Energy Performance Certificates

ENERGY PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATES – Free Heating

What is an EPC rating?
An EPC rating is an assessment of a property’s energy efficiency.

A qualified Energy Assessor will carry out a survey of your home, and determine the energy performance of your walls, roof, heating, hot water, lighting, windows and floors.

The Energy Assessor will give each of these features a rating of very good (most efficient), good, average, poor, and very poor (least efficient). Properties are then given an overall rating from A (most energy-efficient) to G (least energy-efficient). Properties are also given a score. The higher this number, the lower your CO2 emissions and fuel bills are likely to be.

The Energy Assessor will also make recommendations on how to improve your overall EPC rating and score. For each feature that is inefficient, they will recommend how it can be improved and give the typical installation cost. The EPC will also give the typical yearly savings you will make by installing the measure, and the potential rating after carrying out the recommendation.

In the UK, EPCs are an essential part of selling, renting, or buying homes.
Potential buyers or renters can use them to determine how high or low their energy bills will be in their new home. Given a choice, people will choose to live in a property with the highest energy rating which will mean it will release less CO2, and cost less to heat!

Is your Main Heating energy-inefficient?

Mains gas room heaters, bottled gas (LPG) room heaters and solid fuel fires are usually given a rating of average to very poor.
The EPC will recommend installing a boiler and radiators, which will considerably increase your energy rating for your main heating.

Gas and bottled gas room heaters use a lot of gas, and if used over a long period of time are likely to cost a lot more than a central heating system. Also, while one room in your home may be cosy, the rest may be freezing during cold weather.

With bottled gas room heaters you need to ensure that you never run out and have spare bottle(s) to hand. You also need to ensure that your source of LPG gas bottles is reliable and that your supplier is always well-stocked, and if necessary can deliver them to you. LPG gas bottles are very heavy to handle!

Coal and log fires have a high impact on climate change. They are mostly carbon, which when burned, react with the oxygen in the air to produce CO2, a heat-trapping gas. When this greenhouse gas is released into the atmosphere, it warms the earth above its normal limits.

Solid fuel fires are also hard and time-consuming to manage, especially for the frail and elderly. Again, one room in your home may be warm whilst others are cold. You may find that you are also using electric heaters in rooms that don’t have a fire.

Electric Storage Heaters, electric panel heaters, portable electric heaters, electric/oil-filled radiators are usually given a rating of poor to very poor, unless they are modern with high heat retention and automatic charge and output controls, meaning they typically cost the least to run.

While panel heaters and electric radiators are better for the environment than gas and coal fires; the economical choice boils down to deciding if the rooms they’re going to heat are for everyday or occasional use. You’ll need to use more power to heat your room with panel heaters, making them more expensive to run.

Electric radiators store heat, making them ideal to use in rooms on a day-to-day basis and for prolonged periods. However, they take a long time to heat up and cool down, so you may be waiting a while.

First-time Central Heating Grant

Modern boilers are around 90% efficient and with thermostatic valves on the radiators, you can adjust the level of heat you want in each room. This allows you to save energy and the amount you spend on it.

You’re likely to qualify for our first-time central heating grant if you have any of the above heating methods as the Main Heating on your EPC, if you have one (it doesn’t matter if you don’t); and if you currently have no heating system!

To see if you qualify, head over to https://www.freeheating.co.uk/apply/ and apply now!