Renting. excessive electricity bills due to EPC not reflecting change of heating.

Murphybear

We lived in a farmhouse with 3ft thick walls and oil central heating.  The EPC wasn’t that good but didn’t take into account the wood burner.  The previous tenant moved to a modern house and left a huge pile of seasoned wood which warmed the place nicely through most of the winter.  Our bills were quite low. 

TIMBO

We were not given the complete EPC, only  the section that provides the EPC rating.  The full EPC was only forthcoming once the council became involved so we were not aware of what heating was specified on the EPC. 
Unfortunately the heating system is radiators fed by water heated by electricity, so an economy 7 tariff would not be viable as the heating needs to be on during the peak times not overnight .
That you all for your input, 

Sunsaru

TIMBO said:

Good evening. 
We moved to a Ground floor flat with an EPC that stated it would cost £900 PA  to heat . The actual cost is nearer £1,900 PA .
The EPC states that the property has economy 7 radiators , in reality it has a 7.6KW  hot water central heating system. 
We are not technically minded  it was only identified when an inspection was made by the council in relation to servicing an improvement notice.
Can we claim the excess heating costs incurred as we feel the EPC was part of the tenancy agreement?.
Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Tim

You say stated, but it actually says estimated....

rexmedorum

check exactly what hot water system you have and try and get / look up manuals. We had a similar issue years ago when it turned out ourws (an exchange rather than boiler) should have been on a timer cfor 2h/day or so, rather than on 24/7. We resorted to manually switcchting it on/off, with a reminder on our phones and bills plumeted.

HampshireH

TIMBO said:

We were not given the complete EPC, only  the section that provides the EPC rating.  The full EPC was only forthcoming once the council became involved so we were not aware of what heating was specified on the EPC. 
Unfortunately the heating system is radiators fed by water heated by electricity, so an economy 7 tariff would not be viable as the heating needs to be on during the peak times not overnight .
That you all for your input, 

If you ever need to see a whole EPC again then you can download them from the EPC register for free. For example if they update it and your not given a copy it should be regsitered

TripleH

We lived in a brand new flat then moved to a 100yr old terraced house. Heating both was a pain.

1. The newbuild had electric heaters which were poorly located for heating the flat evenly.

2. The old house has gas central heating which was better at evenly heating the house but insulation was poor. (It was warmer outside the house than inside the lounge unless heating was on).

3. The flat and the ground floor both had tiled floors which are very cold. With cold feet you can feel colder than you are.

I rake the EPC with a pinch of salt. Useful to see where you can improve a property but there are too many variables ignored. 

ProDave

This "7.6kW electric heating" is quite likely an electric storage boiler.  Basically a BIG water tank with 3 immersion heaters that provides hot water for radiator heating and domestic hot water.

They should be used on Economy 7, or even better if available on economy 10.  E10 suits them well as you get 3 off peak periods totalling 10 hours a day and so the required storage time to time of use is not very long.

Your high bill suggests if this is the sort of heater you have, it is not on an off peak tariff.  Just what does your bill say? single rate, dual rate if so what dual rate?  And are YOU using it properly, there will be 2 timers, one that sets the charge times that should match the cheap rate periods of your supply, and another that is just like a central heating programmer that sets the times the radiators draw heat out of the tank, that can be any time to suit your needs.

There are also a LOT of stories about people being suckered into having a smart meter and then the not so smart thing only works as a single rate meter and it can take a lot of messing about with the supplier to get proper off peak re instated.

To summarise, YOU need to do some checking first to make sure it is being used properly and you are bing billed properly.

Richard_Webster

Several years ago I was involved in the sale of a country property with an oil central heating system where the boiler was not working.   We told the buyers this.   However the EPC rated the central heating  on the type of boiler etc regardless of whether it was working or not!   So I really wouldn't put much faith in EPCs. 

ComicGeek

I've seen a lot of council schemes that have ripped out electric storage heaters, and replaced these with direct acting electric boilers and radiators in the mistaken belief that they are actually helping tenants. They were completely lied to by the manufacturers/suppliers. They are not cheap, and the council could have installed modern storage heaters for a fraction of the cost. In terms of energy efficiency and running costs, they are the worst possible solution.

Unfortunately there is no mandatory requirement to redo the EPC when work is undertaken to the dwelling, either for any improvements or, in this case, appalling decisions. 

Would be worth posting a photo of the unit, as there are a lot of different systems out there.