An EPC out in the sticks

[solarsavings]

I had an epc done for my own home recently. Have any of you?

Dear Tony, (you got an A, first one I have ever done in 5 years)With regard to your recent instructions for a Domestic Energy Assessment to be carried out at the above addresses, I am pleased to confirm that the inspections have been completed and an EPC has now been registered on the National databank at

I've since change all of our downlights(54) to led's and we have 100mm of floor insulation so we could have had another couple of points.

 

[SRE]

What's your definition of out in the sticks?

So what's making yours an A rating - cos I'm quite confused! We have a couple of rental properties, both with cavity wall insulation, 250mm loft insulation, condesning combi's, heating programmer, programmable room stats and trv's. Windows have been installed in the last 5 years - both C rating. I've just put 3.5kwp pv on one so anticipating that will go up to a B.

Over the last 10 years I've probably seen the best part of a thousand EPC's/NHER ratings and I've not seen one hit the A rating. New builds are usually a C and if they've been built by a better builder I've seen a B but never an A.

What's the secret??

 

[Worcester]

Where he is is surrounded by fields, Did the A come with the PV installed? and how much PV?
When was the property built?

We got a high B after installing the first phase of our PV (wanted the EPC) as phase 2 went in a couple of weeks ago. Without the PV we would have been much lower. We need to add EWI to the remaining original walls from the 1930's building to get anything better.. Condensing Gas boiler not an option as we are on oil, so we'll have to go to a Heat Pump to improve - that's the thinking behind phase 2 of the PV - use that energy to power / pay for the Heat Pump (Air - Water probably the most cost effective - considering the Daikin High Output one..) The EPC is not really reflective of the true efficiency of the building as it was so skewed by the PV ...

 

[solarsavings]

As worcester says, surrounded by fields nearest village is 1/2 a mile away

I built it in 2001(well finished it in 2002)
100mm fully filled cavity, durox blocks and dot n dab.
DG with low e glass.
100mm celotex under the floating floor
It has 6.5m2 of solar thermal and 3.2kwp of pv
standard efficiency oil fired boiler (c rated) zoned heating with trv's, thermostats and time locked controls
Wood burner in the lounge.
270mm loft insulation.

As Andrew said it's the first A he's seen too.

I'm taking the oil boiler out the week after next and putting a heat pump in( still not sure of the make yet)

 

[SRE]

Sounds great - not your bog standard build though ;-) us mere mortals have to put up with the rubbish others build. Still surprised with a c rated boiler that it came out so high though. You made me look at ours (next door have recently had theirs done)and I reckon we'd maybe get to a high C which isn't bad for a 60's build with oil heating.

 

[solarsavings]

It ain't all that believe me.

I was surprised that a condensing oil boiler would save us only £33 a year because we have customers saving a good deal more than that with a new steamer. And I've recently spent about £600 replacing the outside lights and downlights with led's to save the princely sum of £20 a year.

 

[Eco Deal]

My house is a B it built this year june 2012

Kingspan at rafter
loft insulation
high efficient boiler
water tank
double glazed
thermal walls
low energy bulbs

etc etc

I just added 4 kwp of soalr to get it to a B89 thats its maximum

it may of got more if it was a terrace but its detached.

so not sure how you got an A

 

[Gavin A]

I'm currently looking at a G rated wreck of a house and thinking about seeing what I can get it up to for a relatively small budget as a demonstration.

 

[solarsavings]

I'm looking at a riverside plot in a near by village with a view to building an eco home but the numbers are just not stacking up

 

[Worcester]

Check out some of the Energy Saving Trust's projects - there were 50 social houses sponsored last year to see just what could be done at what cost all as retrofit / re-fit, and what ratings could be achieved. We checked out the Birmingham City Social Project lest year, and it wasn't rocket science, just good planning and thinking, though having a construction background the implementation could have been even better, if some of the people in charge hadn't been academics/consultants and instead had been good practical builders/designers/developers.

 

[solarsavings]

Have you got a link please.

 

[Gavin A]

Check out some of the Energy Saving Trust's projects - there were 50 social houses sponsored last year to see just what could be done at what cost all as retrofit / re-fit, and what ratings could be achieved. We checked out the Birmingham City Social Project lest year, and it wasn't rocket science, just good planning and thinking, though having a construction background the implementation could have been even better, if some of the people in charge hadn't been academics/consultants and instead had been good practical builders/designers/developers.

ay, I've looked at some of those projects, and reckon we could something similar better / more cost effective. At least I'd like to have a crack at it.

 

[Worcester]

Try these:
Retrofit diaries / Existing housing / Housing professionals / Professional resources / Home (United Kingdom) - Energy Saving Trust
Reducing emissions from social housing / Existing housing / Professional resources / Home (United Kingdom) - Energy Saving Trust
The Retrofit Challenge: Delivering Low Carbon Buidings / Housing professionals / Publications / Home (United Kingdom) - Energy Saving Trust
Inspiration Birmingham 2020
and this change in status of the EST
Energy Saving Trust to become social enterprise and will seek charitable status / Archived press releases / Press releases / About us / Home (United Kingdom) - Energy Saving Trust

 

[yorkshiremike]

The EPC seems a bit odd though. The Estimated energy costs (which take into account the solar thermal and PV) are nothing special (I've seen a similar sized Passiv Haus - but no PV - with figures less than half these), but the current primary energy use (page 2) at 4 kWh/m2* per year is unbelievably low, just your lighting is over 5 kWh per year. For the property size and the estimated energy costs on page 1, you'd expect at least an order (10x) of magnitude higher, probably more like 120 kWh/m2 (you should be able to convert the estimated energy over 3 years into an annual kWh figure then divide by the floor area).

*A Passivhaus 'only' needs to be <15kWh/m per year just for heating and they have stupendous amounts of insulation, triple glazing, ventilation heat exchangers etc.