It’s Time For A Real EPC

By John Ross, Research Lecturer, and MCS Heat Pump Inspector for Ireland I recently presented to Belfast City Council on the findings of three years of academic research, looking at the levels of performance of existing cavity wall insulation in Northern Ireland homes, social and private. This highlighted the extent of the issues found, the […]

By John Ross, Research Lecturer, and MCS Heat Pump Inspector for Ireland I recently presented to Belfast City Council on the findings of three years of academic research, looking at the levels of performance of existing cavity wall insulation in Northern Ireland homes, social and private.

This highlighted the extent of the issues found, the negative effects on energy costs, health issues, general fuel poverty and the solutions available. One of the questions put to me was, “What can Belfast City Council do?” I replied: “Put into place a worthwhile and effective Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for Northern Ireland homes.” A certificate that doesn’t rely on assumptions and general malaise which seems to be the background to the workings of recent EPC completions. As I’m sure a lot of the people reading this know, you can get an EPC for a home for as little as £30 now. What value will this have for anyone buying a home in terms of reassurance to the performance levels of the home? Drive-by energy assessments, people taking exterior photographs and emailing them to someone to put into a certificate, is disgusting, and in my view, a fraud.

A real energy performance certificate should be exactly “what it says on the tin” – a true picture of how that home performs in terms of running costs and provision for the buyer to improve the energy profile with informed and factual guidance that the certificate should contain. The greatest way to save and preserve energy in a home/building is always by insulating to the best standard possible for the home, dependent on cavity size, available materials and as always, cost etc. To have an EPC assessor go out and tick a box that says ‘the cavity is insulated’ is futile and totally misdirected. The proper energy audit should look at the exterior of the building, look for cracks in the walls/ brickwork or renders, poor mortar in need of repointing, and so on. It should be cognisant of faults with guttering where water is allowed to run down the walls (which creates wind-driven issues in the cavities and has a chilling effect). When it comes to windows, to tick a box that says ‘double glazed’ is not enough – inspection of the rubber seals internal and external should be added. The heating system; again, ticking boxes for boiler type, fuel used, programmer, cylinder stat, room stat etc doesn’t really say that the system works efficiently or properly, so service records for the boiler should be added. Most importantly, there are other existing elements in the EPC that could be added. Getting back to insulation, in my view the most important thing that must be added is Thermal Imaging and Borescope Inspection of the cavity of the property carried out in controlled and appropriate conditions. The thermal imaging will show up any areas of concern and the borescope inspection will detail materials in the cavity (if any) and to what level of quality. Think of the millions of pounds spent putting in new boilers over the past few years, merely costing less to slightly heat the environment rather than the home. This change can be brought about with simple upskilling of assessors in the areas mentioned – and the benefits to homeowners in my opinion can be substantial. You can contact John Ross at jross@serc.ac.uk

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