A new EPC design follows Consumer Focus recommendations
Consumer Focus recommended significant changes to the EPC in their report, As easy as EPC, published on 30 June 2011. In their view, the EPC needs more Clarity, Credibility and Comparability, the three Cs; I've added my own recommendation that three Rs are also needed (see my YouGen blog for more details of my three Rs).
Now, in their recent publication Behaviour Change and Energy Use, jointly produced by the Cabinet Office, DECC and CLG, Government has announced that the EPC design will be changed next year. They intend to remove the confusing, second A-G graphic (coloured grey/blue), which currently appears alongside the energy efficiency A-G graphic (coloured green/red). The proposed new design is shown below, and in my view it's much clearer than the old one:
So this change should definitely improve the Clarity of the certificate, but what about the other two Cs - Credibility and Comparability? Consumer Focus suggested that adding information about costs, such as the overall energy bill and potential savings, would improve Combarability. The Cabinet Office report states that the savings of having an energy-efficient home will be made clearer, and this looks to have been achieved in this design.
Finally, Consumer Focus recommended that reducing the validity of the EPC, from its present 10 years to a more realistic length, would improve its Credibility. In the view of Consumer Focus, an EPC that is not recently prepared could give consumers inaccurate information in a number of key areas, including the value of installing improvements, as fuel prices and financial incentives change over time. Unfortunately the report is silent on this, but in the interests of consumer protection, hopefully they will respond to this recommendation in the near future.
There is more comment below on the content of As easy as EPC?
As easy as EPC?
Consumer Focus has published a report, As easy as EPC, giving their verdict on how the EPC needs to change. I was pleased to be asked by its author to provide technical input about the current EPC format and delivery.
Reading the report's conclusions, I was struck by how similar they were to those of the very first market research into the format of the EPC, carried out as part of the development of RdSAP way back in 2004. It seems that what motivates householders to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes hasn't changed much since then.
You can read more about this report on the YouGen blog, and on the NHER Insight blog. At a meeting at CLG (Communities and Local Government) on the day the report was published, I heard that they look favourably on Consumer Focus' conclusions on how the EPC needs to change - so it seems that a new EPC design is on its way.
EPCs to be improved to support the Green Deal
DECC and CLG, the two government departments responsible for the Green Deal scheme and Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), are now working together to specify changes to the EPC for homes. This is because government sees vital synergies between home EPCs, and what they hope to achieve through broader policy on the energy efficiency of homes. In particular, they see the EPC at the centre of the Green Deal - having an energy assessment carried out, by a qualified, regulated energy assessor, will be the first step in obtaining finance for improvements through the Green Deal.
Several working groups are now meeting, facilitated by the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes, with the intention of helping government create the secondary legislation and documentation that will underpin the Green Deal scheme. You can read more about the work of these groups here.
As an acknowledged expert in Energy Assessment and Energy Advice, I am suporting the work of the Green Deal Advice Qualification and Accreditation Forum via my membership of this forum's methodology subgroup. In this subgroup, we are considering how the methodology used to produce EPCs for homes needs to change, so that it can provide the basis for the Green Deal home assessment.
Essentially, this requires the EPC assessment to take into account just how the current occupier uses energy in their home. This has to be ignored in the standard EPC, because it is produced at a time when the home is changing hands, and the preferencers of the previous owners are of no relevance to the new occupiers. For Green Deal, the EPC will be provided for the current occupier, so it's important that the energy advice it supports takes account of their needs and preferences.
DECC has published some interim findings in the form of three documents that are now available on their Energy Bill webpage. These cover:
The technologies that may be included in Green Deal,
Consumer protection in the Green Deal, and
Extra help via the Energy Company Obligation
We expect to see the final outputs from these working groups later in the summer, and a consultation on the conclusions is promised for late Autumn.
Microgeneration is becoming mainstream
According to the Telegraph, the cost of solar PV panels is crashing down: read the article here.
There was a similarly upbeat message from the Minister, Greg Barker, at the Microgeneration Conference held this week (June 2011), reported by EAEM, here - the Minster announced the government's new Microgeneration Strategy at this conference.
Overall, the combined effect of the Feed In Tariff, falling prices per m2 of PV panel, and an increasing acceptance of this technology by householders, could produce a boom in installations that might just replicate the unceasing march of double glazing over the last few decades.
Perhaps as a result, Which? has turned its attention to investigating the claims and tactics used by the solar PV industry. Reading their findings, it appears that the industry does have some work to do, if poor practice is to be completely eradicated. The Which? study is reported on their website here, and comment has been provided by YouGen here.
The government has recently announced that microgeneration will probably be fundable via the Green Deal scheme, when it launches next year. It will be important that such practices are eradicated, if the Green Deal is to gain consumer confidence - any suggestion that PV is going the way of double glazing (and being sold via 'double glazing salesmen' tactics) must be urgently dealt with.