Improving EPC rating

[Caecilius]

I want to improve the EPC rating of a flat from D to C (or better, but I don't think I can achieve B).

I have a current EPC certificate from 2013 that says: Current: 62 (D), Potential: 62 (D) and a note saying "The assessor did not make any recommendations for this property".

The breakdown of property's energy performance section reads:

Walls: Average thermal transmittance 0.23 W/m²K (Very good) Windows: Full secondary glazing (Good) Main heating: Room heaters, electric (Very poor) Main heating control: Programmer and appliance thermostats (Good) Hot water: Electric immersion, standard tariff (Very poor) Lighting: Low energy lighting in 80% of fixed outlets (Very good) Roof: (other premises above) (N/A) Floor: (other premises below) (N/A) Secondary heating: None (N/A) Air tightness: (not tested) (N/A)

Is there any way that I can model this EPC calculation in excel or something so I can understand where the 62 (D) rating is coming from and whether it's possible to achieve a score of 69 or better to get it to a C rating?

It seems that the main issue is with the electric heating and hot water as these have a "very poor" rating. But I don't know what score this gets or what weightings are applied, so it doesn't help me to know what could be done.

[Martin Brown]

The whole EPC thing is a tick box joke administered by morons.

My parents house was downrated because the north facing *larder* window was single glazed! The rest of the house *was* double glazed.

Economy 7 mains electricity tariff might get you a few brownie points but that may still not be enough to get you to a C. Air source heat pump is your only option if you want to tick the right eco friendly box.

Maybe obtaining your space and water heating from storing radioactive waste canisters might get you some extra green energy credit?

[nightjar]

Room air conditioners get better ratings than simple electric heating.

[Robin]

It won't be a joke for landlords if the proposed changes go ahead and require a rating of C or better from 2025 (for new tenancies).

[Robin]

Odd that there are no options for improvement given there is at least scope to increase low energy lighting to 100%. Is there also scope to improve insulation on the immersion cylinder?

[SH]

and is there a thermostat on the cylinder?

Ironically**, if you have access to mains gas, putting in gas central heating and gas heated hot water gets you a better EPC rating than electric heating & electric hot water....

I've read sowhere that switching from gas to electric wall heaters worsens the EPC rating

** Ironic as gas is a fossil fuel and there is a drive to renewable electricity so electricity can be be greenter than natural gas.

[Theo]

The EPC is based on RdSAP which is the Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure (the guesstimates that people complain about are because the reduced data aspect doesn't take the U-value of every wall, ceiling etc). You can also generate the same figures via a full SAP, which can be a little more accurate but requires more measuring of the property and its construction.

Stroma's FSAP 2012 software is available to download:

you can do your own SAP calculations. It will output the EPC rating, and you can try tweaking things to see how it changes the numbers.

I wonder if the cheapest thing you could do is smart(er) controls on the heating devices. I don't know if that's captured by the SAP, but it might be. I doubt it would get you up 7 points though. Another modification might be a wall mounted air conditioner which can work in heat pump mode - but externally mounting the outdoor unit might be awkward.

Theo

[Max Demian]

It'll explode if there isn't.

It's all that waste heat at the power station.

I wonder what score you would get if you had district heating from the power station waste heat.

[Caecilius]

Thanks. That's good to know - there's not that many options for a flat.

[Caecilius]

I guess that could be true, but I'd like to satisfy myself that's really the case and the certificate doesn't give anywhere near enough information (like scorings and weightings) to enable me to know for sure.

I would hope the data is public and not only available to EPC service providers, but a quick google hasn't turned much up.

[Caecilius]

Many thanks for the link. This is what I was locking for - I'll give it a go and see if it helps me. Got to be better than having to pay for another EPC before you know what the score is.