Energy-saving ratings for homes

A new wheeze by the Government named the 'Energy Performance Certificate' is to be introduced as a compulsory part of the Home Information Packs which house sellers must provide during a sale.

The whole shebang doesn't come into force until next year (Although the idea has been knocking around for a while yet, while expensive for the home seller who must shell out roughly a grand for the all-encompassing survey, will save each buyer from having to purchase a survey for each property they show an interest in.

While that is a long overdue process, especially for hard up first-time buyers, it is also a fair one and with the new Energy Performance Certificate tacked on, could actually become a process for large-scale change.

Not on its own of course, but allied to the increasing willingness and interest of individuals to take upon themselves the responsibility for energy conservation and production (As well as the new technologies centred on microgeneration), it could well help raise awareness by appealing to that aspect which will always stimulate action. Money.

Who wants to spend the most money they will ever spend in their entire life on something that pisses out more money literally through the walls? I certainly don't. I want to know that the house i'm buying (Hahaha as if that will ever come to happen for the dacs) isn't going to be wasteful, in the same way that you wouldn't buy a car that pissed out oil.

I want to spend my money on domestic wind turbines, CHP boilers, Pv Panels and Ground Source Heat Pumps. We do all we can with those energy saving initiatives that don't cost us anything (Recycling etc) but can't be doing with paying out for surveys on top of the cost of a house, when the seller can take that hit themselves.

The Government has actually done something (And it is only something when you consider how little else they've done) decent for the environment and for the British public.

An Englishman's home is his castle as they say, it should also be his own power station.