EPCs can work

I know I have been over some of this material in earlier postings in this blog, but it is a continuing surprise, the apathy with which the energy reports are generally regarded.

As a practicing energy assessor this is frustrating and occasionally demoralising that all the useful information in the Energy Performance Certificate is being missed.

So what does the EPC do? It gives an assessment of the health of a property, both in terms of current energy usage and in terms of carbon impact. It also makes a series of recommendations on how the energy efficiency of the house can be improved.

As a house seller this may give you a couple of quick wins and you can always re-do the EPC after the changes have been made.

As a house buyer or tenant, you can see areas where attention is needed and factor this into your mathematics when buying the house.

All the reports conform to the same methodology, so it also allows for the like by like comparatives between two properties - you can tell if one house you are considering buying or renting is better than another.

Of course the state of the loft insulation is never at the top of normal wish lists for house buyers, where location, size of garden, no of bedrooms etc. are all more critical, but at least look at the report. The government has made them mandatory for a reason. They are trying to drive up awareness of energy usage in the housing market. The report is there, it does contain some useful information, so find that ten minutes and have a read, you'd be surprised how useful it might actually be.