EPC certification - Purely objective?

[SolarCity]

Okay, we've got a bit of a strange one here.

A potential customer of ours has an EPC rating of 'E', which was issued when she bought the house recently. The certificate, as standard, suggested works that would bring the home up to a D rating - none of which had been done.

Another solar PV firm - which carries out insulation works - has approached her and told her that her house is a 'D' and that she won't need to mess around with the extra measures.

How can this be? Either a home has cavity wall insulation or it does not. Either a home is gas heated or it is not. Either a home has loft insulation or it does not.

Are we being stitched up?

 

[jason121]

Yes. Had that done to me the other week. Slight tweak of the figures a magic D, EPC assessor was also the sales guy.

 

[wiggly]

Was just about to make similar comment as jason, does the other company have an epc assesor in there pocket ???.

Does the installation of the PV give enough points to move from E to D ???

wiggly

 

[SolarCity]

Solar PV is one of the measures that brings it up to D, but it won't do it on its own.

The EPC is being done 'in house'.

 

[pvman]

I have heard of companies guaranteeing that they will get customers an EPC rating of D and the house has solid walls and an old oil boiler. I've always guessed that they must have a tame assessor.

Seems a bit risky because if they do get caught the customer won't be able to continue claiming the higher FIT rate.

 

[wiggly]

The conclussion is that you are being bent over the table solarcity.
Again if you play by the rules you loose out very frustrating.

wiggly

 

[Gavin A]

Solar PV is one of the measures that brings it up to D, but it won't do it on its own.

The EPC is being done 'in house'.

how big is the solar system? IME most 3-4 kWp systems will raise all but the lowest of E ratings to a D by themselves, so maybe that's what they meant... or they're just gaming the EPC system.

 

[SolarCity]

It's a 2.5kWp system.

The PV system will bring the house up to a 54.

 

[a1colly]

I've had two EPC companies do a survey on the same property as one of my clients challenged the result. First one was low E the second was a high D!

Bases after studying and discussing was the quality of survey, the second one the person crawled up the attic, checked every room for light fixtures and even asked if he could drill a 6mm inspection hole for cavity insulation. Far better than just saying no to the answer no.