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Used to assess the energy performance of buildings.
Were introduced in England and Wales on 1st August 2007 as part of Home Information Packs (HIPs). When the requirement for HIPs was removed in May 2010, the requirement for EPCs continued.
A certificate is valid for 10 years and is required on a new tenancy, sale or rental.
Currently the Green Deal measures are only valid for 3 years.
There is no validity time limit on the Occupancy Assessment once lodged. The OA must be lodged within 14 days
EPC is required by law when a building is built, sold or put up for rent. Any landlord or homeowner who needs to provide an EPC will need to contact an accredited domestic energy assessor. They will carry out the assessment and produce the certificate.
It is the benchmark of the property’s energy efficiency.
The EPC generates the measures that the GDA will attempt to fit into the Golden Rule framework after the Occupancy Assessment.
Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure (RdSAP) has been developed by the Government for use in existing dwellings, based on a site survey of the property.
RdSAP consists of a system of data collection together with defaults and inference procedures, which generate a complete set of input data for the SAP calculation.
Stroma has created an integrated RdSAP, Green Deal software solution for EPC and Occupancy assessment
Habitable room count Dimensions (areas and heat loss perimeters)
Conservatory Wall construction (plus any insulation)
Floor construction (plus any insulation)
Floor exposure Alternative wall (plus any insulation)
Roof construction (plus any insulation)
Roof room construction (plus any insulation)
Windows (glazing type, percentage glazed, area) Fireplace count Terrain type Low energy lights PV (could include orientation, pitch etc.) Space cooling Mechanical ventilation Wind turbines Main heating system 2nd Main heating system (optional) Heating controls Secondary heating Hot water heating Gas and electric meters
The EPC is designed so an EPC for one property can be a compared with another.
Different people use their house and its contents in different ways. EPCs are therefore not specific to the occupants, but to the dwelling itself.
Assumptions are made by RdSAP so household behaviour does not impact on the EPC rating:
• Standard occupancy – the actual number of occupants is not accounted for. RdSAP assumes occupancy based on the floor area. This information is then used to determine factors like domestic hot water requirement.
• Standard heating pattern – some people have their heating set to 25oc all day every day, some people have their heating on for half an hour a day. To avoid this type of behaviour skewing EPC data, a standard heating pattern is used as follows:
• 9 hours heating a day during the week.• 16 hours a day at the weekend.• The living area is heated to 21oc and the rest of the house to 18oc.• RdSAP does not account for energy use by electrical appliances
and non-fitted lighting. It is assumed these will not be left at the property by the current owner/occupier.
Used for new dwellings. Used for buildings which have undergone a ‘change of use’.Report produced off plan. Property is not visited.Uses a more comprehensive methodology.Assessor must hold Dip OCDEA qualification.Report based on U-values.Uses SAP software.
RdSAP
Used for existing dwellings.Assessment conducted at the dwelling.Uses a reduced methodology taken from SAP.Assessor must hold DipDEA qualification.Report based on assumptions.Uses RdSAP Software.
RdSAP draws information from databases within the PCDF.
Databases are regularly maintained for DEAs to:
Locate appropriately calculated seasonal efficiencies and characteristics for heating and related products. Reduce the risk of miscalculation and confusion with data.
The PCDF stores data in separate tables per product, specific fields aid product identification for the technical data relevant to SAP calculations for:
(i) boilers, fired by gas, LPG or oil.
(ii) solid fuel boilers, fired by a variety of solid fuels.
(iii) cooker boilers with twin burners, fired by gas, LPG or oil.
(iv) micro-cogen (also known as micro-CHP), fired by gas, LPG, oil or solid fuel.
Recommendations were separated into lower and higher cost measures. In this format, there is no correlation between the measure and its relevance to the home owner.
New Green Deal EPC
The RdSAP 9.91 software shall calculate improvement measures in the order they should be considered. The rating after improvement is a cumulative rating.
The calculation will also determine if the measure is eligible for Green Deal finance.
The Golden Rule is met if the calculated annual saving for the measure is £47 or more. Round both R and the annual saving to the nearest £ before comparing them.
RdSAP software calculates this for each recommended measure and passes the result (i.e. no tick, orange tick or green tick) to the EPC register in the lodgement XML.
As an exception to the above, solid wall insulation gets a green tick. This is because a subsidy may be available via ECO (Energy Company Obligation) that reduces the cost to the householder to that available from GD finance.
The Golden Rule is the principle, which limits the amount of Green Deal finance that a provider can attach to the energy meter to the estimated energy bill savings that are likely to result from the installation of measures under the Green Deal plan.
The new bill payments have to be equal to or less than the Green Deal Repayment + New Energy Cost.
This principle aims to keep the energy bills at the property no higher than they would have been had the property been without a Green Deal – this is important both to protect consumers from higher energy bills, and to protect investors from a higher risk of default on the bill.
“Britain needs to invest around 200 billion pounds by 2020 in greener technologies to meet ambitious carbon emissions cut targets”
The Green Investment Bank is designed to accelerate private sector investment in the UK’s transition to a green economy. Offshore wind power generation, commercial and industrial waste processing and recycling, energy from waste generation, non-domestic energy efficiency and support for the Green Deal will be the first priority sectors for the Bank, subject to approval by the European Commission.
The bank will initially get £775m towards the £3bn total funding due to come from the Treasury.
Its key role is to raise up to £15bn in private sector funding, from pension funds, foreign sovereign wealth funds, energy companies and banks, by underwriting the initial losses and risks from new and untested green technologies.
The Green Investment Bank commenced lending in April 2012.
The Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC) is working alongside the Green Investment Bank to access private sector funding.
Future Green Deal Providers - the companies that will make energy efficiency improvements – will need to access the cheapest possible underlying source of finance.
If finance is not set at affordable interest rates, it will be more difficult to meet the Golden Rule.
The GDFC intends to:•Minimise the operating and administration costs of the Green Deal, accessing the cheapest sources of finance in the market at the highest possible credit rating.•Maintain a consistent finance rate to all providers regardless of size.
Green Deal Providers can uplift the whole charge by 2% a year, in line with Bank of England inflation targets if desired.
This will allow more Green Deal plans to meet the golden rule and for a greater proportion of these plans to be paid using Green Deal finance by capitalising on some of the expected increase in savings over the course of the plan and potentially decreasing the need for an upfront payment.
There are two options for the repayments. Both are fixed repayment plans, but one is flat and the other rises by 2% each year.