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I didn't say you had to get the EPC done after Commissioning. I said you could and lots of people did as it gave them a better EPC rating to secure the higher tariff. FIT Guidance came in 8.0 with the intension of stopping this practice but they screwed up and allowed people to still have an EPC done after Commissioning but Same Day. 8.1 corrected this mistake.

The simple point I was making is now as of 8.1 it is more difficult than ever before to secure the higher tariff band making the FIT scheme ever less attractive. Sorry such basic principles are lost on you and you're upset.

You're really not very good at reading/basic stuff. Easily confused about past and future statements.

Anyway here's 8.1 if you can't be bothered googling it
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/feed-tariff-guidance-licensed-electricity-suppliers-version-8-1

5.5. The energy efficiency requirement is as follows:
For installations with an application date on or after 10 May 2016, the EPC of level D or above must have been issued before the commissioning date of the FIT installation. 

For installations with an application date before 10 May 2016 but on or after 15 January 2016 an EPC level of D or above must have been issued on or before the commissioning date. 

For installations with an application date of before 15 January 2016 an EPC level D or above must have been issued on or before the Eligibility Date26 of the FIT installation.

EricMears wrote: »

If you do the EPC survey AFTER SP commissioning then the panels would indeed bump up the rating. Surely the rule change was to ensure that couldn't happen by obliging the EPC to be calculated BEFORE the SPs were making any contribution.

Hi Eric / All

Don't worry about it, Mart's really just having a play with Kevin so that he(?) understands that there was a fundamental grammatical mistake in an earlier post which completely reversed the polarity of what was meant to be written to what was actually written ....

"Ofgem closed the EPC loophole of having it done the same day as the install is commissioned in the latest version of guidance published a while ago. It must now be after so that means the majority of people possibly considering a sub 10kW system will be on the low/0.87p tariff, which barring a bit of misselling should pretty much end FIT domestic PV installs"

... effectively 'it' must refer to the EPC because the 'install' is referenced separately. The grammatical structure describes the subject as being the EPC, not the install, therefore 'It must now be after' refers to the EPC .... once Kevin finally realises that there's a mistake it'll undoubtedly be corrected to save face ....

Anyway, I doubt that it applied to many applicants ... there was a discussion a while ago where a member was aware of the 'loophole' and was obviously considering utilising it to achieve a higher EPC band on an 'in progress' renovation before the FiT consultation tariff changes came into effect. I'd certainly expect that anyone who would have considered having an EPC registered on the same date as the MCS registration would have extreme worries about timing problems anyway (assessor not turning up etc), not only that, the EPC assessor and the MCS installer would both need to be a little 'shady' and both risk their accreditation status for what is, in effect, very little financial gain to themselves ....

A further observation is the logical fallacy represented by the assertion ... "It must now be after so that means the majority of people possibly considering a sub 10kW system will be on the low/0.87p tariff, which barring a bit of misselling should pretty much end FIT domestic PV installs" ... in effect Kevin is asserting that the majority of FiT applications will come from properties which fail to meet the applicable energy efficiency requirements ...

Undoubtedly, there will be some rogues who have attempted to utilise the 'loophole' just to be knocked back by scrupulous installers and/or assessors, there may even be a number who have succeeded, but the likelihood of it being widespread is slim ....very slim. Anyway, a potential loophole is closed now and I'd expect that most are either happy that it is, or simply don't care as it's really a non-issue ....

As an aside, our EPC should gain 3 additional points for the heat-pump, so if issued today we'd also be in the 'A' band, but then again, we should have been there anyway if the assessor actually took our floor insulation into consideration ... or the BRE/RdSAP had extra points for massively extra loft insulation ....or ..... or ...


HTH
Z