Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) changed from 15th June 2025. Instead of recommending fiddly upgrades to heating controls. or telling householders to “get a wind turbine”, they have at last grasped a modicum of common sense and now recommend heat pumps and home batteries where these are appropriate.
EPCs are still stuck in 2012 when it comes to carbon factors
Back in 2012 a unit of electricity. – a kilowatt-hour or kWh – caused carbon dioxide emissions of 460 grammes, because so much coal was burned to make it. Fast forward to 2025 and the huge growth in wind turbines and solar panels means that 1 kWh of grid electricity now causes only 177 grammes of CO2 emissions – but the RdSAP10 method used from 15 June 2025 for EPCs is still stuck in 2012 so vastly overstates the carbon emissions for the electricity you consume.
This is complete nonsense, so homeowners who are trying to do their best by the planet need to know that your EPC is a lie when it comes to CO2 emissions from using electricity. A new build house built after June 2025 uses the proper carbon factors, because that is assessed using the “full SAP 10” method so will appear better than an identical home assessed with the RdSAP10 reduced data method.
How to avoid it? – get yourself a whole house retrofit plan developed using our Passivhaus method.
EPCs for landlords
Landlords currently cannot rent a property that is EPC E or below. Soon it is predicted the government will raise that to EPC C or below. I recently did an EPC for en electrically heated 1-bed home that came out at D65, because it used modern storage heaters not a heat pump. The owner could easily have made that a high C or even a B, with an air-to-water heat pump plus water-filled radiators. Or a similar result with an air-to-air air conditioner, since these heat even better than they cool, with an efficiency ratio of 4:1 heat produced vs. energy used.
Want an EPC and proper advice on how to improve your property? Contact me here.