Memorandum submitted by the Sustainable
Energy Academy
My charity, the Sustainable Energy Academy,
has been successful in engaging with homeowners, helping them
to learn and be inspired to improve their houses, particularly
Victorian and other solid walled housing.
Our success has been due to the way that we
are delivering information. We have found exemplar houses that
have already reduced their carbon content by around 60%. We have
worked with these homeowners to make their houses publicly accessible.
In the first month nearly 1,000 visitors have come to the houses,
and in questionnaires an extraordinary 31% have asked us to contact
then to help them to the next stage. 93% say that these touch-and-feel
experiences are a good way of learning about solutions to reducing
their carbon footprint. We aim to achieve 5,000 visitors within
the next year.
This means of delivering information and inspiration
at local level, from trusted sources, is in stark contrast with
the current emphasis on Megaphone messaging. Houses are particular,
individual and precious, and people do not respond well to mass
messages. Our approach works because the messages are local, individual
and from trusted sources ie the householders themselves, who have
already gone through the process and speak from a position of
knowledge, and who have no axe to grind: they are trusted sources.
This technique works very well in the short
term: but will it work in the long term? We envisage the transformation
process to be made up of three cohorts. The first cohort wants
to reduce carbon because of Global warming: they want to save
the world. This is a small group, but enthusiastic and energetic.
They have shown that it can be done, and that Victorian houses
can be transformed well and become fit for the 21st century. We
already have 10 exemplar houses, spread through the UK in our
Old Home Superhome alliance. During this time capacity starts
to be built, particularly knowledge, materials and re-skilled
builders. We aim to use this cohort to transform about 1,000 houses
within the next five years, distributed so that there is equivalent
to one per Tesco, so that nearly everyone is geographically within
20-30 minutes of an exemplar house. We are aiming for another
100 in the next one to two years.
The second cohort is being driven by fashion.
Like Prius cars, people will show that they care by transforming
their houses, giving them a 100 year tune-up. We already see signs
of this, and we expect the trickle to grow within the next five
years.
The third cohort will be driven by the Energy
Performance Certificate. Victorian and other solid wall houses
score an F or G rating, whereas when they are transformed they
score B or C, and we believe that within seven to 10 years the
poor performance of existing unimproved house will become pejorative
and will affect the asset value. After all, who would buy a fridge
rated F or G? We believe that people will respond in the same
way as having subsidence: you don't look at the cost effectiveness,
you just find the least cost way of fixing it.
Why not just wait until the EPC effect kicks
in? First, because the earlier stages build delivery capacity,
which is essential if the whole process is not to be mired in
catastrophic bad building work. Second, because we accelerate
take-up by perhaps five years if we have exemplars and a transformation
process well worked out and available, and that people accept
that fixing the EPC is as important as upgrading a bathroom or
kitchen (the costs are similar). Third, we inspire people so that
if legislation is used in the later stages then it will be more
accepted. And fourth, transforming existing housing is the key
to energy and carbon saving in the housing sector. If all new
housing is made carbon neutral, then by 2050 energy will be reduced
by only 10-15%, whereas by concentrating on existing housing we
can achieve 60% reduction. Plainly in the next 40 years we have
to transform the existing housing if we are to achieve our goals.
What stands in the way? We have identified several
pinch points:
1. We need more exemplar houses. Modest sums
of money could achieve the 1000 required to get good coverage
across the country. In particular, help is needed in the RSL sector.
2. We need build delivery capacity and a
skills register, where householders can seek out trained builders.
We believe that this could be done without significant cost.
3. We need to monitor projects and keep results
on a database, so that we can reinforce methods that work and
avoid those that don't.
4. We need a research programme to study
specific problems such as avoidance of cold bridging around joists
embedded in external walls.
5. And most of all, we need some financial
grants or rebates to help take-up in the early years. Solid wall
insulation typically costs £5,000-£10,000, but is much
more cost efficient than on-site renewable generation, so we believe
that it should be grant aided in the first few years.
More details are in the attached paper, Old
Home SuperHome—Transforming Housing for the 21st Century[1].
An example of an exemplar house at 73 Chester Rd Camden is also
attached[2].
Further information is available on the SEA charity web site.
1 Not printed. Back
2
Not printed. Back
|
