According to a report by the UK’s largest accreditation scheme for energy assessors, a long-overdue shake up of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) calculation process is required. Any new approach to EPCs, should focus equally on energy consumption, cost and carbon emissions to make them more relevant.
It is also widely accepted that for it to be more useful, an EPC’s validity period should be cut from ten to three years. It should also be re-issued whenever there is a change to the building which impacts its energy performance.
The process for assessing a property and generating an EPC hasn’t been updated since they were first introduced in 2007. Last November, the government published its ‘EPCs for Buildings Action Plan’ which identified proposed improvements to their efficiency and effectiveness. It is hoped that there will be an update this year. We will keep our readers posted as soon as we hear more news.
