From one home to every home

Improving the energy efficiency and environmental performance of existing homes is obviously a major area of current focus for local authorities and housing associations. Russell Smith, Managing Director of Parity Projects and Founder of not-for-profit RetrofitWorks, looks at the challenges and solutions.

Retrofitting our homes is one of the most critical climate problems to solve, contributing 20% of the UK’s carbon emissions. It’s also one of the biggest engineering challenges that UK has ever faced and will only be successful if as a sector, the supply chain works collaboratively.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (ESNZ) recently announced its £1.4bn of grant funding to local authorities and social housing landlords to help upgrade the energy efficiency of ‘eligible’ households under the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. While this is great news for the environment and represents a huge boost for job creation and economic growth, the key word here is ‘eligible’. Stock data is often a challenge.

In our experience, Registered Housing Providers find it difficult to get started due to uncertainty about the energy performance of their homes, so need help to identify which are eligible for funding. And even after having gathered data and secured the finance — works under which have to be completed to very tight timescales — knowledge continues to be tested. What retrofit works need to be completed first, and in what order? How should they adapt their plan in response to planning officer and tenant needs? And does concurrent spend on repairs and maintenance offer synergies or duplication of effort? To do this, landlords need stock data and the ability to model it in response to a huge range of drivers and constraints.

Don’t recreate the wheel

Over the last 17 years Parity Projects has been driving the retrofit market on a mission to provide the most cost-effective route to Net Zero of the UK’s homes. Our aim is to have a retrofit plan for every home in the country. That starts with an energy model for every house, and we’re nearly there. Our data analytics services have been used to assess the potential for improved energy efficiency in over 20 million individual homes so far across the UK (including 155 social landlords and two million social homes on our Portfolio platform) and has identified the potential for billions of pounds of annual savings for their residents. and while it uses RdsaP, the methodology goes far beyond what is offered by an energy Performance Certificate. Parity Projects applies RdsaP in its full potential through the incorporation of more measures; up-to-date pricing, fuel tariffs and carbon factors. this allows users to plan and report against more complex social and environmental targets than a-g rating alone, layered with indices of Multiple Deprivation, flood risk and other open data to map and report on need and opportunity.

The data model is just the first step, but an important one. We build a full RdSAP dataset for every home as the more data points the greater the potential for identifying savings. The full power of our services comes from highly scenario modelling that tests retrofit options for each home, dependent on clients’ aims, preferred measures, planning (and other) constraints and budget.

This combination in our Portfolio and Pathways software gives users the ability to report on baseline performance, on options for future delivery, and on progress as they complete works.

We want to share our knowledge base and work with more clients on our Portfolio and Pathways platforms to deliver net Zero in the right way, using data science, software and analysis to help clients deliver energy efficiency efficiently, and effectively. Regardless of your size, we can help develop cost-effective retrofit programmes that meet their cost, comfort and carbon goals.

For example, our Portfolio service helped L&Q secure £300m by being able to benchmark their housing saP ratings, model costs and benefits, and specify works with confidence, and Broadacres use Portfolio to inform borrowing needs and saP performance projections, as funders discount financing where saP ratings improve over time.

Parity People: Supporting your data journey

our team is passionate about acting on the climate emergency, in a way that also makes homes healthier to live in and cheaper to run. We bring together experience from the building, finance, technical and policy sectors but we are also personally invested. Many of us at Parity have retrofitted our own homes, and some are involved in local community actions. equally we know that not everyone is able to act as an individual, which is why we want to help our clients bring every home up to the standards required by the 21st Century.

if you want help with a retrofit project, please contact us via our website for a free demo — whether you want to model options for your own housing stock, for an area, or for an individual home.

New ventilation system to tackle the damp and mould n For more information visit www.rdr.link/lak011

Ebac’s new mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system is designed to be an easy to install, self-managing, ‘hands-off’ eco-system for landlords and tenants, offering a major solution to the UK’s damp and mould problem. The unit, which can be installed in any loft opening, is a ‘whole-building’ solution, continually extracting polluted, humid air from within a building and replacing it with fresh air taken from outside through a heat exchange system. It offers significant cost savings through its patented Smart Control System, which adjusts airflow and performance levels based on live readings from a property’s internal climate, reducing energy usage, and only requiring a filter change every 1224 months depending on usage.

Part F support for councils

REHAU has worked with injection moulder glazpart to supply the 4000 Link Vent, to assist local authorities with complying with the Part F of the Building Regulations. June 2022 saw updates to Approved Part F of the Future Homes Standard, which covers ventilation. The change saw trickle vents become mandatory within the majority of replacement window frames in existing dwellings and new-build housing. REHAU has incorporated glazpart’s new trickle 4000 Equivalent Air Area (EQA) Link Vent into its existing range alongside the company’s bigger 5000 EQA and the smaller 2500 EQA Link Vents. Its compact size, alongside the inclusion of fixing clips, enables for easier and faster installation into window frames and sashes, and it has the advantage of easily complying with habitable, kitchen and bathroom ventilation regulations (8000 EQA). REHAU has published a series of fact sheets guiding professionals through the changes made to ventilation and energy efficiency requirements under the Future Homes Standard.

n Download the fact sheets here www.rdr.link/lak012

New water boosting solution

TankBoost from Salamander Pumps is an easy to install, single unit solution to ensure water performance remains at optimum levels even in large, multi-storey homes. The product will deliver flow rates up to 80L/min and pressures up to 3.0 Bar. It combines a cold-water storage tank and an integral pump. The high-quality stainless-steel pump is submerged within the tank; this means that the unit is extremely quiet throughout operation.

It has been designed to meet the water pressure and flow needs of domestic and light commercial installations, with four tank sizes available ranging from 100L to 450L. TankBoost will overcome insufficient water pressure and flow in combi or unvented systems. It is the first product in the Salamander Pumps range to deliver flow rates beyond 36 L/min, ensuring powerful showers, strong flowing taps, and quick toilet cistern replenishment.

n More information on TankBoost here www.rdr.link/lak013

Fast, smart integrated heat pump cylinder

The Mixergy iHP offers an ideal solution for developers and housing providers who want the low carbon benefits of an integrated heat pump cylinder, but also require the convenience of fast hot water. To date, typical integrated heat pump cylinders have been large and slow, taking anywhere between six to 10 hours to reheat. Thanks to Mixergy’s patented smart Stratos technology, a modular heat pump that heats water from the top down, usable hot water is available up to 10x faster.

The new cylinder brings with it all the smart advances offered across the Mixergy range, including top-down heating, smart tariff use and machine learning. This allows the user to optimise their energy use to save even more on their energy output and carbon footprint.

n More information on Mixergy iHP is available here www.rdr.link/lak014

Geogrid forges new path for contractors n More information on the SX Composite 3030 here www.rdr.link/lak015

Answering contractor demand for a more efficient and robust composite geogrid, leading supplier of specialist geosynthetics, Wrekin Products, has introduced a new two-in-one solution. Wrekin’s SX Composite 3030 consists of a nonwoven geotextile thermally bonded to their existing SX geogrid. It combines the functions of reinforcement, separation and filtration into one single product, rather than having to use two separate solutions.

The solution will help save time when acquiring materials and achieve quicker installations, thanks to the multi-purpose product performing as both a geogrid and a geotextile solution combined. The SX Composite 3030 has been designed with housing, infrastructure, renewable energy and rail projects in mind.

Switchee smart thermostats rollout

Platform Housing Group is in the process of installing 300 of the Switchee smart thermostat devices in selected homes in its stock with the aim of gathering data to help improve energy efficiency and indoor air quality for customers. The devices control central heating but can also monitor humidity levels and heat usage within the homes. Furthermore the landlord can also communicate with the residents with messages via the devices smart touch screen. Since the start of the year, the installations, carried out by Project Heating Solutions, have seen many benefits in a short space of time.

Joan Tyler, who lives in Worcestershire, was one of the Platform residents to get the device installed in her property as part of a raft of measures to improve the energy efficiency of her home. It will monitor the humidity levels in her home and eventually help with controlling the temperature when she gets an air source heat pump installed by the landlord.

Joan says: “We’ve never had gas here and I have lived with a coal fired system up to now, which is expensive and hard to maintain. I’ve never had this kind of central heating before, so I’m really looking forward to pressing that button.”

In another instance, a customer’s device reported to the Platform team that the average temperature was not rising above 12 degrees in their home. They were able to trigger an alert of potential fuel poverty and send a neighbourhood officer to the resident to investigate. n More information on the Switchee smart thermostats here www.rdr.link/lak016

As the project continues, Platform will be able to monitor the thermal efficiency of a home following any kind of work that has been done to monitor the effectiveness and provide residents with information and advice.