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What is an Energy Performance Certificate?An Energy Performance Certificate shows the official energy efficiency rating of a property. If you're not planning to sell your home, you don't need to do anything. The certificate provides you with a rating for the building, showing its energy efficiency and its environmental impact on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient), in graphical format. It also contains recommended ways to improve the building's energy performance. By 2009, all buildings in the UK that are constructed, sold or rented out will have to have an Energy Performance Certificate, in accordance with the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Predicted and interim energy assessments Interim energy assessments are for new homes built in accordance with the energy efficiency requirements of the building regulations that came into force in April 2006. For these homes, only the energy-efficiency and environmental-impact graphs will be required, and not the full Energy Performance Certificate.
Why is the Certificate important? Nearly 40 per cent of the UK's energy consumption arises from the way in which our 25 million buildings are lit, heated and used. Even comparatively minor changes in energy performance and the way we use each building will have a significant effect in reducing energy consumption - and therefore carbon emissions. What the Certificate meansThe Energy Performance Certificate is similar to the certificates now provided with domestic appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines. Its purpose is to record how energy-efficient a property is as a building. The certificate will provide a rating of the property from A to G, where A is very efficient and G is very inefficient. Two ratings are shown. The environmental impact rating is a measure of a home's impact on the environment in terms of carbon dioxide (C02) emissions - the higher the rating, the less impact it has on the environment. The energy-efficiency rating is a measure of a home's overall efficiency. The higher the rating, the more energy-efficient the home is, and the lower the fuel bills are likely to be. Each rating is based on the performance of the building itself and its services (such as heating and lighting), rather than the domestic appliances within it. This is known as an asset rating. The certificate also lists the potential rating of the building if all the cost-effective measures were installed. The ratings will vary according to the age, location, size and condition of the building. The potential rating on the certificate will take these factors into account, and the suggested measures will be tailored so that they are realistic for the particular building. What happens to Energy Performance Certificates once they're done?All domestic Energy Performance Certificates are lodged in a central database. Energy Assessors (through their Accreditation Schemes) lodge them as they produce them, and each is given a unique reference number. Access to the database is restricted, so only those who have the unique reference number can access the certificate for a particular property. Not all buildings are used in the same way, so energy ratings use "standard occupancy" assumptions, which might be different from the specific way you use your building. What different methods of calculation are used for homes and for other buildings? All the methodologies used to produce Energy Performance Certificates consider factors such as the size, age, location of a building, and how it's heated, lit and insulated.
Domestic Energy Assessors Accreditation SchemesAccreditation Schemes will ensure that the work of the Domestic Energy Assessors (who undertake Energy Performance Certificate inspections) can be trusted by sellers, buyers and lenders alike. The Accreditation Schemes will:
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