Scary EPC certificate

lessonlearned

new_owner wrote: »

When I bought my 1890 house its epc was E.

My bills are £35pm Gas and £30-35pm elec.... over winter

I have prob spent £400 on insulation (under floor and loft)

I also added a woodburner and use £180 of seasoned wood this winter. But the downstairs is a T-shirt 23 deg. and upstairs around 18.

Its single glased (going to stay that way) I am having them draftproofed.

When I first moved in it was cold and drafty and the gas bill was over £500 from Nov-Mar + £250 on wood (open fire)

A small amount of easy work will make all the difference.

EDIT:

I should also say (just looked at my epc)

The recommendations to get to C include;

Double glassing (why would I want to get rid of my sash windows)

Windows account for around 10% loss so if my gas bill is £400 per year this will give me a saving of £40 per year.... Double glassing would then take 100 years (not accounting for gas rises) to break even.

New boiler - (moden condensing boiler)

OK this one is strange;

my 25 year old boiler is running fine. if I put a new boiler that saved me £200 (guess on saving and install cost) per year on gas it would take around 10 years to break even. How is getting rid of working boiler eco friendly or a good finical decision

External Wall insulation; Really... At how much per square meter. + I love the original render on the house. The pay back on this would be years and years.

So as G_M has stated the epc is pretty useless..

It also includes (solar panels as recommendation)

Some great points here. I am currently house-hunting so will take good note of some of your tips.

I am definitely going for a woodburner next time round.

Re sash windows, replacing them with ugly upvc windows can really spoil a character property. A good pair of warm curtains works just as well, as long as you stop the obvious draughts.

I don't think UPVC windows are all they are cracked up to be. They often "blow" after a few years anyway.

I think there are loads of low cost things you can do to keep your house toasty and keep bills down, good curtains, draught excluders, foil behind radiators, blocking up obvious gaps, extra rugs etc., making use of passive solar energy (ie windows facing south).

Re old boilers - I agree if it's working well then why replace it. If you have it serviced regularly it will prolong it's life. Again condenser boilers are not all that great, they seem to be far less reliable than the more traditional ones. What you save on bills you pay on repairs.

As you say you do have to think very carefully about the cost of replacing all these things in relation to the the "pay-back".

I'm not sure either about the value of EPC's. We are currently renting a property which has an EPC the same value as the house we have just sold and yet this house seems much colder.

I think one of the best things you can do to keep a house warm and toasty is to reduce condensation. Be careful to air the property well, open bathroom windows after bathing and showering, that kind of thing.

I know a lot of people are nervous about using ovens for cooking. However, I often find that when the oven is on it seems to warm up the whole house. So good home cooking and a nice warm house too. 2 for the price of 1.;)

Furts

I question the accuracy of some EPC.

I have recently been renting a house where the EPC was done by the landlords staff. It was nonsense but nobody had ever questioned it. The landlord owns a lot of properties and no doubt all the EPC undertaken in this manner are equally dubious. Basically, inflate the EPC rating to make the house more attractive.

As examples; cavity wall insulation had been installed - no it had not.

The roof is insulated to current standards - it was not

The boiler is very old and could be upgraded - yes, it is 30 years old and you have always been the landlord - so why has it not been upgraded?

The hot water cylinder has an old, thin, loose fitting jacket that could easily be upgraded - so why had it not been done?

My point is an EPC can be a meaningless pen pushing excercise that few people checkup on. And if people check, will the EPC be altered?

sensiblesaver55

Thanks for the replies. I've looked at other certificates for houses in the area and many of them apparently don't have any wall insulation. It's probably silly to worry about this; any major faults will be pointed out at the survey and as people have said- much of the EPC is all 'assumed' anyway.

Funnily enough new_owner I was considering getting a wood burner before I even looked at the EPC as I've heard that they are fantastic, so that's an option.

propertyman

EPCs are pretty hopeless as in most cases its fairly obvious if the house is a problem. Houses have numerous components that aren't fridges with one door

You can see single glazed timber windows and see if they are ill fitting , the same with doors.

A house with a timber floor and air vents in the external wall is going to be colder, and a look in the loft to see how much insulation there is or of its boarded.

These will show the most heat loss even in a solid wall structure. The ones to worry about are concrete or single brick skin with render/tiles or timber frame and its likely the walls are poor performers.

Hire a thermal camera and frankly you see the heat and cold spots at a glance, that means winter and of course summer when its nice to insulate from the heat outside.


:money: You can work out the U value yourself of a structure here
http://www.thermalcalconline.com/