Anchor Environmental Sustainability & Net Zero Carbon Strategy 2023 – 2026
The problem with SAP and EPC Why not use EPC ratings to measure the energy performance of new homes?
Care Homes Making care homes more energy efficient and more cost effective to run Over 90% of our growing portfolio of care homes are rated EPC C or above. We have sought to grow our portfolio in recent years through high quality, recently built homes that support residents with excellent facilities and are already well insulated, communally heated and energy efficient. Our aim will be to reach higher levels of energy efficiency and measurably reduce carbon emissions and operating costs whilst sharing the benefits of this approach with residents and colleagues. We are aiming to reach EPC C or above across all care homes well before 2030, and achieve net zero carbon by 2050. To achieve this we will: • Develop a tailored retrofitting plan for each care home setting out its pathway to net zero carbon by 2050. • Acquire or commission new homes that are able to demonstrate high levels of energy efficiency and carbon reduction impacts, reducing the requirement for future retrofit • Develop a care-specific heating strategy and clean heat transition, looking at how to minimise disruption to residents and colleagues. 1. Royal Institute of British Architects 2. Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers – see for example CIBSE response to MEES consultation: https://www.cibse.org/News-and-Policy/ Policy/Consultations/Closed-Consultations/Improving-the-energy-performance-of-privately-rent Anchor will be using additional metrics to measure the energy performance of new homes, including measures of space heating demand and energy use intensity. This is because we recognise that reaching net zero requires a more complex set of measures than the EPC / SAP methodologies provide. The EPC methodology uses a set of assumed factors and mainly based on energy costs instead of energy use or CO2 and does not accurately predict energy use, CO 2 emissions or building performance. The method is somewhat useful for targeting fuel poverty but currently favours gas over electricity. The CCC, RIBA 1 and CIBSE 2 all recognise the problems with EPC methodology, especially when using them for energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation objectives. There is a strong industry push for the regulatory environment to shift towards using Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of real buildings 3 using actual measured building performance. EPCs are a useful and widespread tool for communicating and benchmarking energy efficiency and our adoption of additional measures will complement ongoing compliance with EPC requirements.
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