BIG opportunities for builders
David Weatherall, Housing Strategy Manager at the Energy Saving Trust spoke about encouraging householders to incorporate energy saving measures into their refurbishment projects.
We have to convince householders that it is worth spending money on retrofitting their home and the Government has to put a mechanism in place for householders to repay the proposed £6,500 loan out of savings on their energy bills.
The Government has a legally binding commitment that by 2050, we as a nation are going to be emitting 80 percent less carbon than we did in 1990. Around a third of those emissions come from homes and it’s very possible that the Government will expect that we have to achieve more than an 80 percent reduction from homes because the argument is, it’s easier to achieve savings from homes than from other sectors, and we can do this by installing renewable energy measures such as solar.
What do we need to do to our homes?
If we are to achieve the Government targets, this is the list of measures that the EST feels should be done on all homes:
1 A full set of insulation measures both loft and cavity wall and double and triple glazing in many cases
2 Ensure all appliances are highly efficient
3 Ensure as many homes as possible are connected to some sort of renewable energy generation.
Encouraging insulation
This is a big opportunity for the construction industry and the challenge is how we encourage people to choose energy efficiency measures for their homes. EST research suggests that there are three types of energy efficiency actions for the home:
1 You can quite easily encourage people to install energy saving lightbulbs, loft insulation and lagging round pipes and water tanks.
2 Most people are quite open to selecting the energy saving option when they come to replace appliances.
3 Insulation is key to hitting carbon emission reduction targets but people don’t automatically consider this when planning a refurbishment, they think it’s too difficult and too expensive. So the challenge is how does the EST work with FMB members to overcome some of the misconceptions that we see - that energy improvement is costly and difficult with unfathomable benefits?
EST consumer research
The EST has looked at what encourages homeowners to integrate energy efficiency measures alongside their projects. If we can get people to buy into this, we can reduce the cost because we are already working on the home.
When we talked to homeowners about common refurb projects we saw a willingness and enthusiasm for energy efficiency measures within projects. If we talked to homeowners about upgrading a kitchen for example and explained the benefits of taking action on energy efficiency measures in the kitchen at the same time, then they expressed a willingness to spend around 10 percent more to make energy saving improvements.
How to integrate energy efficiency measures into a project
If you are upgrading a kitchen for example, talk to the homeowner about what additional things could you offer to deliver high standards of energy performance. The most effective method is to talk about lower energy bills, more comfort and ‘future proofing’ their home.
There are still some issues to overcome and after we spoke to homeowners and builders we identified a real gap. Builders say to us that they want to talk to householders and are willing to be trained, and we hear from householders that they want their builder to offer them energy efficient solutions, but the gap between the two is trust.
Firstly, householders are not sure they trust advice given by builders and builders worry about recommendations in case the householder just thinks they are out to make more money.
To maximise the opportunity around selling energy efficiency measures we have to overcome this trust gap – this is all about accreditation, something that the FMB is working towards through its Competent Persons Scheme. This is key to bridging the gap. It is also about training and enabling builders to refer clients to an impartial information source such as the EST, This market is going to grow.
