Regional EPC Differences

EPC Scotland and England

EPCs in Scotland and England should not be directly compared because of their different calculation methods that have been used to generate a result.

Case Study

As an example of the different perspective an English and Scottish EPC can give, consider two prefabricated, air conditioned retail buildings with use, size, internal layout and orientation being identical. All specific building and efficiency data is available. The only difference is one building is located in Scotland and one in England.

Scottish EPC Result: This building achieves a D (55) rating. The annual CO2 emissions are 55 kg CO2/m2

English EPC Result: The asset Rating (AR) achieved a B (30).

Looking Closer

If the energy efficiency grade of the buildings were compared it would appear that the English building was far more energy efficient than the Scottish building. This is not the case however. If the BER of the English EPC (located at the foot of the first page) was compared then the comparison would be more representative.

Conclusion

The different systems in Scotland and the rest of the UK are not helpful. The different systems can lead to confusion as the grades achieved may appear very different when the actual carbon emissions are compared the difference is negligible. In order to compare the energy efficiency of buildings in England and Scotland more information needs to be considered than just the headline rating achieved.