We have delivered 13 HERO Plans this month and have therefore made great progress towards overall financial and carbon savings. See below our calculated savings if each household were to go ahead with the retrofit measures we recommended:

Combined CO2 savings = 39.4tCO2 / year
Combined fuel bill savings = £15,730 / year

These CO2 savings are equivalent to 9.4 cars being taken off the road each year and 13.7 tons of waste being recycled rather than landfilled. It would also take 46 acres of forest to offset this output each year, showing just how impactful retrofit can be.
 

We typically focus on the cognitive motivators to retrofit (time, money, practicality), but what about the emotional aspects involved in this decision-making? Yekatherina Bobrova looked at the meaning of home and how we can use it to promote retrofit to homeowners.

A member of the SuperHomes team attended Yekatherina’s webinar recently and we would therefore like to share her work as it is both fascinating and informative. A link to the full paper is attached above, but you can also find a blog written by Yekatherina here that also perfectly summarises her research. Some residents may be particularly interested in the findings of this research as 8 of the 18 case studies were residents of the previous SuperHomes Network!

Essentially, the research found 5 key positive emotional responses to home retrofit: (1) Control over one’s environment, (2) Happiness and Wellbeing, (3) Climate concerns and thus a Caring Identity, (4) Future & Financial considerations, (5) Integration between oneself and their environment. These experiences lead to, according to the research, positive experiences of comfort & joy, belonging & community, safety & security. It therefore shows how retrofit is beneficial in several aspects of life beyond what one might first consider.
 

IndiNature has become the first UK based company to produce certified sustainable hemp insulation. This BBA agrément certification now means that the housing and construction sectors can use this new material for both newbuilds and retrofit projects, which is fantastic news.

The company itself was founded back in 2016 with a vision of producing widescale sustainable insulation materials. It is clear that they have achieved this goal on receiving this certification, proving the product has been tested to a highly rigorous standard.

The hemp was sourced from East Yorkshire Hemp and the company have promised to help regrow this resource more locally on the Scottish boarders with their local farmers.

To ensure the quality of hemp insulation, CTO Scott Simpson implemented this measure into his own family home. He found that both his energy bills and CO2 output had significantly decreased, whilst the family’s comfort and well-being had increased. Transparently though, the CTO admitted the material was not easy to source, and was more expensive than standard insulation measures. To tackle this, IndiNature have therefore produced a hemp product which is now far easier to source.

We believe this is an incredible step towards our Net Zero goal of 2050 – not only are we making our homes more efficient, but we are doing it with as little environmental impact as possible.

The Heat Pump Association has seen a growth of around 166% over the last 2 years in qualified heat pump installers. This fantastic news is likely in response to the need for more energy efficient solutions to the climate emergency we face today.

A total of 3,000 in 2022 and 8,000 in 2023 mean that 11,000 newly qualified heat pump professionals have now gained the skills to tackle energy inefficient homes in the UK. Although data cannot confirm that they’re actively working in the retrofit sector, the growth in numbers nonetheless highlights the growing interest in sustainable energy sources. Here at NEF we are delighted by this news as qualified installers can be hard to come by for residents, and this is therefore a great step in the right direction. It also means that conversations will be had more frequently across the UK about eco-friendly living as more and more people join the environmental sector. 

This influx of heat pump installers has been made possible by an array of grants from accessible government schemes. These include the Home Decarbonisation Skills Training Competition, the Heat Training Grant, and skills bootcamps. 

Fortunately, due to these ongoing conversations and available grants, we expect to see this trend continue upward, with around 6,000 more heat pump installers set to be trained over the next 13 months. The SuperHomes team encourages anyone considering moving into this sector to take up these opportunities while they are available to us!
 

Given the news above about how there is clearly both a market for heat pumps and trained installers ready to go, it may come as a surprise (or not) that the Clean Heat Market Mechanism has been delayed until 2025.

This ‘boiler tax’, as you may recall from previous Newsletters, intended to push boiler manufacturers to match or substitute 4% of their boiler sales with heat pump sales. If they didn’t hit these targets, they would pay a £3k fine for each missed sale, consequently seeing a rise in their boiler prices by £120 to compensate for the anticipated losses. This therefore not only negatively impacted the boiler manufacturers, but also the homeowner.

In order to compensate for their backtracking, the government have instead made the Boiler Upgrade Scheme easier to access by removing the cavity wall and loft insulation requirement. Homeowners can now apply for the £7.5k grant without having these insulation measures installed, meaning they don’t have to spend around £2.5k before qualifying, and can also look towards the Great British Insulation Scheme for support when insulating regardless.

Although on the surface this may look positive, a Greenpeace spokesperson has said this is a ‘deeply damaging step backwards’ regarding the climate emergency. We also feel that, while relaxing the BUS requirements is helpful, it disregards the bigger issue of implanting heat pumps on a wider scale on a quicker timeline, in response to the Net Zero 2050 goal.

The government have said the decision to delay the Clean Heat Market Mechanism until 2025 is because they wanted to ‘give the industry more time to get ready’. Greenpeace have pushed back by making the point that the CHMM was to give the industry an encouraging push, which heat pump installers are certainly ready for.
 

The UK Government has announced a change to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme which means residents may be able to pick up a heat pump for just £500 without expensive insulation measures.

The announcement revealed that the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), a measure which provides grants for the installation of heat pumps, will no longer require residents to have both cavity wall and loft insulation before they are eligible for the £7,500 grant.

This relaxation of the rules alongside the recent increase in grant money from £5000 to £7,500 will make heat pumps much more accessible to residents. It also shows signs that the Government is willing to take steps to make heat pumps a viable option for millions of households who previously may not have been able to afford this heating method.

The Government hopes that by removing this hurdle, it could potentially save residents up to £2,500 which would have needed to be spent on insulation measures, before the price of the heat pump even entered the picture. The change is likely due to the Nation Infrastructure Commission (NIC) report revealing that higher costs compared to similar gas boilers is one of the leading reasons for a lack of heat pump uptake in the UK.

Although this announcement is great news for residents looking to lower their heating-based carbon emissions, the Government revealed it alongside news of further delays to the planned introduction of fines hitting boiler manufacturers that did not meet their heat pump sales goals. This U-turn by the government shows a lack of ambition and dedication to reducing the UK’s carbon emissions by holding the large manufacturers accountable and will likely further delay our heat pump targets.
 

 

If you’re feeling inspired to look at the carbon footprint of your property, getting a Retrofit Plan is the first step to take. Head to our ‘SuperHomes Plans’ page on our website to find out more.