A Green Deal Story- Chapter 2

Alice in Wonderland

To re-cap, my recent Green Deal Assessment reduced my house Energy Performance (EPC) from a fairly creditable B to a below average E and all because I fitted a renewable energy biomass boiler.

In trying to understand how this happened I have had to rely on the Green Deal Assessor and the boiler installing company, so here is what they say:

The EPC system is not a direct measure of the efficiency of your house but rather how much it costs to heat. Built into the official assessment software is the assumption that wood pellets cost more than gas or heating oil – which they don't, they are now about 20% to 30% cheaper.

Also built into the software is an assumption of how efficient your boiler is. If your boiler is not on the SEDBUK (now the PCDF) database, the software assumes a default 65% efficiency. Only a handful of biomass boilers are on this database – mine isn't, so its efficiency rating of 96% doesn't count.

However, my boiler is on the Ofgem list of approved boilers for an MCS certifcate and I have one to prove it. Why doesn't the Green Deal software use the Ofgem MCS database?

Ask Alice.