How EPC Is Calculated

An Energy Performance Certificate – or EPC – is a way to understand the carbon emissions in your home and the energy efficiency. You have to have an EPC if you are building, selling or renting a property. It is a legal requirement.

You will get a performance score between A and G which demonstrates how energy efficient your score is. It will also provide some suggestions that refer to the improvements that you could make in order to improve your EPC rating.

Let’s have a look at the way that EPC is calculated.

How To Calculate Your Energy Efficiency?

There are a couple of ways that you can determine how energy efficient your property will be. These include:

Use A Home Energy Calculator

Energy efficiency can be calculated at home by an online energy calculator. These energy calculators are a good way to check whether you will need to put some measures in place to improve the home efficiency levels.

It is a great tool to use but you have to remember that they are not 100% accurate.

It is important that, if you are using energy calculators, you are using ones that are not linked to energy assessors sites. This is because some of the calculators used by these companies can be designed to drum up new business and so will be biased.

The energy calculator shouldn’t be taken on face value, instead it should be considered a rough guide. This is because there are some things that you can’t know and that will need to be properly looked into. You don’t want to base a decision on something like this and then end up with the incorrect information.

Set Up An EPC Assessment

Getting yourself a domestic EPC assessment is a lot more accurate and likely to be a true indication than using the home energy calculator is.

This is because it is specific to the building and it will take into account everything that the home owners might miss.

There are lots of things that are easy to miss, but an EPC assessment is expertly tailored so that it doesn’t miss anything at all. They will know exactly what to look for and where to look for it.

What Are The Bands Of Energy Efficiency?

The energy efficiency bands will help you to analyse how well your home is performing in terms of energy. You will be able to see how well your home is performing in terms of energy efficiency.

A is the most energy efficient band and G is the least efficient. If you have a G rating, then you will need to start trying to make improvements on the efficiency of your home.

These ratings are also colour coded to make them easier to notice. The A rating is a dark green colour, and the G rating is a red colour.

The majority of homes will fall into the D band.

Why Is An EPC Assessment Important?

EPC assessments are important because they provide you with an understanding of the energy efficiency in your home. They are also important in starting out on a route to improving your energy efficiency.

This is great for you because it will help you to have a warmer home without spending as much money on it.

The plans for improving your EPC rating are often low-cost and they will help you to feel much more on top of the energy in your home.

It will help you to understand how much money it will save you in the long run, whether it will improve your energy band and the grants that you can make use of in order to improve your rating.

When Will You Need To Get A Domestic EPC?

The only time you will really need to consider the domestic EPC is when you are considering selling your home. It is a legal requirement to do this in this situation.

It is also necessary if you are considering renting out your property.

There are other times where getting an EPC is not a legal requirement, but it is a good idea to get one. This is the case if you have lived in a property for a while and you have noticed that the energy bills are fairly high.

It will be worth your while in the long run in a lot of cases if you consider making a few changes to improve this.

EPC certificates will expire within 10 years, so it is important to make sure that the one you have for your home isn’t expired.

It is important so that you know that you are selling the property in a good state which is repaired properly.

What Will EPC Assessments Consider?

EPC assessors will look at a few different things in the property. This includes lighting, windows and heating efficiency.

They will look at the number of low-energy light bulbs throughout the house and the way that the domestic lighting is set up.

They will also look at the windows in the property as they have a big impact on the efficiency of the home.

Double glazing is an important part of this assessment as they lower the amount of heat that escapes through the windows.

Double glazing your windows is definitely worth investing in as it will save you a lot of money throughout the year in heating costs.

The way that your home is heated also has a big impact on your EPC rating. They will consider your radiators as well as other forms of heating such as log, coal or gas.

They will also look at the timing and thermostat controls during the assessment and this will have an impact on your EPC rating.

Final Thoughts

EPC bands are calculated by carrying out an assessment of the property to determine the energy efficiency.

The certificate will let you know which band the property sits in as well as how you can improve your properties energy efficiency.

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