• Home
• > Our Services
• > Energy Performance Certificates for Homes

Energy Performance Certificates for Homes

If you are selling or renting a property in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire within a 10-mile radius of Cookham we can do your EPC at a competitive rate.  Our assessor Carol Long is accredited and you will deal with her direct.  You do not need to go to an agent or a national panel; you can come to us as your local professional provider and have confidence in the EPC we provide.

But don't just believe what we say, here's what our customers say:-

Many thanks for completing this work. I am very impressed with the whole process, including your communication and professionalism. Excellent value for money too! Kind regards Raj

Do you need an EPC? Read more...

What is an EPC?

An Energy Performance Certificate is a legal requirement when selling or renting your property.  You must have it in place so that potential buyers or tenants can compare the running costs of properties they are interested in.

The EPC looks at how efficiently your home is heated and how it retains that heat, based on how it is built and insulated.  It also estimates the carbon emissions of the property.  The EPC assessment can only be conducted by a qualified and accredited Energy Assessor (DEA) or Home Inspector (HI).  Carol Long of Hawthorn Environmental Services Ltd is an accredited DEA.

The EPC is a 6-page document giving the energy rating shown as a graph on the front page.  The rating measures the energy and carbon emission efficiency of your home using a grade from ‘A’ to ‘G’.  An ‘A’ rating is the most efficient, while ‘G’ is the least efficient. The average efficiency grade to date is 'D'.  All homes are measured using the same calculations, so you can compare the energy efficiency of different properties.  The ratings compare the current energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions with potential figures that your home could achieve.  Potential figures are calculated by estimating what the energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions would be if energy saving measures were put in place.

The EPC provides a detailed recommendation report showing what you could do to improve your rating and help to reduce the amount of energy you use and your carbon dioxide emissions.  For each recommendation the EPC sets out how the rating would be improved and the potential savings on your fuel bill each year.  The recommendations are set out as Lower Cost Measures (up to £500); and Higher Cost Measures.  There is a third category, ‘Further measures to achieve even higher standards’ that include recommendations such as solar panels.

When is an EPC required?

All homes bought, sold or rented require an EPC. You should receive an EPC when you are considering buying or renting a home. You'll need to provide one if you are selling or letting your home. Hawthorn Environmental Services Ltd provides EPC's for residential properties, mainly in the rental sector.

An EPC is required when a building is constructed, rented or sold. A building will need an EPC if it has a roof and walls and uses energy to ‘condition an indoor climate'. This means it has heating, air conditioning or mechanical ventilation. The building can either be a whole building or part of a building that has been designed or altered to be used separately. If a building is made up of separate units, each with its own heating system, each unit will need an EPC.

What is involved in an EPC survey?

The length of time of the survey visit depends on the size and complexity of your property. As a guide, a standard construction 1-bed house or flat should take around 30 minutes, with larger properties taking about an hour. Very large properties or those with complicated layouts, multiple extensions, extensive glazed areas, conversions or unusual heating systems will take longer.

The assessor needs to see the heating system, hot water tank if present, meters and loft, wall or floor insulation, where present.  Technically if they can’t see or measure insulation or see good physical evidence it is there then they should disregard it.  This is important when it comes to a sealed loft, cavity wall insulation, floor insulation, or where a property has been super-insulated.  Therefore, it would be helpful if the owner could make available any documents that demonstrate improvements.

The Accreditation Scheme requires the assessor to take photographs, which are used in auditing the assessor’s work.  As far as possible we take great care that no personal items, people or pets are photographed, and can assure you that these photographs are used for no other purpose than the scheme audit.  In fact the photos used for this article are from our own house.

How is the survey information processed?

Once the assessor leaves your property the job is only half done; it will then take a similar length of time to do the calculations, input the data into their computer and upload the EPC to the Landmark Register.

It is not the assessor that awards a rating personally. The software makes some assumptions based on the age of the property and the building regulations that were in force at that time. These assumptions cannot be overridden by the assessor. Once you have your EPC, our assessor, Carol Long, is happy to talk you through the reasons for the results; her contact details are included in the EPC.

The EPC will make some recommendations on measures you can take to improve the energy efficiency of your home, mainly as a guide as to what the property could achieve.  However, if you want to maximise the EPC result there are some cheap and quick things you can sort out before the survey, such as installing low energy light bulbs or increasing the loft insulation:  Hawthorn Environmental Services Ltd can advise you on suitable cost-effective measures in advance of the EPC and provide you with the final EPC once measures have been put in place.

Please contact us to find out more about this service.