Energy Survey - not our best experience.

[Bugsy]

Having decided to 'test the water' we are in the process of putting our house on the market, part of which is the Energy Survey.

Now I don't know if we just 'got a bad one' but the guy who turned up, well...............

Started off by saying that our '1 metre' stone walls were bad - no insulation.

Looked at our garage roof through a bedroom window and said 'Asbestos' will have to be removed. (The panels are actually Fibre-cement) and I have the receipt for them. (Its not even part of the bloody survey)

Virtually called us liars over the amount of wood we buy for the wood-burner. Usually bought cash from local farmers so with no receipts he insisted on us signing an attestation to that effect.

Cast doubts on our heating oil usage despite producing receipts for the last eleven years.

The guy clearly couldn't understand that we heat our house to suit OUR needs and not some written 'norm'.

Not a good experience at all.

[sid]

You're not the first! I had a similar experience recounted to me when another friend put their house on the market last year. The "expert" (and I use the term advisedly), didn't believe the oil, electricity or wood consumption figures and virtually made his own up!!

Stone walls are not that fantastic at insulating, (we have most of ours placo and insulated now) but surely the utility bills speak for themselves. Seems like a waste of time to me, maybe just jobs for the boys?

 

[Théière]

Ok this is in the UK.  New neighbours had loft insulated with 100mm of kingspan and they had velux's fitted.  In the depths of the winter freeze they had the same lack of snow on the roof as we with barely 50mm of seriously compressed glass fibre between the joists not the purlins.

So how well insulation is fitted (or not) has just as bigger bearing on the overall energy figure but none of these "inspectors" has a thermal imaging camera to test it. 

Friends in France were also amazed as indeed was I when we read through their report.  It used standard tables and made big speculations on energy use on the assumption of outside temperatures and heating to maintain the entire house at a constant temperature.  Providing they all use the same tables there is at least a comparisson albeit quite a lot more heating seemed to be required as you found with the actual size of your bills, wood supply, oil reserves etc.

I wanted to sell my house and buy a poly tunnel, very thin walls but far warmer in early spring (cold this year) compared to my maison with 1 metre thick walls.

EDIT: Did they energy rate your swimming pool?     bet not, but that is the second largest consumer of energy next to your hot water heater.  Amazing that they don't take that into account [blink]

[idun]

We had this done when we were selling in France. The prices charged by

these companies was radically different and in fact the one with the

poshest logo and a member of some professional association  was the

cheapest, even though it really looked like it would be the most

expensive. The bloke was very thorough, accepted our utility bills and

no problem at all.

We would, IF we had been told a load of tosh, complained to either their professional body and/or the DCRF, as charlatans should not be plying their trade.

Interesting about the stone built buildings. I

have had a lot of things said to me over the years about these houses,

including being told that they were easy to heat and kept cool in

summer. As I have never lived in one, I would not know about these

things.

[YCCMB]

We had one done recently in the UK. as the bloke who did it explained.."If someone wants to buy your house, this will not be a factor in their decision". Sad git that I am, I'd read a fair few before he came and discovered that the "recommendations" for every single property are identical and come down to:

- Insulating walls ( whether its possible or not)

- adding solar panels (even if your house, roof or whatever are unsuitable and face due north)

- Insulating floors

- replacing all light bulbs with energy saving bulbs

And that's it. For everyone (in the UK). We were told that we'd undoubtedly get an"f" rating, based largely on the age of our house. In the end, we got an "e" rating, based undoubtedly on the fact that we long ago replaced all our light bulbs with energy saving ones. I cannot for the life of me imagine a prospective buyer caring about what light bulbs we are using, and as for the rest, it's up to the individual what her they feel that changes would be beneficial.

Maybe it's different in France and maybe people do care more..but I can't see it.

[Chancer]

I shall shortly be getting one in the UK so read your experiences with interest, I have read that from 2018 it will be illegal to rent a property unless it has an energy rating of E or better, sounds like it wont be too hard to achieve though.

Re the French and the UK ones and the predicted energy costs being at odds with peoples real consumptions and their disputes with the diagnostiqueur, whilst I can understand their frustration at being told they must consume more than they do, and this surely must just be ignorance and/or poor communication skills from the diagnostiquer, I think that this is inevitable if there is to be a level playing field and all houses assessed using the same criteria.

 

[woolybanana]

Many of these diagnostiqmachins are not well qualified and just go through a box filling exercise based on the age and type of the property. There was criticism of them in the French press some time ago.

[Salty Sam]

[quote user="Chancer"]

I shall shortly be getting one in the UK so read your experiences with interest, I have read that from 2018 it will be illegal to rent a property unless it has an energy rating of E or better, sounds like it wont be too hard to achieve though.[/quote]

Clarification here;

[url]http://www.eversheds.com/global/en/what/articles/index.page?ArticleID=en/Real_estate/Green-Deal-Minimum-Energy-Standards[/url]