EPC Warning
This is real people. Not a drill. The hottest spring ever. EPC's are a weapon, not a failure.
How efficient should this house be under normal conditions?
That's really what Energy Performance Certificates were supposed to tell you.
But if you are old enough to remember the Home Information Packs (HIPs) scandal of the noughties - I am, I investigated them for BBC Watchdog - you'll know that what something is made for and what it's used for can be very different.
EPCs are no longer simple information labels, like the mostly ignored food traffic light system you see on your sausages - they are currency.
Unlike food, which is produced and consumed much more quickly, buildings are more permanent. And 'labelling' is not for throwaway decisions.
Now, landlords are using EPCs to decide whether they comply or sell their portfolios. Lenders are grading your mortgage on your sustainability credentials. Grants and government funding are benchmarked against them - and, possibly the worst problem of all, public trust is being eroded by their use.
The Script Got Flipped
A temporary solution that works can become permanent. Nobody could have foreseen the results of the UN survey of British views on climate change, least of all the people with the most to lose.
But here we are. Almost everyone in the UK acknowledges we are living through a period of human-induced transformation. And human beings, in communities, thrive on certainties.
EPCs are not the perfect tool to manifest the change we need. But, like the famous phrase from filmmaking, the best camera you have for capturing the moment right now is the one in your hand.
So rather than give fuel to the anti-retrofit reform of our policies that some people are looking for - stifling, disabling, delaying, and distracting us from the work we need to do - we can build on the work the 'fixed' EPCs have given us.
And move on.
Modelling and Reality
EPCs that are calibrated with real-world data can work.
More evolved, possibly AI-assisted monitoring of smart meter information will fill in the blanks.
Dynamic updating after retrofit works, combined with more competent assessments validated against measured performance, are all within reach.
So this move, this report, acknowledges that things haven't been great. Can we move from arguing about theoretical outcomes, address the reality of what people are experiencing, and move forward with helping them use this valuable tool to realise what we need: change. Now.