Monthly Archives: April 2012

The Green Deal

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The Green Deal’s main premise is to provide loans to people to improve the carbon footprint of their home or business on the basis that the savings in their bills will not be more than the loan repayments. “The Golden Rule;” the problem is that this is reliant on humans being rational and intelligent. The reality is that sometimes either due to the lack of technolgogy or indifference, people do not always follow the logical course of action. For example, someone may have insulated their home and put in a new ‘A’ rated condensing boiler, but will still put the heating on full, and just open the window instead!!

NEW EPC – Now available to the Public online.

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The New Domestic EPC launched from 1st April will enable any member of the public to check any epc on a national register for the first time. The New EPC is more comprehensvie and provides more scope for specific informaiton regarding the property to be accounted for, thereby providing a more accurate survey.

The New EPC will also be used for borrowing money via the Green to make energy efficiency improvements on the property. It will also be required when installing solar and pv panels and other renewable technolgies that enable the home owner to benefit from the FIT and RHI schemes that provide financial paybacks.

The EPC  will be availlable earlier to prospective buyers and tenants will also be given this energy information early on, to give them time to plan how they will implement some of the recommendations included.

They will also be able to compare the energy performance of their home with that of similar properties, as the National Energy Performance Certificate Register is opened up to public use for the first time.

Companies wanting to use the Register will be required to sign a licensing agreement which will include strict rules over how the data is used.

Andrew Stunell the CLG Minster said,  “The Energy Performance Certificate has proved useful in putting the efficiency of our homes at the forefront of our minds, but home owners can often struggle to know how to act on the advice it gives.

“That’s why we’re giving it a complete redesign, making it clearer and easier to understand and putting the recommendations for improvements into matters of pounds and pence by showing how much consumers could potentially save on their energy bills.

“And by making the national register of Energy Performance Certificates open to the public, each home owner will for the first time be able to see how their property compares with others, and where changes could be made so their homes become as eco-friendly as possible.”

The relevant government documentation can all be found here:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningandbuilding/changesenergyperformanc