Free Tool — No Signup Required
Reach Band C. Without Guessing.
A free online EPC calculator for landlords. Every privately rented home in England and Wales must reach EPC C by 1 October 2030 — select from 25 improvement measures and see exactly how many points each adds, what it costs, what it saves per year, and how fast it pays back.
Plan Your EPC Upgrades — FreeThe 2030 Deadline
All privately rented homes in England and Wales must reach EPC C by 1 October 2030. The earlier proposal for a phased rollout — new tenancies from 2028, existing ones by 2030 — was scrapped in favour of a single deadline. Landlords must spend up to £10,000 per property on qualifying improvements; if the property still falls short after that, you can register a 10-year exemption. The planner shows whether £10,000 is enough for your property, and which measures get you furthest inside the cap.
Ranked by Payback
Cavity wall insulation costs £500–£1,500, adds 8 EPC points and saves around £310 a year — it pays for itself in roughly three years. Triple glazing costs £6,000–£12,000 for the same 8 points. Both get you to the same place on the certificate; only one makes financial sense. The planner ranks all 25 measures by payback period so you spend on the ones that earn their keep.
Yes. The planner is free to use with no signup — enter your current EPC score, pick the measures you are considering, and it calculates the points added, the cost, the annual energy saving and the payback for each. If you do not know your current score yet, it starts from a typical Band E property so you can explore the numbers straight away.
You can get a good working estimate. A DIY EPC calculation will not produce a certificate — only an accredited assessor using the Standard Assessment Procedure can do that — but modelling the measures yourself tells you what the upgrades cost, roughly how many points each adds, and whether Band C is realistic within the £10,000 cap. That is usually enough to decide what to do before paying for an assessment.
All privately rented homes in England and Wales must reach a minimum EPC rating of C by 1 October 2030. The current minimum is E. The earlier proposal to require C for new tenancies from 2028 was scrapped, so there is now a single deadline covering both new and existing tenancies.
Per pound spent, cavity wall insulation is usually the strongest — around 8 points for £500–£1,500. Loft insulation at 300mm adds 7 points for £400–£800. A condensing boiler at 94%+ efficiency adds 12 points. For the biggest single jump, a ground source heat pump adds 22 points, but at £15,000–£25,000 it rarely makes financial sense purely for the certificate.
A D-rated property typically needs 10–20 points to clear C. For most properties that is achievable for £1,000–£4,000 using insulation and heating controls. Solid-walled properties are harder: internal wall insulation costs £5,000–£10,000 and external £8,000–£15,000, which is where the £10,000 cap and the exemption route become relevant.
You can register an exemption on the PRS Exemptions Register, which lasts 10 years. You must have spent up to the £10,000 cap on qualifying improvements and be able to evidence it. There is also a low-value property exemption that lowers the cap where £10,000 would represent 10% or more of the property value.
No. This is a planning tool that models the points each measure typically adds so you can budget and prioritise before committing. An official EPC is produced by an accredited assessor using the Standard Assessment Procedure. Use the planner to decide what to do, then book an assessment to certify it.
Research consistently finds a premium for higher-rated homes, and each band improvement is generally estimated to add 3–5% to value. The planner models that uplift alongside the energy saving, so you can weigh the full return rather than just the reduction in bills.