Memorandum submitted by the National Energy
Foundation
Thank you for the invitation to submit evidence
to the Communities and Local Government Committee about how existing
housing stock in England and Wales affects Climate Change. We
are pleased to attach a short response, focusing in particular
on the benefits of information and energy labelling.
The National Energy Foundation is a registered
charity that seeks to empower individuals and organisations to
take action to reduce their carbon emissions and counter climate
change through energy efficiency and the use of sustainable energy
sources. It has been active in domestic energy efficiency since
its establishment in 1990 and undertook detailed energy monitoring
on a number of low energy homes in the early 1990s. Among our
relevant projects, we were responsible for the development of
the National Home Energy Rating Scheme (1990-2004; since 1994
this has been operated by our joint venture subsidiary company
and is the largest delivery mechanism for authorised SAP certificates)
and which was the UK's first whole house energy labelling system.
Our subsidiary is also a major participant in the fledgling market
for Energy Performance Certificates, operating training courses
and a certification scheme.
In the broader area of energy efficiency advice,
we worked closely with the Energy Saving Trust from 1993-2000,
managing their network of Energy Efficiency Advice Centres. Milton
Keynes Energy Agency, an affiliate based at the National Energy
Centre in Milton Keynes, continues to operate two Energy Efficiency
Advice Centres. We have direct experience of operating telephone
advice lines and have had a consumer-facing website since 1996,
and it is thought to have been the first UK website offering domestic
energy efficiency advice. The Foundation is currently a partner
in the T-Zero project looking at creating a web-based tool providing
a route map towards zero emissions refurbishment of existing dwellings.
If the UK is to reduce carbon emissions from
the domestic sector, then it is axiomatic that most of the savings
must come from existing stock. Other submissions to this inquiry
will undoubtedly point out that each year the number of new homes
increases the total housing stock by less than 1%, and given the
greater levels of energy efficiency mandated in new homes, it
is safe to assume that over 90% of energy used in (and CO2
emissions from) homes comes from those built before 1990.
Our submission will therefore focus on energy
advice and labelling, and some of the barriers to the uptake of
this advice.
1. What advice are people seeking?
We have been monitoring trends in the demand
for advice for many years through our website and find that people
still seek specific information about energy efficiency as well
as general advice on saving energy or cutting their carbon footprint.
Although trends can be hard to summarise with the regular refreshment
and redesign of the site, which covers both domestic energy efficiency
and small-scale renewables, the chart[14]
below shows how that there is still a strong consumer demand for
specific advice on technologies such as boilers and storage heating.
Requests for general information about renewables are also shown
for comparison, although the specific demand for information on
solar energy, including solar water heating, is a little higher.
National Energy Foundation
Website Interest in Main Measures
 |
Boilers
Insulation
Storage Heaters
Lighting
General Renewables
CO2 Calculator |
The one notable trend over the past two years
has been a rise in interest in carbon footprinting through a carbon
calculator, reflecting a much greater public awareness of the
importance of carbon emissions as the primary contributing factor
towards climate change. Obviously data depends on a number of
factors, including our website's prominence in major search indexes
such as Google, and the relatively low interest in insulation
may simply reflect that other sites contain more extensive information
than can be found on the National Energy Foundation's.
A similar result would be obtained from looking
at the searches made on the internal search facility, except that
"grants" (for which we do not maintain a dedicated page)
is consistently the most commonly searched for term.
The quantitative data above does not indicate
how satisfied people were with the information they found, nor
whether they were looking for a greater level of detail than can
be provided through a quite basic website. We sometimes receive
unsolicited comments on the content, or requests for more detailed
information. These suggest that people considering making energy
efficiency improvements already know in broad terms what they
want to do (eg install a new boiler, add some insulation), but
are seeking more detailed information about "How?" and
"Exactly what type is best?".
In other words, most people now appear to be
broadly aware of the benefits of improving home energy efficiency,
and very general advice only serves to remind people of its importance
and to keep its profile relatively high. We also recognise that,
as one of the ways to overcome barriers towards installation,
people are often looking for recommended installers. This leads
on to our next observation.
2. Generic energy efficiency advice is only
a partial substitute for specific advice, but the motivation to
receive advice is most important
We have, over the years, provided energy efficiency
advice at many levels—advice offered freely through local
radio programmes; simple web based advice (as discussed above)
and fact sheets; tailored advice based on self completion forms,
such as the Energy Saving Trust's Home Energy Check; telephone
advice using both structured questionnaires and unstructured responses;
and detailed advice based on a professional energy audit and BREDEM-based
software[15].
Where it is has been possible under data protection legislation
to retain contact details of the recipients, we have sometimes
undertaken surveys and market research[16]
to find out how useful the advice was thought to be, and whether
action has been taken on that advice. Typically it appears that
one-third take action, one-third are "planning to take action"
(but this may never happen) and one-third received the advice
but did nothing further with it[17].
However if people have been self-motivated to
seek out advice, rather than having had it thrust upon them (or
been persuaded to accept it through a gift of a low energy light
bulb), the statistics showed better uptake levels. And, drawing
on our comment in the previous paragraph, consumers are seeking
detailed, relevant (and often quantified) information. This is
where we have found energy labelling and tailored information
adds value. The data collected in RdSAP is a good minimum data
set, but where it is possible to override it with actual information,
so that the consumer does not get told to do something that has
already been done, then consumers receive better advice that appears
more likely to lead to action[18].
Although we are strong proponents of energy
efficiency, we are also aware that many consumers initially approach
us looking for information or advice on renewables. From this
we draw two conclusions:
1. There is a need for well integrated advice
on energy efficiency and renewables, that treats them impartially
(eg as to payback periods and installation costs).
2. The minimum required energy efficiency
standards before grants can by made under the Low Carbon Buildings
Grant programme is generally helpful (although there has been
some criticism that the minimum levels of loft insulation require
top-ups top be made that have long payback periods where the applicant
for a grant already has at least 150 mm installed).
We also would use this past experience to estimate
the beneficial effect of the new Energy Performance Certificates
(EPCs). We believe that these will become a major driver in domestic
energy efficiency, especially once they are introduced for new
build homes as well, so that homebuyers can see the major difference
in standards between new and existing properties. We would also
urge CLG to complete the process of requiring certificates from
all existing properties; it is probably not unfair to describe
the implementation so far as being "difficult" and as
there are now more than enough trained Domestic Energy Assessors
to provide certificates for all homes, the extension to all properties
should be implemented without delay.
We believe that a wider introduction of EPCs
will encourage the uptake of energy efficiency both before placing
a home on the market, and after purchase by so-called "improvers".
Factual information about its energy performance will raise the
profile of potential energy efficiency jobs among the latter group
and encourage them to schedule them into their plans to improve
their new home (alongside such other tasks as upgrading bathrooms,
kitchens and gardens). Furthermore, we have calculated that that
if just 5% of homeowners take action to improve their property
by one energy rating band before placing their home on the market,
this would lead to annual savings of at least 15,000 tonnes of
CO2[19].
3. Inertia in making improvements is not
primarily due to a lack of information
The key to improving energy efficiency in existing
homes is not an absence of information (nor even of knowledge);
it is about overcoming the "hassle factor". The box
shows some of the factors affecting loft insulation that may lead
to it not being installed.
Example: Loft Insulation
CE101 recommends topping up loft insulation
to at least 300 mm, which can typically save up to £50 per
annum[20],
and this is usually the first measure that should be considered
by homeowners. However, there are many reasons why this measure
is not undertaken in practice:
— DIY installation is not as simple
as it used to be; as recommended depths of insulation have increased
there is a need for more care to be taken in:
— not covering up electric cables;
— ensuring that cold water tanks and
pipes in the loft space are well insulated;
— ensuring that there is adequate ventilation
into the loft space (either by thinning insulation levels at the
eaves, or by installing ventilation air-bricks);
— Mineral wool and glass wool are unpleasant
substances to handle on a DIY basis (and old loft insulation is
often even more unpleasant), and more benign insulation blankets
(eg from sheep's wool or recycled newspaper) are either very expensive
or unobtainable in a typical DIY superstore.
— Any items stored in the loft space
will need to be moved out and may not be able to be returned to
the loft easily if there are no longer joists on which to place
boxes, suitcases, etc.
— The alternative offered to 300 mm
of mineral or glass wool is to use "100 mm of mineral wool
between the joists, and then use rigid insulation board (and additional
hardboard for heavy items/walkways, as necessary) on top of the
joists for a small proportion of the loft space"[21],
but this turns an apparently simple job into a complicated one.
— For professional installations—even
with subsidies from the energy efficiency commitment (EEC)—the
payback is less attractive and would require someone taking at
least a day off work to supervise the installers, and most EEC
jobs will only provide simple insulation rather than the partly
boarded solution.
— Small builders or other tradesmen
capable of undertaken a non-EEC supported professional installation
are very hard to find, and there is a widespread fear of "cowboys".
— The quoted benefits (£50 per
annum) are:
— not significant for a typical middle-class
household;
— often not believed by consumers—sometimes
based on experience, as at least part of the theoretical savings
will be lost to higher internal temperatures;
— likely to fall with time as homeowners
install high efficiency condensing boiler systems; and
— compare unfavourably with the loss
of a day's holiday.
The example shown is indicative of many of the
issues surrounding energy efficiency improvements. Some can be
mitigated by higher standards in the industries involved (so that
mis-selling of the energy benefits of certain measures can be
reduced). It may help to bring a wider range of measures under
the EEC/CERT support envelope, even with minimal financial support,
as people are more inclined to trust installations with the backing
of a large utility company.
4. Technologies to be used to reduce emissions
From our comments earlier, it is probably not
surprising that we do not see a shortage of appropriate technologies
as being a major factor in the low uptake of energy efficiency
measures. Indeed, we might argue that there is something to be
said for keeping to the simplest measures first, as the UK public
are more likely to use lower-tech efficiency measures in a way
that achieves the expected benefits, and that newer and sometimes
less easily understood technologies may lead to householders seeking
to override their operation manually. Having said that, we believe
that more could be done in encouraging the uptake of, among others:
— weather compensated controls systems;
— ground source heat pumps; and
— simple overshading to prevent summer
overheating (which is becoming an issue with higher levels of
insulation being installed in properties with large windows).
Taking our earlier point about integrated energy
efficiency and renewables measures, we also think that solar water
heating should be seen as being part of the overall energy equation
of a home (as it essentially reduces demand for fossil fuels,
and does not export energy from the property).
14 Proprietary data from www.nef.org.uk. Data relates
to single months, not quarters, and is based on between numbers
in the range 105-106 monthly page views. Total page views have
risen by an average factor of 2.5 over the two year period, demonstrating
an increased public interest in energy efficiency. Back
15
NHER Software. Back
16
For example through the work undertaken on behalf of the Energy
Saving Trust in relation to the Energy Efficiency Advice Centres.
However we suspect, partly based on anecdotal evidence, that such
surveys sometimes over-estimate the impact of advice given, given
the measured uptake of measure compared to the number of recommendations
made. Back
17
To help overcome this inertia, we have recently implemented a
"Carbon Workout" with energy saving pledges, and an
automated mechanism to remind visitors to the website of their
earlier pledges, to encourage them to take action if they have
not already done so. Back
18
We have had some difficultly finding independent statistical research
to corroborate (or refute) this statement, which is therefore
based on anecdotal evidence collected over many years. Back
19
Information calculated for NEF Press Release, 27 May 2007, based
on a mean increase from the mid-point of some EPC band to the
bottom of the next band and 100,000 sellers taking action annually,
each leading to average savings of just 0.15tCO2/yr. Back
20
Domestic Energy Efficiency Primer (GPG 171/CE 101), based on 50mm
loft insulation upgraded to 300mm. Back
21
ibid. Back
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