EPC and Air Source Heat Pump

cooket3

Hi

I am currently selling my house and decided to buy a new EPC, as my old one was when my house had no central heating but electric storage and quartz heaters , and a solid fuel stove

I installed a new Air Source Heat Pump, as they are very efficient, say up to 400%. For 1 electric unit they use they produce 3 extra units of heat, so 4 heat units in total. This brings the running costs down to gas or cheaper. I have compared my bills to another very similar house using gas and my bills are cheaper.

My old EPC was a low F towards G. My new EPC is a high F, slightly improved as I have LED's now. I am completely gobsmacked

Surely EPC's are based on running costs/efficiency, both of which my house has greatly improved. So I do not understand why I still have a bad rating

Whats even worse is that my heat pump has a 1 star rating, where as the multifuel boiler had 2 stars!

I have queried this and basically the answer I got was that electric is more expensive than gas per unit. This is true but going off efficiency this is not true 1kwh electric unit produces 4wkh of heat, 1kwh of gas produces less than 1kwh of heat as boilers are only say 90% efficient

Going off their explanation of electric is more expensive than gas, they are going off unit price. So I say why do LED's improve the EPC over old light bulbs? Efficiency and lower running costs is the only answer, so why is my heat pump so badly rated when its super efficient and my multifuel boiler has a better rating on my old EPC, solid fuel is expensive

This has really annoyed me and I am fuming as it makes no sense. I have just wasted my money on this new EPC and installing a central heating system

I even googled this and it says an Air Source Heat Pump improves the EPC

Has anyone else came accross this issue or have had different results?

As a side note the heat pump is classed as green "renewable energy" and electric comes from renewable sources, or it can. So my carbon footprint should improve drastically, this also has not

Thank You

Tony

matelodave

Do you claim for the Renewable Heat Incentive?

I had a bit of a argument with the cretin who did my EPC evaluation after I had the ASHP installed as he had no idea how to fill in the check boxes in the EPC software.

I insisted that we we sat down together and I helped agree what should go into it. Although, as far as I remember, it was very light on renewable energy unless it was solar panels.

That was nearly 10 years ago so I would have thought that even the thickest and slowest surveyor should have a better idea of renewables and how to fill in the software and I'd also have hoped that the software should have been updated during the intervening period.

We managed to get our EPC up from a G to a D basically by putting some decent insulation in the loft (300mm+), the place was already double glazed, although installed in 1999 and had cavity wall insulation (of dubious quality when it was built in 1986)). We replaced the existing storage heaters and immersion heater with an overlay underfloor heating system, new hot water tank and an 11kwh heatpump.

I'm not sure who you can contact to try a get it re-evaluated or even to get some advice - it might be worth having a chat with the Energy Savings Trust to see what they have to say or even the MCS who should have certified your system.(I assume that you do have an MCS certificate, otherwsie you wont have been able to claim the RHI)

cooket3

Hi, thanks for your reply. Its good to know its not just me!

Yes I claim the RHI, and have the MCS certificate

Its not like the ASHP are a new technology either. They havent moved on with the times!

The surveyor said there is nothing he can do as he passes the details over the Accredited company who runs it on their professional Accredited national software, or something like that. I have expressed my concerns to both parties and argued that they are wrong, based on simple maths and given them examples

However they did say that the green/carbon part of the EPC will be reviewed as electricity is still worse than gas for carbon footprint.

I am hoping someone on here has had success in relaying the efficiency and cheapness to run compared to gas to improve their EPC

In my opinion their software is wrong and does not take the efficiency into account, but takes the efficiency of LED lights into account

I wanted the new certificate to back up the claims that the ASHP is cheap to run, as I am selling my house and people will prefer a better EPC rating than a miserable F like mine. This contradicts the ASHP performance and low running costs