How much attention do you pay to the EPCs?

JustAnotherSaver

My wife has found a site tonight where you can view EPC details in full - more than just the bit you get at the bottom of most rightmove ads.

One of the houses we were looking at is listed up as a G rating with the number being about 12. It was today reduced by £10k from £159,950 to £149,950.

She had a look at this more detailed EPC thing & the cost of all these heating improvements is quite an amount (ignoring the solar panel suggestions), even for just 'basics'.

Most of the houses we're looking at, the projected heating cost is something like £1,500 IIRC, whereas this house is more like £5,000.

Are these things to be taken with a pinch of salt or are they to be seriously considered?

dimbo61

G rating is totally rubbish and you can not even rent the property out after 2017
Has the property got single glazing? NO loft insulation or cavity wall insulation? No central heating, wooden doors and windows.
I bought a house with old rotten single glazed windows, electric night storage heating, no insulation, wooden doors front and rear ETC
The day after we got the keys the builders moved in and installed modern double glazing, loft and cavity wall insulation for £100 ( thanks Manchester City Council) energy saving lighting, modern combi gas boiler and new radiators, extra floor/wall insulation.
This can be expensive but my heating bills are only £1400/year for both gas and electric with a big family

ging84

from properties i have looked at on rightmove you seem to get the full EPC anyway

I would take the EPC very seriously, if it was a massive over estimate you can be fairly certain the estate agents would dispute it or recommend getting another one

DRP

I've never looked at one more than a quick scan.

The major things that make a big difference (old house , double glazed, cavity wall, loft insulation) are likely to be evident without looking at an epc.

Better_Days

They are useful as they give the floor area - can be helpful when comparing properties. Also if you live in an area that has gas in some villages and not others - it should say the method of heating.

Don't rely on them too much. A property that I offered on was described as having 'cavity walls - insulated' turned out to be only single brick thickness with no cavity at all, let alone insulated.

Seabee42

To me in theory this has a use but in practise the report on my house was just silly. Spend 20k to save £250 a year! Total bargain!

Another form of box ticking of little practical use more wasted money in house buying process.

If you really have super insulated your home I feel for you in this weather!

lessonlearned

To a greater or lesser degree these EPC ratings are largely meaningless.

You simply cannot compare a period property's energy performance with that of a new build. They take no account of local weather variations, or even the availability of mains gas etc. Of course heating with oil or calor gas is likely to be more expensive but there are plenty of areas where there is no mains gas.

The measures they suggest you take are often not only wildly expensive and impractical they can be counter productive. It is entirely possible to over-insulate a property, especially period properties - they must be allowed to breathe. Over-insulating can cause condensation which is one of the most common causes of damp. A damp property will cost more to heat.

I tend to agree with Seebea - just another silly box ticking exercise.

phoebe1989seb

We've never bothered to pay much attention to EPCs for the houses we've bought, but mainly because we've only ever purchased old properties - the *newest* being a 1930s remodel of a Tudor house - so don't consider much of the info to be relevant when it comes to old building methods/materials and their requirements, such as breath-ability. The only point of interest to us on the info provided is the square metreage/square footage. I don't think we even bothered to look at the EPC for our current stone-built, 200+ year old house when we purchased it two years ago

Strapped

Seabee42 wrote: »

To me in theory this has a use but in practise the report on my house was just silly. Spend 20k to save £250 a year! Total bargain!

Another form of box ticking of little practical use more wasted money in house buying process.

If you really have super insulated your home I feel for you in this weather!

Feeling smug inside my lovely cool stone cottage

LittleMissAspie

Seabee42 wrote: »

If you really have super insulated your home I feel for you in this weather!

People say that but my house is very insulated (modern mid-terrace, yearly gas + elec bill approx £600) and it's quite cool in this weather. Definitely cooler than my parents' 1930s detached house and a LOT cooler than my office at work. Surely if heat can't get out easily, then heat can't get in easily either?

Carys84

Chatting to a number of sellers, one of the things that has apparently let one property down was energy-saving bulbs! We're talking an uninsulated granite walled house, no underfloor insulation to upstairs (but beams), no insulation in attic rooms, electric heating... but apparently energy-saving bulbs would have bumped it up a grade!

I personally don't pay much notice apart from amazement at how they can be suggesting you 'spend £10k to save £50 over 3 years'... or something along those lines