I received an interesting question from a customer. He asked, as he was buying his electric from a company who only sell energy from renewable sources would this give him a higher rating.
I think the first question to answer is are you being delivered the renewable energy your paying for? Not really is the answer.
An article in The Independent 27th September 2019 pointed out that in a survey a third of people thought purchasing a renewable tariff meant that all of the electricity delivered to their home would come from renewable sources. This is not possible because the power from all the different sources are linked up to the national grid before being directed to individual homes so you received the same electric as everyone else.
What in fact happens is the Green Energy company buys the renewable energy that you’re predicted to use in a year from renewable sources and also certificates to say the electric has come from a renewable source then sells it on to the customer. Not quite the same thing and “Which” thinks they are misleading customers.
So back to the question, the answer is no it doesn’t affect the rating. You are still buying electric even though it’s from a “Green” energy company and cost is a factor in the calculations. The less efficient the property the more power you will have to buy resulting in a lower the rating. If you had your own solar panels the rating would be higher because you would not be paying for the electric generated. There is a big debate going on at the moment about people installing solar panels when their properties are badly insulated therefore wasting the energy they produce. The new initiative recently announce by the Government (Green Homes Grants) will tackle this sort of thing by assessing the property and your energy use then working out an overall plan for the improvement of your property, Your not going to received a £5,000 voucher from the government to spend on anything that takes your fancy.
When the assessment for an Energy Performance Certificate is carried out bear in mind It’s the property being assessed not how it’s used, people use properties in different ways. Somebody could be in all the time using more energy than somebody who’s out working long hours for instance. So one price for each energy source and a set number of hours for heating, lighting and hot water are used for all properties, a Standard occupancy depending on the size of the property is also in the calculations. This produces the “Estimated Energy Costs of the Dwelling” which may not be the same as your actual costs because as previously stated properties are used differently.