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What are Energy Performance Certificates or EPC

By on August 27, 2015

Labels on products that provide information on their energy consumption is an extremely popular method to help consumers take decisions. In India, the five star labelling scheme is used primarily for the electrical appliances to provide information on electricity use (link). Interestingly, in most of the western countries, the concept of labelling is also applied on automobiles and even houses.

What is Energy performance certificate (EPC)?

Energy performance certificate (EPC) is a kind of label that present the energy efficiency of a dwelling (house) in UK. The rating is given on a scale of A to G where the most efficient homes – which should have the lowest fuel bills – are in band A. Apart from other property details such as address, type and total floor area, it also provides recommendations on ways to improve the home’s energy efficiency to save money.

EPC when buying or selling house

If you are planning to sell a house you are legally required to have an EPC in place or you must have at least commissioned. Using the recommendation from the EPC, you can improve the rating of the house and make it more attractive to a prospective tenant.

If you are planning to buy or rent a house in UK, you will be given the EPC of the property offered. A house with high rating will ensure lower energy bills in the long run.

How to get an EPC?

To get an EPC the homeowner is required to contact an accredited assessor who assesses and produces the certificate.

Buildings covered under requirement to produce EPC

Domestic and non-domestic building except a few building such as places of worship, temporary buildings, buildings of less than 50m2 etc are covered under the requirement to produce EPC.

Should India have energy labels for residential property?

India is all set to launch energy labels for automobiles and has building codes (ECBC) in place for the commercial property. With reference to residential properties, there are no labelling schemes planned so far. One of the reasons being, the energy consumption in households is primarily driven by appliances and those are a choice of the people who are going to live there. Very rarely, the choice of appliances is made by builders or landlord when furnished apartments are offered for sale/rent. For more details on this aspect you may refer to our article on: Renting or buying a fully/semi furnished home? Do remember to factor in the money that you will have to pay for electricity.

References

https://www.gov.uk/buy-sell-your-home/energy-performance-certificates

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jba/journal/v5/n3/full/jba200922a.html

About the Author:
Abhishek Jain is an Alumnus of IIT Bombay with almost 10 years of experience in corporate before starting Bijli Bachao in 2012. His passion for solving problems moved him towards Energy Sector and he is keen to learn about customer behavior towards Energy and find ways to influence the same towards Sustainability. .

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