With the cost of energy bills having risen by 54%, consumers will need support from organisations they interact with. There are many quick ways customers can save energy – a typical household could save up to £415 a year* by following low-cost energy saving advice.
But for longer term energy savings, households will need to invest in bigger home upgrades. From insulation or renewable technology, to glazing and boiler types, there are many different energy efficiency home upgrades that can make a big difference to energy bills, while also reducing carbon emissions.
There are some online tools your business can leverage to better understand this market and help your customers decide what upgrades will be most suitable for their home.
Locating residents in need of home improvements
There are always areas and homes that will benefit from upgrades more than others. There are also areas within the UK that are more likely to be eligible for grants or able to afford energy efficiency home improvements. So what’s the best way to understand which homes or customers need what?
Using home energy characteristic data to target your advice, products or services is important if you’re thinking of using home energy saving action plans in your communications.
It’s worth noting that available open-source EPC data doesn’t have complete coverage – in fact, it only covers about 60% of homes in the average local authority area. So, if you’re looking to give accurate costs for energy efficient retrofits, eligibility for grants, and accurate estimates of savings and carbon reductions based on different retrofit scenarios, you’ll need experienced data analysts and digital modelling tools.
We offer a full compilation of all available housing data, which is organised by type and region. Any missing energy information is filled in with modelled data based on surrounding properties.
Home Analytics
Compiled housing stock data for every home within Great Britain.
Fields related to building fabric, energy efficiency, renewables and deprivation.
Analysis of your housing stock in terms of energy efficiency opportunities with segmentation and national benchmarking.
Portfolio Energy Assessment Tool
Uses a SAP calculation engine to recommend a package of retrofit measures for each home.
Reports costs, savings, CO2 reductions and estimated SAP improvement for each property.
Analysis of modelling outputs, including sub-regional maps to prioritise retrofit opportunities.
Getting the message right
Prompting customers to seek advice or make energy efficient home improvements can be a challenge at the best of times, but it’s recently become harder due to the current cost-of-living crisis.
Getting the right messaging to your segmented audiences is key. You should consider splitting your messaging to have:
For many homeowners, understanding the most efficient and cost-effective area to start home improvements is often a barrier. For the energy-conscious among your customers, find what might motivate them to improve their homes. Some reasons might be:
It can save money on energy bills in the long-term.
It can improve the value of their home by improving its Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating.
It can reduce carbon emissions.
It can make their home more comfortable during colder months.
Start by providing customers with an action plan for cost-effective and long-term home improvements. It’s also a good way to increase customer engagement. and building societies in the UK now offer green mortgages or green finance. This can mean cheaper lending rates for energy efficient homes and additional borrowing money made available to make energy efficiency improvements.
Signposting to relevant services from your advice can help your customers understand what support is available, including grants and loans.
Energy efficient installations could include:
Installing a heat pump for a low carbon heating solution.
Installing floor, roof or wall insulation to reduce heat loss.
Upgrading windows and doors with double or triple glazing.
Draught-proofing around windows, doors and cracks.
Installing a full set of smart heating controls.
Insulating a hot water tank and pipes.
Installing a solar PV system to generate electricity at home.
It’s important to offer customers recommendations for what’s suitable for different type of homes to help them narrow down what could work for their home. Once they have this information, they can then start implementing an action plan.
Our Home Energy Efficiency Tool is designed to help customers understand the best home energy improvements which are suitable and affordable for their home.
Home Energy Efficiency Tool
Can be plugged into any website and can provide a tailored home energy improvement action plan, based on inputs.
Provides optimum energy saving solutions to suit the customer’s budget, as well as potential monthly and annual bill savings.
Provides potential carbon savings and the environmental impact of the customer’s energy use.
Over 27% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions come from the residential sector and with the country’s net zero target inching closer, improving the energy efficiency of our largely inefficient housing stock should be a high priority.
Having a strategy to support customers in making more sustainable home choices is becoming increasingly important if the UK is to meet its net zero target, especially when it comes to decarbonising housing stock. This strategy should include quality and tailored home energy advice, alongside support on understanding the potential energy and carbon savings of home improvements.
Online tools that can provide bespoke home energy improvement advice may be worth adding to your own website and portfolio of services, as homeowners increasingly consider making long-term home energy efficiency improvements.
*Savings are for a typical three-bedroom, gas-heated home in Great Britain, using a gas price of 6.9p/kWh and electricity price of 27.4p/ kWh (based on October 2023 price cap). Water savings are based on average occupancy.
