Raising your home’s EPC rating isn’t only about lowering your energy costs. You could potentially increase the value of your home as a result, earning you more if you ever decide to sell.
Why you might need to raise your EPC score
While improving your EPC score is an optional choice for homeowners, the situation can be more urgent for landlords.
If you ever wish to rent out your home, it must meet the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) grade of E or above.
Due to the government’s new Domestic Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) laws, landlords who rent out a home with an EPC rating of F or G run the danger of receiving a civil penalty of up to £5,000 per violation.
If you want to raise your property’s EPC rating, here are some tips on how to do it.
How to raise your EPC score
There are several home renovation options that might increase your EPC rating. This is estimated using the energy consumption per square metre (m2) and the annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in tonnes.
Improve your insulation
Insulating your home can often have a huge impact on its energy efficiency.. This is due to the fact that most heat loss occurs through roofs, walls, doors, and windows. You must insulate these important areas if you want to guarantee that heat stays within the structure.
So, how can you insulate your home? The first option is cavity wall insulation, which involves a tradesperson drilling tiny holes into the outside brickwork of your home, injecting insulating material there, and then caulking the holes shut.
Insulation for solid walls can be placed from either the inside or outside of the house. On the inside, it is assembled by either building an insulation-filled stud wall or adding insulation-filled boards to an already-existing wall. Installing exterior wall insulation involves screwing an insulating board to the wall, which is subsequently plastered or covered with cladding.
Improve the glazing of your windows
Upgrading the glazing of your windows is a fantastic way to increase energy efficiency. It’s extremely likely that you’re losing a lot of heat through single-glazed windows. Choosing to replace it with double or triple-glazed windows is an effective strategy to fight this.
Even while it might not be the most affordable choice, this is a definite method to enhance your EPC score—possibly even by a whole grade.
Use LED light bulbs
The bulk of older light bulbs in buildings are often inefficient halogen or incandescent bulbs. Making the transition to LED is strongly advised if your home has these types of bulbs.
Despite occasionally being somewhat more costly than other varieties, LED lights eventually pay for themselves via the money you save on energy costs. If your lights are on for up to 10 hours a day, an LED bulb may last up to 14 years.
Use a smart meter
A great approach to monitor how much energy you use in your home is using smart meters. Real-time meter readings are shown on this electronic device, which also sends them to your energy supplier automatically so that your bills are exact and not approximated.
To have a smart meter installed, simply ask your energy supplier whether they can install one if they haven’t previously been in touch with you. Installation is free since smart meters are funded by the country’s energy bills.
Incentives to improve EPC ratings
You may raise your home’s EPC rating with the help of a number of incentives that the government offers, saving you from having to pay for all the improvements yourself. Your EPC rating can be raised via the government’s Energy Companies Obligation (ECO) grants, which provide a variety of advantages. Examples of ECO grants that can increase your home’s energy effectiveness include:
- Insulation for walls
- Insulation for roofs
- Loft and attic insulation
- Flooring insulation
- Boilers
- Central heating
Homeowners, landlords, and tenants can each submit an application for an ECO grant. It’s important to keep in mind that if the home is privately rented to tenants, you must file the application in their names, and both the landlord and renter must agree to the alterations being made.
Improving your EPC rating
Increasing your property’s EPC rating could seem difficult at first. It’s not as tough as you might imagine, though, and by taking a few simple measures, you could improve your rating by one or two positions. By doing this, you could be able to raise the value of your home should you decide to sell it in the future and perhaps bring down the price of your energy bills.
You could be thinking about getting a green mortgage if you’re thinking about making repairs to raise your EPC rating. Get in contact with one of our advisers right away to go through your choices if you think you might be interested in this.