An EPC rates your homes Energy Efficiency from A to G and will show you a graph similar to that which you see on fridges and other appliances. It will give you an estimate of the heating and lighting costs for the property (based on standard occupancy) as well as suggesting low-cost measures that you could take in order to reduce these running costs.

From the 6 April 2008 all new homes will require an EPC and Recommendation Report when physically complete.

The EPC will be based on the SAP rating which is currently required to comply with Building Regulations. This demonstrates that new homes meet the targets for energy performance that are part of the Building Regulations.

The EPC must be produced by an Energy Assessor who is accredited for On Construction Energy Assessment. The EPC is based on SAP rather than RdSAP which is used for existing homes.

When the home is physically complete, an EPC should be produced and given to the owner of the home. Building Control will not issue a completion certificate until they are sure this has been done.

If you are marketing a home off-plan, you will need to have a PEA (Predicted Energy Assessment) in the HIP to provide to potential buyers. Once the home is physically complete the PEA in the HIP should be replaced with an EPC and Recommendation Report.

PEAs should be based on the predicted SAP rating for the home. This will be available from calculations done at the design stage and is a number between 1 and 100. A spreadsheet template is available to be able to represent the rating in a graphical form for potential buyers.

Each building within a development will require its own EPC (although reports can be cloned for identical dwellings and will not need to be inspected individually).