The EPC Doesn’t Tell You What It Costs to Stay Warm — And That’s a Problem An Article By: Dampsmart For years we have met families who moved into homes reassured by a single metric: EPC C. They were told the property was efficient. They were told it would be affordable to run. Then winter arrived — and they discovered something the EPC never told them: How much it would actually cost to keep warm At Dampsmart, we see this pattern repeatedly. Homes that look acceptable on paper turn out to be financially unmanageable in winter. The Scale of the Issue According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, around 3 million households in England are classed as fuel poor under the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) metric. The private rented sector is disproportionately represented within those statistics, and more than 4.6 million households now live in privately rented homes in England. Demand for private rented housing has grown substantially over the past two decades, meaning more households are exposed to buildings they do not control and may not fully understand. National Energy Action’s UK Fuel Poverty Monitor and Shelter’s housing research both highlight the increasing strain … Continue reading Why EPCs Don’t Show Real Winter Costs