Shocking new research shows that Energy Performance Certificates are inaccurate at best, useless at worst, and easily rigged.
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… ‘The lower the EPC rating, the bigger the overestimation…’
Landlord Today writes:
….A Sunday Times report over the weekend revealed the results of sophisticated and highly detailed research by a firm called CarbonLaces.
The firm claims EPCs overestimate energy use by up to 344 per cent – yet they remain a key part of current and expected legislation affecting landlords and other home owners.
CarbonLaces compared the EPCs of more than 17,000 homes with their actual use, as logged by smart meters every half hour for at least 300 days, to calculate their energy bills.
The Sunday Times reports: “The average metered gas and electricity use for all the properties studied was 125kWh per square metre a year — 91 per cent lower than what their EPCs claim (239kWh/m2/yr).
“The lower the EPC rating, the bigger the overestimation…”
This inaccuracy is “quite staggering” says Madhuban Kumar, the founder of CarbonLaces.
She says EPCs overestimate not only energy use but also carbon emissions, by between 20 per cent (for EPCs rated C) and 308 per cent (for EPCs rates G).
The lengthy Sunday Times report also claims that EPCs on new build homes are open to widespread abuse.
For new homes, EPCs can be issued on design data alone….
One expert tells the paper: “All they do is make the plaster wall box airtight, while the building itself is very leaky. Give me a garden shed and enough mastic, foam and plaster board and I can make it airtight . . . It’s nothing to do with making sure that they’re energy efficient. It’s to do with ticking a box.”….
Under current government regulation, landlords are not expected to spend more than £3,500 on upgrades….
However, proposed changes could see all rental properties requiring an EPC rating of C by 2028, and a potential increase to this cap to £10,000, meaning landlords could be required to spend more…
See the Sunday Times article
