Excellent video. Thanks. From memory, please correct me if wrong, EPC of C or better required to get MPC registration on a heat pump and so get £5k grant in England. Our house was built in c1690 and listed. Despite not being allowed double glazing or solar PV (due to listing) we managed to get to C. Best investments were all in draught exclusion, secondary (internal) glazing and insulation (evidence required or no certificate). So there is hope in even the most unlikely house. Installed heat pump in 2021 and it's so much more comfortable and saves us money. Highly recommended and worth the loooong negotiation with planners.
In Scotland an EPC C rating certainly isn’t a requirement to get a heat pump grant. But there are two conditions: 1. A heat pump must be listed as a recommended improvement in an officially recognised report that is issued prior to installation (E.G. EPC, Home Energy Scotland Renewables Selector Report, other officially recognised reports) 2. An EPC must be issued after installation is complete. The EPC must have no recommendations listed for installing cavity wall or loft insulation improvements. For England, I’m not sure what the grant conditions are.
Such a good video. We recently had a Victorian 1901 stone terrace (with a cavity) for sale that had cavity insulation done by the council and clearly visible in the cellar. The assessor did not even go down there and wrote no cavity insulation. I sent a photo to them asking for a new certificate but they never replied. £50 for nothing
£50 doesn't get you much these days sadly. That's about an hours worth of skilled work, and much of that is spent driving to and from your property. I've not commissioned an EPC assessor before, but can I ask: did they ask you to supply any dimensions or property information, or did they go around measuring up every outside wall and window? I'm guessing if they already had you supplying information, then all they did was go around to check assumptions before signing off on an auto generated report. It's very close to being a box ticking exercise as I demonstrated (given that I didn't have much skill in the craft). For most people selling their house, that's good enough, they probably don't care and neither does the prospective buyer. But with minimum EPC requirements for tenancies tightening , I'm guessing that landlords are going to get quite picky about who they choose to do their EPC assessments. At that point, reputation rather than price will be the deciding factor.
It was arranged via the estate agent and we just paid the £50 online direct to the surveyor company. Guess it was just a formality to go through for the sake of it
Moving forwards 20yrs, I can see new house buyers only going for new build eco friendly properties (some come on the back of a lorry all passive and wrapped and modular) that are dead cheap to run and not overly expensive to buy and last 100yrs. Old properties to be knocked down, rebuilt and their value will be the land that they stand on. Why would you want to buy a property that will cost a fortune to heat?
Japan is an interesting case. Houses more than 35 years old are free, but uninsurable. You get lots of interesting designs, and the latest building standards for all matters (especially earthquake/ fire resistance). I’m not quite sure what they do with old materials (recycling or landfill). But they have the highest number of architects per capita. But in the here and now, energy performance simply doesn’t attract any kind of pricing premium and as a result people don’t care about EPC’s. I think sadly it’s part of a british cultural disease that’s obsessed with price at the expense of value.
@@wajopek2679 It’s what I recently did when I was checking out a house with a ground source heat pump. Their running costs were far more than mine and I had my suspicions confirmed when I saw no effort to boost radiator sizes in their house. It told me everything that their supposed EPC C rating didn’t.
In my setup smart meter it doesn’t seem to. I don’t think the question of TOU was asked. It raises the question of why ask for information that doesn’t appear to affect the outcome of the EPC.
It doesn't make any sense that adding wall, floor and roof insulation has less impact on the EPC rating then adding a mains gas boiler (even a condensing one)! At least adding solar PV and home batteries improves the rating, but this typically does not add any resale value to house prices in the UK. Clearly the EPC rating system and assessment methodology needs to be overhauled. Adding a heat pump to your house seems to be a no-brainer, especially with the generous Scottish government grant.
Adding a heat pump isn’t such a no brainier at first sight. Running costs (from peak electricity) are about the same as mains gas. But the big selling point for me: Gas isn’t going to get any cheaper. Furthermore most of the investments for heat pumps are one off investments that last the life of the building (radiators, pipework etc….). And as you say there’s not only a decent Scottish grant, but there’s also zero vat (not sure on the full scope, but if it includes radiators etc then it’s a phenomenal deal). What makes it better is: 1. Cheap overnight electricity. 2. Cheaper overnight electricity stored in a battery for later use 3. A helping hand from solar on the better autumn and winter days
The solar pre heat recommendation is frankly nonsense, a net present value calculation demonstrates they never pay back in this country, and only adds 1 point to the EPC score. Good luck with your heat pump. We went for ground source (vertical bore) and pre-grant availability, but a good RHI return
Solar hot water panels have much higher efficiency, but very low capacity factor. Once your cylinder is up to temperature, they are just wasting space on your roof! I’ve been very happy with the £400 hot water controller, but even then, they are actually unnecessary when you have a battery. I’ll be talking about that in a future video.
Excellent Video. I'm getting an EPC assessment next week. Some really useful information here. Thanks.
My friend with a 3 bedroom maisonette had an EPC carried out this week. The assessor took 7 minutes!
Very good Anthony , a very important subject
Excellent video. Thanks. From memory, please correct me if wrong, EPC of C or better required to get MPC registration on a heat pump and so get £5k grant in England. Our house was built in c1690 and listed. Despite not being allowed double glazing or solar PV (due to listing) we managed to get to C. Best investments were all in draught exclusion, secondary (internal) glazing and insulation (evidence required or no certificate). So there is hope in even the most unlikely house. Installed heat pump in 2021 and it's so much more comfortable and saves us money. Highly recommended and worth the loooong negotiation with planners.
In Scotland an EPC C rating certainly isn’t a requirement to get a heat pump grant. But there are two conditions:
1. A heat pump must be listed as a recommended improvement in an officially recognised report that is issued prior to installation (E.G. EPC, Home Energy Scotland Renewables Selector Report, other officially recognised reports)
2. An EPC must be issued after installation is complete. The EPC must have no recommendations listed for installing cavity wall or loft insulation improvements.
For England, I’m not sure what the grant conditions are.
Such a good video. We recently had a Victorian 1901 stone terrace (with a cavity) for sale that had cavity insulation done by the council and clearly visible in the cellar. The assessor did not even go down there and wrote no cavity insulation. I sent a photo to them asking for a new certificate but they never replied. £50 for nothing
£50 doesn't get you much these days sadly. That's about an hours worth of skilled work, and much of that is spent driving to and from your property.
I've not commissioned an EPC assessor before, but can I ask: did they ask you to supply any dimensions or property information, or did they go around measuring up every outside wall and window?
I'm guessing if they already had you supplying information, then all they did was go around to check assumptions before signing off on an auto generated report.
It's very close to being a box ticking exercise as I demonstrated (given that I didn't have much skill in the craft).
For most people selling their house, that's good enough, they probably don't care and neither does the prospective buyer.
But with minimum EPC requirements for tenancies tightening , I'm guessing that landlords are going to get quite picky about who they choose to do their EPC assessments. At that point, reputation rather than price will be the deciding factor.
It was arranged via the estate agent and we just paid the £50 online direct to the surveyor company. Guess it was just a formality to go through for the sake of it
I believe you can have an energy rating of over 100, my house has this with a potential of 102.
As the video brings out, an EPC claims to measure 'energy efficiency', but this is a vague term used to cover a mix of different issues.
Moving forwards 20yrs, I can see new house buyers only going for new build eco friendly properties (some come on the back of a lorry all passive and wrapped and modular) that are dead cheap to run and not overly expensive to buy and last 100yrs. Old properties to be knocked down, rebuilt and their value will be the land that they stand on. Why would you want to buy a property that will cost a fortune to heat?
Japan is an interesting case. Houses more than 35 years old are free, but uninsurable. You get lots of interesting designs, and the latest building standards for all matters (especially earthquake/ fire resistance). I’m not quite sure what they do with old materials (recycling or landfill). But they have the highest number of architects per capita.
But in the here and now, energy performance simply doesn’t attract any kind of pricing premium and as a result people don’t care about EPC’s. I think sadly it’s part of a british cultural disease that’s obsessed with price at the expense of value.
If I was buying a property I would ask to see the gas/electric bill for Nov-Feb as that give you a yardstick.
@@wajopek2679 It’s what I recently did when I was checking out a house with a ground source heat pump. Their running costs were far more than mine and I had my suspicions confirmed when I saw no effort to boost radiator sizes in their house. It told me everything that their supposed EPC C rating didn’t.
does a smart meter + time of use tariff affect the EPC?
In my setup smart meter it doesn’t seem to. I don’t think the question of TOU was asked. It raises the question of why ask for information that doesn’t appear to affect the outcome of the EPC.
@@anthonydyer3939 you clicked standard tariff in the video , there was economy 7 and some other weird non octopus tariffs
It doesn't make any sense that adding wall, floor and roof insulation has less impact on the EPC rating then adding a mains gas boiler (even a condensing one)! At least adding solar PV and home batteries improves the rating, but this typically does not add any resale value to house prices in the UK. Clearly the EPC rating system and assessment methodology needs to be overhauled. Adding a heat pump to your house seems to be a no-brainer, especially with the generous Scottish government grant.
Adding a heat pump isn’t such a no brainier at first sight. Running costs (from peak electricity) are about the same as mains gas. But the big selling point for me: Gas isn’t going to get any cheaper.
Furthermore most of the investments for heat pumps are one off investments that last the life of the building (radiators, pipework etc….).
And as you say there’s not only a decent Scottish grant, but there’s also zero vat (not sure on the full scope, but if it includes radiators etc then it’s a phenomenal deal).
What makes it better is:
1. Cheap overnight electricity.
2. Cheaper overnight electricity stored in a battery for later use
3. A helping hand from solar on the better autumn and winter days
The solar pre heat recommendation is frankly nonsense, a net present value calculation demonstrates they never pay back in this country, and only adds 1 point to the EPC score. Good luck with your heat pump. We went for ground source (vertical bore) and pre-grant availability, but a good RHI return
Solar hot water panels have much higher efficiency, but very low capacity factor. Once your cylinder is up to temperature, they are just wasting space on your roof! I’ve been very happy with the £400 hot water controller, but even then, they are actually unnecessary when you have a battery. I’ll be talking about that in a future video.