UK Landlord Forum / Life

I'm looking to upgrade the heating in a small flat. There is no gas supply so the only choice is electric and the meter has a day and night rate.
In the flat at the moment there are cheap radiators (currently selling at Argos for 60 pounds each). The EPC was done back in 2011 and it states that there were electric storage heaters at the time.
I'm assuming that if I had an EPC done now it would be lower than the stated rating of E60.
I've got a couple of quotes, and modern electric thermostatically controlled radiators would cost about $1600. To get smart storage heaters it will cost about $3000.
The question is will the extra cost make much difference to the EPC? I've been told that the EPC requirement might get tighter in the future and require a D rating as a minimum.
Also how specific is the EPC calculation, for example is there a rating factor for each room if I was to install the smart storage radiators in 3 rooms and then a panel radiator in the 4th room?

Quote from: Georgia on August 07, 2018, 09:59:46 PMAlso how specific is the EPC calculation...

Not very, I'm afraid. You're paying someone around £45 to do this... they don't have the time to do much more apart from filling in a template.

I have found LED bulbs throughout to be a good, simple, non-invasive way of improving the score ever so slightly. Tenants also like them.

Your EPC is valid for a while yet. Think about problems when you need to, not before, because - as you say - legislation may change so the goalposts may move in the meantime even though you've done everything, now, with the best of intentions.

Tenants have never - yet - expressed any great interest in the EPC rating... I always show it, at viewings. They like LED bulbs. They like solar panels (they don't like the separate solar panel meter needing to be read every quarter - which I don't bother with, really - as and when).

I suppose I'm trying to address issues before putting the flat back on the rental market. I have another flat in the same block and the heating failed. Being overseas I had to rely on my agent to obtain quotes and that took forever.
I'm trying to understand peak/off peak electricity at the moment. I seem to be paying a premium for peak usage just to have an off peak discount which I don't use during summer. Yet energy saving seem to be promoting the use of off peak?