40 per year for an outlay of only £6,000.The overall assessment was D when by any sensible assessment G would have been right.
What is absolutely ludicrous is having to have one for holiday let properties. I don't believe anyone would choose a holiday cottage by its EPC. Yet its a government requirement.
Mike
If it is rented for more than 4 months of the year.
How long does the EPC last?
I agree it is daft if you pay for the utilities and not the occupier.
An EPC is not required for a holiday let where: ? the property is rented out for less than 4 months in a year; or
? it is let under a licence to occupy ? regardless of the amount of time it is occupied.
A licence to occupy is an arrangement where the holiday maker does not have exclusive use of the property, for example, where the property owner or their representative has the right to access the premises during the period of the booking.
Burning question, do you have a right of access during the period of the booking, cleaning etc?
Thanks for that Fred I didn't know it was being reviewed.
Mike
We don't know at the beginning of any one year how many weeks/months it will be rented for.
I believe 10 years.
Exactly, yet our booking agency insisted it be done when the rule first came into force.
Mike
Or less. When I sold my flat the Agent didn't charge for the EPC. That, the floorplan and the photography were all supplied by a single specialist company. So the EPC was done by the same person as the floorplan.
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