{"id":8590,"date":"2024-06-02T07:45:47","date_gmt":"2024-06-02T07:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=8590"},"modified":"2024-06-02T07:45:47","modified_gmt":"2024-06-02T07:45:47","slug":"celebrating-a-grade-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2024\/06\/02\/celebrating-a-grade-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating a Grade D"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A nice bloke came from OVO the other day to survey the house for an Energy Performance Certificate [EPC]. \u00a0As an event, it was as exciting as the Eurosong contest, and had a similar result. \u00a0We wondered as we prepared for the visit (eg finding proof of cavity wall insulation and solar panel fitting) whether we'd manage to scrape a C grade, but we doubted it. \u00a0Our doubts were confirmed when we were awarded <i class=\"\">soixante-six points. \u00a0<\/i>This is a Grade D [55 to 68 points]. \u00a0So nearly a C [69 to 74 points], but \"nearly\" doesn't win a coconut.<\/p>\n<div class=\"\">Our 9.5 kWHr battery, Eddi water heating system, and EV charging didn\u2019t count for anything. \u00a0But if we\u2019d had gas heating we would have scraped home. \u00a0In the looking glass world of the EPC, gas is always better than electricity because, it turns out, the rules have not been updated since 2012 and so don't reflect the government\u2019s net zero ambitions. \u00a0The rules are now being upgraded and so we might get a better result next year \u2013 <i class=\"\">soixante-sept <\/i><span class=\"\">maybe<\/span><i class=\"\">. \u00a0<\/i>We would, the assessor said, scrape a C (and save some cash) if we rip up all our solid floors and put underfloor insulation in. \u00a0The cost of this is \u00a3zillions; the payback time lengthy; the aggravated disturbance enormous. \u00a0It's not going to happen. \u00a0This useless information is given to everyone with a solid floor. \u00a0It has to do for advice before anything better turns up. \u00a0We were pleased only to pay a discounted \u00a325 for this immiseration instead of the usual hefty price.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"\">Thankfully, none of this matters much to us, as we are neither selling the house nor renting it out, but what a ridiculous situation to be in. \u00a0I can only presume that the set of civil servants cooking up EPC policy don't talk to those working on net zero policy or building regulations. \u00a0How nice it must be to live a compartmentalised life. \u00a0As Maisie once memorably asked of her low-graded coat hanger sculpture, does anyone out there want to share responsibility for the grade D?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>You can find your neighbours' <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/find-energy-certificate\">EPCs here.<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A nice bloke came from OVO the other day to survey the house for an Energy Performance Certificate [EPC]. \u00a0As an event, it was as exciting as the Eurosong contest, and had a similar result. \u00a0We wondered as we prepared...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}