Energy Performance Certificates or EPCs are due to be part of Home Information Packs,[1]which have been in effect since the 1st August 2007 in England and Wales for domestic properties with 4 or more bedrooms. The scheme was extended to encompass 3 bedroom homes from the 10th of September 2007. They are a result of European Union Directive 2002/91/EC [2] relating to the energy performance of buildings. The directive itself was inspired by the Kyoto Protocol which commits the EU to reduce CO2 by 8% by 2010, to 5.2% below 1990 levels. The directive came into force on the 4th January 2006 and requires member states to comply with Article 7 (Energy Performance Certificates), Article 8 (Inspection of boilers) and Article 9 (Inspection of air conditioning systems) within 3 years of the inception date, the deadline being 4th January 2009.
In the UK this directive was enacted in Part 5 of the Housing Act 2004.
The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is based on the RDSAPv3 procedure, which is a simplified version of the SAP2005. SAP is short for Standard Assessment Procedure and RDSAP for Reduced Data SAP. The EPC will be produced by Home Inspectors or Domestic Energy Assessors to be included as part of a Home Information Pack