24th Sept 2007
Existing Housing Stock and Climate Change
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 1000 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 i.e. 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 1000 houses within the next 5 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 1-2 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 5 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
7-10 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 5 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.
Chairman
Sustainable Energy Academy
