energyreporter.co.uk

This page outlines many of the low cost measures (i.e. under £500) that are the most cost-effective in terms of savings generated in relatively short space of time. If you are thinking of selling your home and require a Home Information Pack (and therefore an Energy Performance Certificate), implementing these measures could have a dramatic effect on your home's energy rating. After each section there is a tip from a qualified energy assessor that should help you maximise your rating.

Low energy lights

This is the most obvious adjustment to make to your property before an energy assessment. It must be noted that the lighting of your property represents a very small amount of energy use in relation to space and water heating, and this is reflected in the EPC. Switching all your lights to low energy versions should only improve your EPC by between 1 and 2 points. On the other hand they are very easy to install and very financially efficient in terms of cost, light bulb durability and energy bills. There has been considerable advances in the cost and quality of low energy lights and they can now be found for almost all light sockets. As a rule of thumb you can tell if your bulbs are low energy by turning them on and seeing how hot they get. Bulbs that get very hot are not low energy, as they are wasting a large amount of energy in heat. Low energy bulbs will get warm, but not nearly as much as the standard sort. Low energy bulbs come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, light intensities, colours and fittings.

Tip - When counting light bulbs the energy reporter counts each hanging light pendant as one light (regardless of the number of bulbs). Also lights are only counted in habitable rooms, so lights in loft spaces and garages will be ignored.

Increase loft insulation

This is one of the highest impact energy saving measures you can implement. It is particularly relevant if you have no insulation in your loft at all. The difference in energy efficiency between no loft insulation and just a small amount is enormous. Insulating an uninsulated loft with 270mm thick insulation could improve your rating by up to 10 points. If you currently have less than 150mm of insulation in your loft your EPC will probably recommend increasing it to 270mm. The EPC will show you the savings that could be achieved if you do this.

Tip - When installing insulation please note that it does not have to be cut in between the rafters, it can be just laid over the top of them. Doing this saves time and can be done by most able-bodied people.

Additional insulation to water cylinder

If you have a functional hot water cylinder you should ensure that it is adequately insulated. The EPC will recommend additional cylinder insulation if it is less than or equal to 25mm in spray foam or if it is less than or equal to 100mm jacket insulation. Tip - A loose fitting jacket (where you can see the cylinder through the jacket) can dramatically reduce the effectiveness of the insulation and therefore the energy reporter will have to reduce its recorded thickness. Recommendations for additional insulation will not occur if your jacket is well fitted and 120mm thick or more, (although a 160mm jacket is preferable), or if it has spray foam insulation of 38mm or over. Insulating an uninsulated hot water cylinder can significantly improve your point rating.

Cavity fill

Cavity wall insulation can dramatically improve the thermal efficiency of your home. Cavity walls became the standard method of building exterior walls from the 1930’s, although some properties had cavity walls pre-1900. If your property was built after 1983, EPC software will assume that it complies with the building regulations of that date and therefore will have had cavity insulation installed when it was constructed. You can check to see if your property has cavity walls by examining the brickwork of the building. Cavity brickwork is usually built in stretcher bond, i.e. two skins of bricks laid on the long edge with a cavity in between them. This means that only the long face of the brick is showing. Solid brick walls are constructed by joining the two rows together with header bricks that span both rows. Both walls may use the same brick type, but the presence of header bricks makes it very likely that you property is of solid wall construction, (please note that some cavity walls have header bricks, and further inspection may be necessary). Cavity walls are much more thermally efficient than solid walls as they use the air in-between the two skins of bricks as insulation. If your home is between the ages of 1930 and 1983 it will very likely have an uninsulated cavity. Although these walls are much more thermally efficient than solid walls they can be improved by having the cavity filled with blown fibre insulation.

Tip

You can check to see if your cavity walls have been retro-filled by looking for a specific drilling pattern in the mortar joints of the brickwork. 25mm holes are drilled at regular intervals and usually 2 or 3 courses below each side of the windows openings. These holes are then injected with blown fibre under pressure to completely fill the cavity. The holes are then filled with matching mortar and in many cases fairly close inspection is needed to spot the holes. If the wall has been rendered or the replacement mortar is a very good match, further inspection may be necessary. An average 1960’s semi detached property could improve its rating by over 7 points by having its cavity walls filled with insulation.

Tip - Open fireplaces

Open fireplaces affect your EPC rating, although as they are considered to be part of the integral fabric of the building they will not be recommended for alteration. They negatively affect the EPC because open chimneys provide greater ventilation and therefore greater heat loss in a property. For a fireplace to be described as ‘open’ it must have either an open chimney with no appliance installed, an open chimney with a non-flued appliance installed and with no control of air supply, or a temporarily closed chimney with or without ventilation. The control of air supply is the key point here. If the opening has no permanent way of being closed it will be considered open. Temporarily closing your fireplace, (for example with a piece of card wedged in the opening) is not considered sufficient to be a long term alteration and therefore will not be considered as closed. Sealing an open fireplace may improve your SAP rating by 1 or 2 points, however you should note two things about this. Firstly, chimneys require at least a little ventilation and occasional cleaning. This is to prevent condensation and stagnant air building up, and to enable the clearing of debris which can cause a fire hazard. Secondly, working open fireplaces can be a massive attraction and selling point for a property and although sealing them up may improve your energy rating, this may not outweigh the attraction of the feature. Furthermore the EPC will not recommend sealing them.

Tip - Separated conservatories

Like open fireplaces, unseparated conservatories are considered to be part of the integral fabric of the building and will therefore not be recommended for alteration. They negatively effect the EPC as they extend the heat perimeter and heated area of the property. Although the EPC is measured in terms of the average square metre the addition of an unseperated conservatory will lower the average efficiency. This is because glass (even double glazed) loses heat at a much faster rate than walls or roofs. Unseperated conservatories are assumed to be heated to the same temperature as the rest of the house. It is therefore an advantage to have your conservatory defined as ‘separated’ as it can therefore be ignored for the purposes of your energy assessment. A separated conservatory is defined as one that is separated from the house by external grade doors. In essence this means that if the conservatory wasn’t there the property would still be weatherproof. Most conservatories are defined as separated as they were added after the original design and construction of the property.

Please note that this is not a comprehensive guide to all the recommendations in the 'under £500' section. Other recommendations may occur, however the advice given covers most of the main ones.

If you would like to know more about longer term energy saving measures (that will typically cost over £500 to install) click here

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