Cornish Ben, the only thing I can add is to make sure your EPC reflects the true performance, there are lots of aware punters now.
Desp
Finally had my EPC done yesterday and it blatently doesn't reflect the true performance. It was given an E/F and looking at the breakdown:
Apparently we use 446 kWh/m2/year, emitting 4.6 tonnes of CO2, with lighting costing £54/year, heating £816 and hot water £89. We spend about £100/year on wood (arguably a zero carbon source), our net electricity bill with the PV/FIT is/will be zero plus we are with a renewable electricity provider for the remainder.
I thought SAP took these things into account? He said he only had a 'tickbox' for solar PV and solar thermal, these are then just listed as 'low carbon sources' in another section but not taken into account in the calculations it seems. So I could have had a 200W panel or a 10kW installation and it still wouldn't have affected the rating.
cob walls - poor rating - yep fair enough
150mm loft insulation - good rating - annoying as it's more like 300-400 over most of loft but shallower by loft hatch where he measured.
double glazing throughout - poor rating, how does that work??
main heating of woodburner/rads given a poor energy efficiency rating, and very poor as we don't have a thermostat.
anyway rant over - I guess I wasn't expecting anything different
