Unbelievable EPC recommendations

One of the many flaws with EPCs is that the EPC lasts for 10 years, while the current sensible recommendations can vary, both in cost and appropriateness. For example, back in the early 2010s biomass boilers and domestic wind turbines appeared towards the bottom (the 'increasingly desperate' section). Those technologies haven't panned out, but yet they're still on those EPCs. The small 2.5kWp PV, solar water heating and storage heater recommendation suggests this is a relatively old EPC.

As you say, somebody can easily tell that ripping up all the floors to install insulation makes no economic sense - unless they were ripping up all the floors anyway, in which case it might. But at least they've given you data by which you can tell it's not worth it.

What I find more interesting is the improvements in score - ripping up all the floors only gets you an increase of two points. The score is a simplified code for the rdSAP energy consumption numbers - because the EPC is only a drive-by exercise (they don't actually do room by room heat loss calculations) the score hides a lot of the inaccuracy. However they do give a kWh/year heating figure which is more useful.

It's surprising that the biggest 30-point score boost is the storage heaters

- I wonder what they have at the moment? I wonder if the projected cost saving is based on mid-2010s ideas of offpeak electricity pricing?

Basically the overall problem with the EPC is it's trying to do too much with too little. Buyers want to know facts like what kind of boiler there is, whether the walls are solid or cavity and how much the place will cost to heat. Sellers want to pay as little as possible and don't want to pay for a proper job. Assessors want to do the job in as short a time as possible, which is how you end up with £50 EPCs. The government wants to have everything in a standardised format and minimise variability from assessor to assessor. Result is that all these conflicting interests conspire to make something a bit crap.

Theo

Buyers can do a web search on the house energy use for the past year - as mentioned a few weeks back on this newsgroup.

Out of interest I checked my energy consumption of my two adjoining neighbours (terrace houses). One neighbour who is end of terrace used

This surely only works if your neighbours have gone to the trouble of entering the data somewhere.

There is a central agency (or separate ones for elec and gas) which knows every household's consumption, presumably reported by your energy co, in my case it agrees exactly with the annual consumption on my bills, it's used by comparison sites etc

True, but it doesn't give a good picture because you don't know usage patterns. Do they run the heating at a constant 25C, or do they run it for one hour a day because they can't afford any more? Do they have 5 teenage girls having two showers a day, or a single person having a bath once a week?

Exactly. And that comparison works because you know the houses are similar, so you can factor out things you know to be the same. But if there are two houses with more differences (eg a semi and a detached) you can't tell what's due to the fabric and what's due to the behaviour.

It's better than nothing to have usage figures, but the idea of the EPC is to be standardised so you can compare on a like for like basis.

Theo

I just looked at my mid-terrace old house - the new owners use twice as much electricity, and 2.5 times the gas as I did.

I did tend to heat the whole house, but only to 14C in the day/overnight, and

I'm baffled by the electricity consumption. Can't think what they're up to.

EV? Gaming PC? Electric cooking?

How does it know my Oil consumption?

Really?

Bless!

Bigger fridge or Freezer More cups of tea/coffee A TV in every room More electrical gadgets

Sigh:. Everyone misses the obvious

Cannabis farm

That would be un-metered energy use

I missed that, have you got a link?

It shows you the recorded annual gas and electric consumption for the property.

Theo

Depends how professional they were

I get to the page "How do you pay for your energy? Please select how you pay for your energy" ... Nothing else shows. There is no way of doing it. Pressing "continue" does nothing.

Anyway, hasn't anybody objected to this on data protection grounds? No-one has given their consent to this data being published, so what is the justification for it?

Just try any of the many comparison web sites. I think uswitch was one of the more forthcoming.

I agree, it's pretty poor.

It's not personal though, is it? Tied to an address, rather than a person.