The Energy Saving Trust's blog

All that SHIMMERs...

Feed-In Tariffs are here now, but are they just another way in which the middle classes can use their houses to generate cash? Not necessarily: we’re involved in a project that shows the  real social potential of Feed-in Tariffs.

We recently received funding from the Technology Strategy Board to trial a system that will enable people who are in fuel poverty – that is, who spend 10 per cent or more of their disposable income on fuel – to get involved with Feed-in Tariffs.

The project – SHIMMER – will provide low-income, fuel-poor households with solar photovoltaic panels, and pay for the kit with the revenue generated by Feed-in Tariffs.

The solar panels are likely to generate more electricity than is needed by the household, so those taking part will be able to make a bit of money if they are careful with their energy use. Any energy left over after repayments on the solar panels will be sold to the national grid, and under the Feed-In Tariffs the money will be paid into a PayPal account, for them to spend on other things.

To help people with this, we – along with partners London Rebuilding Society and Easy Town – are giving participants smart energy management tools so they can monitor the energy they use in their homes on their phone or computer.

So: free fuel (reducing their fuel poverty), detailed control of their energy use, greater disposable income and a stake in the low-carbon economy.

Now, that IS gold!

Our first households will be getting their kit installed soon. Stay tuned to see how they get on.

Big wheels keep on turning: the future of the city?

Strata SE1: image from Wikimedia.

London’s progress towards being a greener city took another leap this month, as the blades of the Elephant & Castle’s new £1.3million Strata building creaked into motion at last.

The tallest residential structure in London has already been attracting attention: whether you call it the Electric Razor, the Lipstick, or “the kind of heroically stylised building you would expect to see in some 1930s sci-fi movie,” at 43 storeys the Strata is not a building to ignore. This summer Building Design magazine awarded it the 2010 Carbuncle Cup award for ugliest building, and it hit the news a week later for being so “tropical” that its few early-uptake residents couldn’t stay indoors.

That problem was blamed on under-occupation of the building, which wasn’t yet finished, due to internal ventilation doors being shut. But with more people moving in, the system’s efficiency should improve. The wind turbines – the first in the world to be mounted directly into the structure of the building – are expected to generate 8% of the energy needs of the building. As the electricity grid is decarbonised, this would add nicely to the building’s carbon savings.

But looking at it another way, the wind turbines will be powering 8% of three lifts, automated window-cleaning rigs, and the lighting, heating and ventilation of its public spaces, which include an underground car park.

Ellis Woodman, the Daily Telegraph architecture critic who led the Carbuncle Cup judging panel, has said: “A skyscraper is an energy-greedy building form, both in terms of construction, and the power needed to take people to their front doors in a lift. To top one off with some wind turbines is the worst sort of greenwashing.”

The eyes of the world, and especially the energy-saving world, are on the Strata building. Its 9-metre turbines have five blades, rather than the usual three, to reduce airborne noise, and are mounted on a 5-tonne inertia base – mounted on four anti-vibration dampers. (On a large scale, this is pretty much the same engineering that prevents your washing machine shaking round your kitchen when it spins.) So, will it be feasible to live underneath what even its promoters are calling a small windfarm?

Strata’s residents are the front-line reporters who will tell us whether these turbines are really the beginning of a greener future, or whether it was really all a greenwash.

In fact, although they live in an energy-hungry tower they can still take matters into their own hands and use energy wisely in their own homes. The Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College recently reported that energy efficient behaviour in the home may be even more important than we thought in cutting CO₂ emissions. So, Strata residents: we’ll give you a helping hand right here.

Coming soon: Kinetica, in Dalston.  

Raising the home standard

Tackling our least energy-efficient homes is an absolutely key priority here at the Energy Saving Trust, and we're delighted that our new report - published yesterday - shows that we can make a massive improvement to the worst of them for under £3,000 on average.

The message seems to be getting through, too, as the story's been taken up by key media including the Guardian, Google's hosted news (via the Press Association) and MSN.

Now, we realise there is a lot to do. Is getting F & G homes to an E banding enough to hit our 2050 80% carbon reduction target? Of course not, but it will take us a step along the way. It’ll also help protect the health and monthly outgoings of a lot of people living in cold homes. The Energy Saving Trust wants to see as many existing homes as possible being brought straight to an A or B standard. That's why, as well as research into the least energy efficient homes, we work so hard providing guidance on advanced low-carbon refurbishment!

The real message we're getting across today is that, where the least energy-efficient homes can emit over 22 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, bringing these up to an E rating would save 14 tonnes of C02 for each home, every year. (By comparison, a very average British home emits five tonnes of CO2.)

And the really good news is that, even among these worst F and G-banded homes, quite a few could be brought to Band E for well under £1,000, just by insulating the loft.

In 2008, 17% of English homes were in the F and G bands. In 2006 it had been 22% - so, as our report on F and G-rated properties shows today, we are moving in the right direction.

Click to download our F & G Banded Homes report.

Launch of the Boiler Scrappage Scheme

Time to get rid of your old, inefficient G-rated boiler!

As of today, up to 125,000 households in England with working “G-rated” boilers can apply through the Energy Saving Trust for a voucher which will entitle them to £400 off the price of a new, modern “A-rated” boiler or a renewable heating system like a biomass boiler or a heat pump.

I am delighted with this decision by Government. By replacing a G rated boiler with an A-rated boiler it will save at least one tonne of CO2 per boiler, per year. This is equivalent to keeping a standard 60W incandescent bulb on for almost 3 and a half years! It will also save between £200 and £235 a year from the household’s energy bills.

We are hoping that this will encourage energy companies to launch their own schemes – nPower for example is already running a voucher scheme. If a householder can take advantage of the Government scheme as well as an energy company scheme, they could save even more money and carbon!

Why not visit our website to apply for a voucher?

Homing in on zero carbon...

Matt Robinson, Communications Manager of the Zero Carbon Hub, writes today's guest post. (The Zero Carbon Hub is a public/private partnership established to take day-to-day operational responsibility for co-ordinating delivery of low and zero carbon new homes as part of the UK Government's commitment for all newbuild homes to be zero carbon from 2016. The Zero Carbon Hub supports and reports to the 2016 Taskforce which was established in January 2007 and is chaired by the Housing Minister and the Executive Chairman of the Home Builders Federation.)

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The credit crunch has significantly impacted on the house-building industry and resulted in the sale of newbuild homes dropping massively over the last year. So, where does this leave the Government’s ambition for all newbuild homes to be zero carbon from 2016, when:

1) We know that lower carbon homes are much harder to build, and therefore more costly to produce and research shows consumers have indicated they would not be prepared to pay much more for low/zero carbon homes – and certainly not the £35,000 that a home meeting a zero carbon standard would cost.

2) We know consumers don’t like the look of low and zero carbon homes.

3) We know consumers aren’t keen on the associated technologies, such as renewables.

Well, on the face of it, the challenge of persuading consumers to purchase low/zero carbon homes looks to be an extremely tough one.

However, I think we need to take a step back – and look at what consumers know about low/zero carbon homes. The simple answer is, ‘not a lot’. In fact, people don't even understand how their homes and their behaviour within the home impact on CO2 levels, with just a quarter - after prompting- being aware that 27 per cent of the UK's carbon emissions come from housing stock. And whilst 50 per cent of consumers have heard of the term zero carbon home, only a third know what this means in reality. The bottom line is that whilst people may say they don't like the look, the additional costs, or technologies involved in zero carbon homes, this is not based on personal experience, but instead their perception. After all most people will never have visited or stayed in a low/zero carbon home or seen how the technologies involved work.

Where does that leave us? Well, research shows that the key things people consider when buying a home are – amongst others - quality, running costs, and value for money. Whilst increasing the general awareness and understanding that consumers have of low/zero carbon homes is critical, I believe that it is these three areas where the argument can best be made in persuading people that they should purchase low/zero carbon homes. 

At the moment I am in the process of setting up a Consumer Engagement Steering Group to take forward and develop strategies to tackle the challenges outlined above. The first meeting is to be held on 30. January at the Energy Saving Trust’s offices – and I would be delighted to hear from any of the marketing and communications experts amongst you who would like to join the Group. The initial aims of the Group will be to:

1) Identify concerns and worries regarding the viability of promoting of low/zero carbon homes to consumers.

2) Use our collective expertise to identify and prioritise the types of consumer most likely to purchase low/zero carbon homes.

3) Develop a marketing guidance strategy to help direct and inform on the best ways of communicating messages about low/zero carbon homes to potential buyers.

The Zero Carbon Hub, over the next three months, will also be conducting a wide ranging piece of consumer research on low/zero carbon homes. This will include:

1) Examining and producing a summary report on existing consumer research on low/zero carbon homes.

2) Conducting new research that fully explores consumer views on low/zero carbon homes. Part of this will involve running focus groups of homeowners currently living in low carbon properties to help ascertain the practical barriers that could inhibit mainstream take up in the future.

By being part of the Steering Group you will receive updates on the progression of this research and have the first chance to read the findings when it is published in March 2009.

If you are interested in joining then please email me at matt.robinson@zerocarbonhub.org, or alternatively you can phone me on 07918 726675.

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