# Care home EPC upgrades and 24-hour occupancy > Why hot water and heating dominate a care home rating, how 24-hour occupancy removes the cheap working window, and what can be done without decanting residents. Source: https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/buildings/care-home --- # Care home EPC upgrades and 24-hour occupancy A care home breaks the normal order of play. Hot water and heating run around the clock for people who feel the cold and cannot be moved out while work happens, so the measure that would save most is also the one that is hardest to deliver. The honest plan here starts from what can be done around residents, not from what would score best. The operator, who is usually also the owner, and who answers to a regulator before an accountant. ## Hot water is the load, not lighting Unlike a warehouse or an office, this building type is dominated by domestic hot water and space heating. Baths, laundry, kitchens and warm corridors run continuously, and the heating set point is higher than a commercial building because the occupants are frail. That puts the big savings in plant, controls, distribution insulation and hot water storage rather than in lighting. Lighting still goes first, because it is cheap and non-disruptive, but it is a smaller share of this building than of almost any other on this site. ## There is no void to work in Every other building type on this site has a cheap window: a void, a shutdown, a school holiday, a night shift. A care home has none. The building is occupied continuously by people for whom noise, dust, cold and disruption are not inconveniences but risks. So work gets done room by room as rooms turn over, in short controlled possessions, with infection control and safeguarding running alongside. That is a real cost and it belongs in the quote. A contractor who has not asked how you intend to manage residents has not priced the job. ## What can usually be done quietly - Insulating pipework, valves and hot water storage in plant rooms and risers. Cheap, invisible to residents, and routinely skipped. - Heating and hot water controls, zoning and time scheduling, where the existing system is on a crude clock. - Corridor, communal and external lighting, which is landlord-controlled space rather than a resident room. - Kitchen and laundry extract and equipment, where plant is often older than the rest of the building. Resident rooms come last and come slowly, as rooms become available. ## Comfort is a constraint, not a preference Lighting changes that would be unremarkable in an office can be a genuine problem here. Colour temperature affects how residents with dementia perceive a space, glare matters more to older eyes, and sudden changes to familiar environments can be distressing. That argues for warmer colour temperatures, dimmable fittings and a gradual rollout rather than the brightest and most efficient option on the contractor sheet. Efficiency that residents cannot live with gets reversed. ## Questions we get asked ### Can energy work be done with residents in the building? ### What gives the biggest saving in a care home? ### Will new lighting bother residents? Sources - A non-domestic EPC is an asset rating: it is based on the fabric of the building and its services rather than on metered consumption. [A guide to energy performance certificates for the construction, sale and let of non-dwellings, DCLG, 2014](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-performance-certificates-for-the-construction-sale-and-let-of-non-dwellings) Last updated 8 October 2026 . - [Heating and hot water Where this building type actually spends](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/measures/heating-hot-water) - [Controls and zoning The quiet win in a continuously occupied building](https://commercialepcupgrades.co.uk/measures/controls) Next step ## Get a quote for your care home One commercial contractor, quoting off a survey of the actual building rather than a rate per square foot over the phone. Or call [07367 293494](tel:+447367293494). Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm.