EPC Blog – advice and energy saving tips.
Low Energy Light Bulbs
Date: 10th August 2022
Many customers wrongly assume that the light bulbs in their house are low energy light bulbs (LEL). To help avoid confusion, I have listed below the bulbs that can not accepted as LEL in a domestic EPC assessment.
This is a traditional light bulb and often know as incandescent or tungsten filament. This is inefficient and is not regarded by the RdSAP software and a low energy light source.
These halogen bulbs also use filament technology but run at higher temperatures making them slight more efficient. However, whilst these bulbs may be advertised as more energy efficient they are not accepted by the RdSAP software as being LEL’s.
ECO Halogen are the next generation of halogen bulbs and are again more efficient that traditional filament bulbs but are still not classified as low energy lights by the RdSAP system.
Care is needed with spot lamps. Spot lights that have clusters of diodes are LED and accepted by RdSAP.
Lights with just one bulb are halogen technology and do are not accepted by RdSAP as LEL’s.
Lights that are accepted as LEL’s include:-
Light Emitting Diodes (LED’s)
Compact Flourescents
Flourescent tubes
Extra roof insulation
Date: 5th August 2022
Adding roof insulation is a great way of adding extra points to your EPC rating. Using my own home as a test case, I can see that if I removed all loft insulation, that the rating would fall 6 points (reducing from 270mm think to zero). The difference between 100mm of insulation and 270mm is only one point, but an additional point could be gained by increasing the thickness further to 350mm.
The above images show the a loft space with just 100mm of insulation and after with an additional 170mm laid across the joists.
Note that if the insulation is multi-foil (multi-layered blanket type which contains a least 3 layers of foil-type material) or foam insulation, the thickness of the insulation is doubled up and entered as twice the actual thickness.
Also note that that if the roof is pitched but there is no access to the roof space for the assessor to measure the depth of insulation and there is no documented proof that insulation is present within the roof space, the assessor must state that the roof insulation is “as built”. This means that the computer will make an assessment of insulation based on the age of the property and building conventions that existed at that date.
How much should my EPC cost?
The cost of an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) will probably range from £35 to £120. The actual cost will depend on the size of property, number of bedrooms, the number of extensions and whether you approach an independent assessor, an estate agent or specialist company.
Your Estate Agent is likely to charge between £75 and £120 for your certificate. Whilst this may be an expensive option, the assessor may be linked to the agent in some way and will probably understand the need to act promptly.
There are many specialist companies offering EPC services. Many of these are advertising very low costs although when tested the price usually increases substantially, especially after VAT and commission are added. These specialist companies usually appear at the top of your search engine because they have paid for advertising or used Search Engine Optimisation companies to promote their services. Often, these services are outsourced to a network of independent assessors, many of whom are not VAT registered, and they are paid only a portion of the total fee quoted. Many of these independent assessors, like myself, are available to provide the same service directly without overheads and often without VAT.
Whilst the independent assessor may charge £40 to £60, the Specialist company will be adding commission and VAT.
