Energy Performance Certificates
From August 1st 2007 all properties put up for sale with more than 4 bedrooms on the open market in England and Wales required a mandatory Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) as part of the new Home Information Pack (HIP). Fom September 10th 2007 EPCs have been required for properties with 3 bedrooms and rolled out to cover ALL properties on December 17th 2007.
This certificate documents the energy consumption of a property and its impact on the environment. It must only be produced by a qualified and licenced "Domestic Energy Assessor".
A Domestic Energy Assessment is an unobtrusive survey and is designed to provide an energy efficiency rating of your home on a scale of A-G, with A being most efficient and G being least efficient. The report will also provide you with an environmental impact rating measuring your homes affect on the environment in terms of CO2 emissions, also on the A-G scale. All EPCs are based on standardised assumptions about occupancy, heating patterns and geographical location and are for comparative purposes only and will not directly reflect your personal energy usage.
Click here to see an example of an Energy performance Certificate.