NEDO Project

Tenant Engagement

Outcomes

Trevor Smith – Wigan Council

Elliot Simm- Northwards

Pearl Ashton – Six Town Housing

Confident Place, Confident People.

• For Registered Providers previous heating

improvements for tenants were always from

electric to gas – not gas to electric.

• Staff involved needed to be convinced that

electrical heating was the way forward to enable

them to “sell” air source heating systems to

tenants.

Challenges to success of the

scheme?

Confident Place, Confident People.

How did we change perceptions around

air source heating?

• Combination of different techniques –

tailoring the intervention to the audience

• Small steps over a period of time

• Making it relevant and timely

Undertake pilot installations to get some “buy in”

and tenant feedback.

Use pilots to produce a case study to help

communicate to others on how energy

efficient air source heating can be.

Develop a better understanding of the

technology to be installed.

Confident Place, Confident People.

NEDO Show Home

Broadband and Home

Gateway

Hybrid System

Show Home

Daikin ASHP Controller

The show home helped our customers to see the

system in operation and to find out about the energy

saving benefits that the system could bring .

Confident Place, Confident People.

What was our criteria for property

selection ?

• Property selection

- stock profiling exercise to identify properties which met three basic

criteria to start with (utilising the respective asset management databases);

1. Inefficient heating installations due for replacement.

2. Good levels of insulation

3. Exclude high rise blocks and some other types of

block flats

Confident Place, Confident People.

What was our tenant engagement

strategy?

• Produce a range of easy to understand literature to help

encourage tenants to take up the offer of air source

heating including sign up documentation.

• Agree incentives from the outset.

• Produce a flow chart for the various staff involved to

understand the process (including DNO checks).

• Appoint a Tenant Liaison Officer with a knowledge of

heating system replacement to answer questions.

• Ensure key stakeholders were on board via use of the

mobile display van on offer via Daikin.

• ‘Tight’ project team with Project Board co-ordinating.

What were the incentives for tenants to

participate in the scheme ?

Purpose:

• Recruiting tenants and

making the demonstrator

a success.

Incentives:

• Free broadband

• Free tablet computer

• Insulation upgrades

• Expert energy advice

• Monitoring equipment

• Digital training

• Telecare function(optional)

Confident Place, Confident People.

What was the process ?

• Initial letter drops to tenants with informative Question

and Answer leaflet (FAQs).

• Follow up with face to face visits when we;

Explained the project in detail and asked tenants to

commit via a tenant sign up pack (incl.

supplementary TA).

Explained the next steps about the need for a

technical survey and the requirement for an

energy assessment EPC

Explained how long the installation will take and

what is to be expected.

Confident Place, Confident People.

What were the barriers to tenant

engagement in the pilot ?

• Many tenants took up the opportunity of a new heating system,

although there was a high proportion of “drop outs” from the

numbers originally identified.

Main reasons for drop outs being;

• Older persons continuing to refuse heating upgrade due to

disruption within their home.

• Tenants unsure of the technologies being installed.

• Property not suitable for technical reasons.

• Other issues such as reluctance to remove laminate flooring or too

many tenant belongings within the property.

• Social issues within homes.

• Unsuitability to DNO infrastructure.

Confident Place, Confident People.

What were the successful

outcomes?

• A large number of tenants were very satisfied

with their new heating system and continue to

make substantial savings on their energy bills.

• Contributions to the Greater Manchester

Strategy of a cleaner greener city and reduced

CO2 Omissions

• A successful demand response pilot.

• Monitoring continues due to initial technical

issues but data will be invaluable.

Confident Place, Confident People.

Air source heat pump

Confident Place, Confident People.

NEDO project - Memorandum of

understanding signing