Changes to EPC in late 2026 now being planned?

New EPC Criteria,must include accurate heat loss calcs. e.g in a current situation, the algorithims can not take into account that 40% of “external walls” in a flat abutting other residential use have zero heat loss,or a woodblock floor on concrete slab over 60cm of solid fill is treated as a raised floor with a void under, requiring insulation to be laid on top of the woodblock.
Other problems include current deduction of points for highy efficient electric night storage hotwater heaters.

I have had a new boiler fitted, yet the epc rating has gone down. I won’t be spending until this system is fit for purpose.

Brilliant. So EPC must be achieved by 2030 and we won’t actually have the correct criteria to assess the property until at least 2026. Can’t see any landlord bothering to upgrade his property until at least then as its possible he may slip down a grade as you can’t trust any upgraded before 2026 will make a difference.

Definitely worth commenting on. I think we all recognise that the current system isn’t fit for purpose. But what the Government is proposing actually seems worse:

“The government is proposing that domestic EPCs use four headline metrics; ‘fabric performance’, ‘heating system’, ‘smart readiness’ and ‘energy cost’ as headline metrics, with other metrics provided as secondary information.”

‘Fabric performance’ seems to be the only legitimate metric, although if you delve deep enough there’s probably issues with that metric too.

‘Heating system’. No points for guessing that gas will be most likely be classified as worse than electric heating or heat pumps. My experience of electric heating systems is they are inferior to GCH in actually heating whole rooms, expensive, and prone to causing issues with damp and mould. GCH is superior (if used properly).

‘SMART READINESS’ is a stupid measurement and could be interpreted as attempting to Control as per Agenda 2030. Users can be cut off at the flick of a switch. Why have things permanently linked to Smart tech? Surely that uses more energy? Old TV’s and other appliances, used to have a proper on/off switch – now it’s just standby. Using more energy, not less.
There is an argument for better heating controls though. Currently GCH can only be automatically set to on or off, when actually it would be useful to be able to have it set to different temperatures at different times. Eg low during the day and overnight, and higher in the evening – as needed.

‘Energy cost’ is not the same as energy usage and is subject to many variables including political and world events.
The surge in energy prices a few years ago was partly because the price of gas and electricity is linked. Those prices need to be delinked. Actual energy usage would be a better variable to use, or estimated energy usage, but also is problematic as people’s needs and lifestyles vary.

I have seen new builds that fit the current criteria but actually are superhot in summer and cold in winter, whereas many older properties actually fare better, but would receive a lower rating.

Spray roof insulation and cavity wall insulation are other issues. Touted by Govt as ‘good’, they have caused many a problem.

Please Comment on the proposals with your experience and thoughts. Or we could be dealing with an even more nonsensical system in the future.

Err .. GCH – have you not heard of Hive, I have been using this for many years to set different temperatures at different times – now linked to Alexa too, can switch of many appliances as well

The questions seem heavily skewed, there are no comments about the downside of any of the suggestions giving a very false view of the benefits. I assume that worded in this way the survey will be deemed to support anything that is proposed.

I just put strongly disagree on everything to try and help balance the skewed consultation in some way

I will cast my views, but expect them to be ignored along with all of our Private Landlord views.
I fully believe they should not be allowed to impose C rating on Private Landlords, until the current Council and Social housing matches our current level.

Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 04/01/2025 – 12:50
Don’t even need to go to the expense and ongoing subscriptions for Hive. Programmable thermostats have offered a low cost solution for programming different temperatures at different times of the day for decades.

The problem I have found though is many of my tenants cannot comfortably get their head around anything more complicated than a good old fashioned bi-metal strip ‘dial’ thermostat and I have to dumb down the programmable stats for them.

Not that that’s a problem for us though- as long as the facility is there to be energy efficient, who cares whether they actually use it in an energy efficient way or not-
It’s all just ticking boxes for us for compliance at the end of the day.

Reply to the comment left by Saul Smart at 04/01/2025 – 22:18
Can’t disagree with your observation there . Just had EC04 solar fitted at one property, New storage heaters , loft insulation etc. However the tenant had switched off the solar feed as she can’t get to grips with the APP – she isn’t any worse off than before as the new efficient storage heaters will be saving her money but I have contacted her son to try and get him to sort her out – I am keeping out of it.