Jo Lugg Project Manager - Low Carbon Villages. The National Trust: more ‘normal’ than expected Our Let Estate includes over 5000 privately rented homes.

Jo LuggProject Manager - Low Carbon Villages

The National Trust: more ‘normal’ than expected

• Our Let Estate includes over 5000 privately rented homes most of which are pre 1919

• 75% of these are unlisted and subject to PRS regulations

• 49% of Let Estate are Level F & G (Average SAP score of 38.5)

• We have a 10 year maintenance cycle covering 500 properties a year

• 2

3

1. Value and protect sense of place 2. Balancing technical and sustainability…3. …with character, significance and aesthetics4. Delivery matters - policies & initiatives must

encourage cost-effective changes to older buildings without harming their traditional appearance and historic character

5. We must be ambitious to reduce carbon emissions but retrofitting needs to be got right first time…

6. …at a cost we can afford.

Values driven

4

Current picture

5

Impact on let estate

Risks of retrofit in old buildings

• Key concerns:• Risk of interstitial condensation• Risk of thermal bridging• Risk of insufficient ventilation

Risks of retrofit in old buildings

• http://www.responsible-retrofit.org/wheel/

The Energy Efficiency Regulations 2015

• Enable the tenant of a domestic private rented property to request their landlord’s consent to the tenant making energy efficiency improvements to the property.

• Impose a duty on the landlord, and any superior landlord, not to unreasonably refuse consent to the improvements being made.

The Energy Efficiency Regulations 2015

• Prescribe exemptions as to when such consent will not be considered to be unreasonably withheld (such as where third party consent has been refused).

• Prescribe a minimum level of energy efficiency, defined by reference to EPCs for domestic private rented properties and non-domestic private rented properties.

The Energy Efficiency Regulations 2015

• Where the energy performance of a property falls below the minimum E, subject to exemptions, a landlord may not: • grant a new tenancy or renew an existing

tenancy of a private rented property after 1st April 2018;

• continue to let a domestic private rented property after 1st April 2020; or

• continue to let a non-domestic private rented property after 1st April 2023.

The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) Regulations 2015

• The regulations only apply if the property is required to have an EPC under the Energy Performance in Buildings Regulations or the Buildings Regulations. Therefore, if an EPC had been acquired outside these requirements, the regulations would not be applicable (e.g. holiday cottages/listed buildings).

The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) Regulations 2015

• If on 1st April 2020 the need for an EPC has never arisen or the EPC is more than 10 years’ old, the minimum energy efficiency requirements will not apply.

The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) Regulations 2015

• Please seek your own legal advice

About EPCs

EPCs

• Domestic EPCsFocus in this course

• Commercial EPCsAlso required in many

properties, but not covered in this course

What is an EPC?

• a 4 page document describing a home’s energy performance

When do you need one?

• Whenever a property is built, sold, or rented

• You must order an EPC for before you market your property

• In Scotland, you must display the EPC in the property, (e.g. in the meter cupboard)

What buildings do not need an EPC?

• places of worship• temporary buildings that will be used for less

than 2 years• stand-alone buildings with total useful floor

space less than 50 m2industrial sites, workshops and non-residential agricultural buildings that don’t use a lot of energy

• some buildings that are due to be demolished• residential buildings intended to be used less

than 4 months a year• listed buildings

Listed Buildings

• No EPC required when selling or renting

• EPC only needed for RHI and FiT assessments

Holiday Cottages

• An EPC will only be required for a property rented out as a furnished holiday let, where the building is occupied for the purposes of a holiday as a result of a short term letting arrangement of less than 31 days to each tenant, and is rented out for a combined total of four months or more in any 12 month period, and if the occupier is responsible for meeting the energy costs for the property.

What does the EPC cover?

• Heating system• Heating controls• Hot water system• Building fabric and insulation• Lighting• Renewables

What does it not cover?

It does not cover ‘things that aren’t bolted down’, i.e.

•Energy use from appliances•Cost variations from your choice of energy company deal•How you use your heating

What is in an EPC?Overview

SAP score Property summary EI score

Recommendations Heat demand

EPC Page 1

RRNSurvey details

Estimated energy costs (and 3 year savings)

Energy Efficiency Rating

Top recommendations (more on p3)

EPC Page 2

Summary of property’s energy characteristics

Promotion for the Green Deal

EPC Page 3

Explanation of green vs orange tick (Green Deal)

Recommendations

Promo for Green Deal

EPC Page 4

Assessment details: accreditation body and surveyor details

CO2 emission estimate (not easy to spot)EI rating

Heat demand (used to calculate RHI payments)

Other information

• Valid for 10 years OR until a newer one is lodged

• Can only be completed by fully accredited assessors who belong to Accreditation Schemes

What is a SAP and an EI score?

SAP scores

100

0

100 means notionally zero bills(a score above 100 means negative bills - energy generation)

0 is the lowest score (but only because negative scores are rounded up to 0)

SAP is linked to estimated fuel bills

SAP scores

Remember•Actual tariffs aren’t used•Calculation times use default heating times and hot water use•Appliances (including cooking … and Agas) are excluded from the results

EI scores

notionally zero CO2 100(a score above 100 means negative CO2 - energy generation)

0 is the lowest score (but only because negative scores are rounded up to 0)

EPC calculations, SAP and RDSAP

EPC calculations: full SAP

• Standard Assessment Procedure• Calculated by software based on a

standard methodology• Software has to be approved by

Building Research Establishment (BRE)

EPC calculations: full SAP

• ‘Full SAP’ is required for EPCs for new homes

• Involves:• Measuring dimensions of all walls,

windows, floors, doors, roofs, etc.• Supplying U-Values for all these

elements• Survey takes around 2 hours

(before evidence paperwork)

EPC calculations: RdSAP

• RdSAP means Reduced Data SAP• Involves:

• Measuring a simplified dimension set

• Has libraries to estimate energy performance of walls, roofs, etc.

• Survey takes around 30 minutes (before evidence paperwork)

Problems with EPCs

1. The SAP and EPC methodology needs to be altered to be more flexible. It is imperative that there are safe guards in the ‘one size fits all’ approach.

2. Recommending solid wall insulation almost as standard which is misleading and potentially harmful to traditional buildings

3. Measures are over priced

Problems with EPCs

1. Fuel costs are half to a third of those indicated by EPC

2. EPC’s give recommendations that are: physically inappropriate for traditional buildings

3. EPC messaging and the banding of properties is very misleading; it suggests a linier progression is possible through an evenly stepped process adding in measures over time. The reality is a great deal more complex, which only gets more so if there is a need not to block other measures for staged targets

Who can do an EPC?

Who can complete an EPC

• Can only be completed by fully accredited assessors who have shown compliance with National Occupational Standards for Domestic Energy Assessors

• Assessors need to gain:• APEL (Accreditation of Prior

Experiencal Learning)• Level 3 Diploma in Domestic

Energy Assessment

Accreditation Schemes

• Qualified assessors can only produce EPCs if they belong to an Accreditation Scheme (e.g. Quidos, Stroma, NES)

• Accreditation Scheme:• responsible for quality of the

assessor’s work• also provides software

EPC register

• Listings of Domestic Energy Assessors by postcode, etc.

• www.epcregister.com• www.scottishepcregister.org.uk

• You can also retrieve old EPCs using the RRN or address