Sustainable refurbishment at Scale

Stephen Passmore

Energy Saving Trust

10 April 2023 2

Energy Saving TrustWe’ve saved £1.5 billion on people’s fuel bills and 140 million tonnes (lifetime savings) of CO2 since 1994.

We are the UK’s leading impartial organisation helping people save energy and reduce carbon emissions

Expert insight and knowledge about energy saving

Supporting consumers

to take action

Helping local authorities and communities to save energy

Providing quality assurance for goods, services and installers

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Home energy use is

responsible for over a

quarter of UK carbon dioxide

(CO2) emissions

By 2050 all homes will need

to achieve an energy

performance rating in the

range of a high B if we are to

reach our target of a 80% cut

in CO2 emissions across the

entire housing stock

The headline retrofit challenge

Staged target of 29% cut in

CO2 from homes by 2020

Housing – retrofit potential

10 April 2023 5

Numerous approaches

Whole House

Street or neighbourhood - Area based approach

City / region

Projects / trigger points

www.rethinkingrefurbishment.com

National Refurbishment Centre

– Mission:

To support the practical delivery of green refurbishment and retrofit in the UK, based on evidence from a nationwide demonstration network of exemplar buildings.

– Aim:

To foster a more joined-up approach to finding the practical measures needed to refurbish buildings in volume.

www.rethinkingrefurbishment.com

The NRC Partnership

The NRC Research Programme

Installation issues

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Site issues

10

Work efficiency

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Pre-Refurbishment Portal cost/savings curve

Evidence costs

£51k

Refurbishment Portal – June ‘11 cost/savings curve

Evidence costs

Refurbishment Portal – Jan ‘12 cost/savings curve

Evidence costs

ComparisonEvidence costs

£36k

£46k

Refurbishment Portal – Jan ‘12 excluding outliers

Evidence costs

£49k

Measures, products and systems

Evidence costs

Boiler replacement and controls package: £2.5k

Boiler replacement and controls package: £4.5k

PV: £13.9k

PV: £11.3k

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Trigger points project approach

• Overall: to establish the home improvement occasions that will be the best triggers for consumers to consider undertaking energy saving alterations at the same time

• Qualitative: to gain qualitative insights on the home improvement process and emotional drivers behind this as well as potential to consider energy saving alterations

• Quantitative: to quantify the size of opportunity at different points and during different projects

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Barriers to energy saving alterations

• Energy saving is rarely stated as a primary motivation for home improvements

–Number of other factors come before this, such as price, looks, quality, convenience

• Most of the sample claim to be keen to learn more about energy saving alterations

–Interested in helping the environment, even if only as a secondary motivation

–Very keen to learn any potential cost savings they could make

• Biggest barrier…. Other barriers…

INITIAL COST

Perception that energy saving alterations are very costly

Don’t want to make long-term investment - want the money in their pocket now

Don’t believe will add value to their property

May already be over ‘budget’ – don’t want to go further

May move in next few years so investment will be wasted

LOW AWARENESS

INERTIA INCONVENIENCE

LOOKS / STYLE

LACK OF EVIDENCE Will these changes really save much energy?

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22% households considering refurbishment projects in next 3 years

Projects considering undertaking in the next 3 years…

Total home

owners

(1,287)

%

Fitting a new kitchen 10

Fitting a new bathroom / cloakroom 9

Fitting double glazing 6

Building a brick extension 5

Converting the loft 4

Refurbishing the entire property 2

Retiling the roof / building a new roof 2

Installing a conservatory 2

Rewiring / upgrading the electricity 2

Installing central heating 1

None of these 78Source: Ipsos Nat Rep CapiBus – wtd data

25.7 million households in UK

Home owners account for 70% of the population(17.5 mil households)

22% are considering

refurbishments in the next 3 years (3.9 mil households)

Trigger points

•Singles

Young children

Empty nesters

Growing children

Older children

Considering room refurbs and see the benefit in saving on energy bills and creating warmer rooms

Stronger commitment to environment

Limited budgets

Lower commitment to the environment

Higher budgets

Interested in all forms of retrofit but need convincing

Have already installed some

measures – interested in lower

cost measures

Interested primarily in warmth and

comfort

Greater commitment to

the environment

pre -930s (dwelling)

reluctant to add energy saving

measures, post 1930s could be

persuaded

Opp

ortu

nity

for

influ

ence

Young couples

Starting a family, moving home,

making property more

contemporary, adding value

Strong functional and emotive refurbishment need - running out of

space. Involved in higher value projects. Recognise the benefit of future proofing and reducing CO2

Driven by functional need to

update their properties.

Considering fewer projects overall

Preparing for retirement.

Interested in specific projects -

upgrading the heating, adding a

conservatory

Undertaking modernisation projects. Lower

budgets, willing to stretch but need a

lot more convincing

Achieving wide-scale refurbishment

• Demand!•Incentives•Financing•Standards

• Supply•Products & materials

•Logistics•Skills•Engagement

10 April 2023 22

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Stephen.passmore@est.org.uk

www.energysavingtrust.org.uk

www.rethinkingrefurbishment.com

Thank you