Orchard Street case study: from EPC F to B

There isn’t one way only to reach EPC compliance. Often thinking around some different solutions can provide a more effective and affordable path to improving your building’s rating. Take the following case study as an example.

Commercial property investment manager Orchard Street contacted MEES Solutions about a property in Swindon. They had a mid-terrace industrial unit on a low rent that had been assessed by another EPC provider who generated an F-rated, non MEES-compliant EPC.

Within this company’s report, recommendations included the installation of a gas boiler and LED lighting. There is no gas to the property at present and the nearest main is some distance away –  to install gas would have been at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds. A lease renewal was taking place and the tenant’s solicitors had agreed that the lease could proceed on the basis that these recommended works took place. This would have been a costly and disruptive project for all concerned.

In the first instance, we used superior software to that of the original survey and this yielded an E-rated EPC which would have allowed the renewal to take place had the legal agreement not been in place already.

We took time to speak to the tenant as to how they used the property and what improvements they would like to see take place. These differed from the ones that the original assessor had suggested. It also turned out the tenant was really only being obstinate due to an issue with a leaky roof.

We suggested that there were smarter, cheaper and more beneficial solutions to the problem that would benefit both the tenant and the landlord. We subsequently modelled these into the EPC calculation. This included a design-led LED installation and the use of an air source heat pump system, which would outperform gas by some margin.

The result, using our strategy, was a B31 EPC rating.

Part of the work that we did (within our original fee) was to liaise with the M&E consultant and their installer to ensure that the system to be installed was both adequate and acceptable to all parties.

It is our belief that such service should be part of what all EPC assessors provide.

As the client commented themselves: “The suggestion from Dave is a good alternative to the proposed gas boiler installation and would provide a quicker solution (without requirement for gas) to get a compliant EPC for this unit.”