Oceans are a vital regulator when it comes to climate change and with news that they have hit their hottest temperature on record, it is a true indicator of our failure to reduce carbon emissions.
Our homes are a key factor in reaching net zero, from the build phase through to energy consumption, and a lot in between.
The recent spate of extreme weather is both evidence and a stark reminder that this can’t be ignored, and efforts need to be accelerated to create a sustainable future for us and our planet.
We highlighted in an earlier post the lack of consistent policy from the government on the issue, so how do we encourage households to do more?
In this post we’ll look at:
- The level of change required / The UK home landscape
- The current mindset and behaviour of homeowners
- What are some of the changes available
- How to create more inclusive solutions to incentivise greater adoption
With the Office for National Statistics (ONS) climate change insights report in August 2022 showing 26% of total emissions in the UK come from residential homes, it contributes more emissions than any other industry sector. It is worth highlighting that within that figure, are emissions from domestic travel and heating, but not emissions from electricity use.
If you revise this to remove travel and add in electricity use it’s still around 20% of emissions are directly related to the home.
Making homes more sustainable is an obvious, and important solution. To tackle this point it makes sense to split this between existing and new housing stock.
There have been significant steps forward in the materials, processes used to build new homes, with support from other sectors to encourage the production of greener homes.
A couple of examples to are:
- Octopus Energy Zero-Bill Homes initiative that helps home builders make sustainable new homes with solar panels, home batteries and heat pumps with the guarantee of no energy bills for five years.
- Producing sustainable alternatives to products traditionally used in the building process, DeakinBio is just one example of this with their carbon-neutral alternative to ceramic tiles. Their tiles do not need to be fired in a kiln and can be processed at room temperature, and creates a carbon footprint that is 80-90% lower than standard tiles.
In relation to existing homes, there are approximately 25 million in the UK, with more than half, 56% of residential properties falling below a C rating, and almost 40% built prior to 1945.
We have an old housing stock compared to most of our European counterparts which creates more challenges when retrofitting green solutions.
The same ONS report quoted earlier in this post also reported that 34% of adults have made no change to their lifestyle to tackle climate change and think that large polluters should be making changes before them.
With the move to net zero emissions requiring a 57% reduction by 2030 from the position in 2014, the “wait for them” behaviour needs to change now.
Last week Rightmove published their second Greener Homes report, and within that it outlined the driving forces behind making sustainable improvements on the home are:
| To save money on energy bills | 78% |
| To make my home better insulated | 54% |
| To reduce my carbon footprint | 35% |
| To add value to my home | 33% |
| To help me sell my home in the future | 26% |
With £3,445 the average amount homeowners would consider making green improvements to their home, what can that do?
To look at a four of the more costly measures:
Solar panels
The average cost solar panels are £6,500. The Energy Saving Trust (EST) estimates that homeowners can save between £190 and £610 off their annual energy bill. If you take the medium of those figures £400, that would payback the original homeowner’s investment in 16 years.
Heat pumps
Heat pumps are another option. There are two types an air source heat pump that generally range in cost from £7,000 to £13,000 depending on the property size and whether any changes to the existing heating system are needed. The other, ground source heat pumps are generally more expensive and cost between £14,000 and £19,000.
There are government grants available with £5,000 for air source, and £6,000 for ground source. Even with a grant, that still results in the average homeowner investing anywhere between £5,000 to £10,000, and when compared to a gas boiler is significantly more expensive.
According to Octopus Energy, for an average UK home, a heat pump should cost around the same as a gas boiler to run. For a homeowner you’re then faced with a scenario whereby whilst a heat pump can last 20 years, which is longer than a gas boiler, there are no savings available, and the cost of a gas boiler is likely to be cheaper and with less work required.
At present, heat pump installation is the only energy efficiency measure the Government subsidises. The current boiler scheme is due to run until 2025.
Double glazing
Approximately 18% of heat loss is through windows, with the Energy Savings Trust suggesting that installing double glazing could save £195 per year. With the average home costing between £5,000 and £7,000 depending on a number of factors, that’s between 25 and 35 years for the investment to be realised.
Insulation
Walls
Depending on the home and when it was built will have an impact on the insulation it may require. Typically those with cavity walls, it could cost as little as £1,000 to insulate.
Older properties generally have solid walls that can result in a much higher cost of between £15,000 to £20,000 to insulate both internally and externally.
The possible savings for a semi-detached home, according to the EST would be £395 per year, so provides a payback period of less than three years.
Loft
Irrespective of the age of the home, loft insulation offers a cheap and cost-effective solution. It costs on average £640 to insulate an average semi-detached home, with a rough saving of £355 a year. In terms of the payback it’s less than two years.
Despite the obvious benefits in terms of capital expenditure and savings, the extent of homes in the UK that have incorporated these measures is low.
According to Statista figures from July 2023, the proportion of dwellings with some of the measures are:
Wall insulation = 49.3%
Loft insulation greater than 200mm = 39%
Double glazing = 87.5%
The Government ECO+ scheme offers financial support from your energy supplier to make your home more efficient through loft insulation, wall insulation and boiler replacement and repair. These measures focus on helping low income households, as well as those in vulnerable situations, but it is at the discretion of your energy provider as to the criteria and support available.
The current scheme is due to be replaced by the Great British Insulation Scheme (also known as ECO+) though it is not yet open to applicants as it awaits legislation to fully launch though some of the main energy providers are already inviting people to register an interest.
It will help a wider group of people than the current ECO scheme, with those with an EPC rating of D and below eligible, and the scheme is planned to run until March 2026.
You will only be able to get one form of insulation funded through the initiative.
With the cost of living situation stretching household disposable incomes to their limits and with many homeowners and landlords facing increasing mortgage costs the affordability of these measures comes even more into focus.
We’ve experienced an energy crisis in which the poorest households had to choose between heating their home and food, and more often than not, the food was prioritised. The Warm Home Prescription was an innovative solution being piloted by Energy Systems Catapult and the NHS that helped vulnerable people with both cold-sensitive conditions and low incomes by paying for their energy bills over the winter.
The policy on climate change needs to do much more on the economic incentives, and significantly improve the speed at which technology in how we create, distribute and use energy is implemented.
But the implications are that behaviour also has to change in order for net zero to be achieved by 2050.
What can motivate households to change their behaviour? As highlighted by the ONS report there is a gap between how households perceive their responsibilities and ability to mitigate climate change and that of policymakers.
That said, in a different ONS study on the worries of climate change, it reported that 74% of adults in the UK feel ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ worried about climate change. Similarly the Rightmove report respondents when asked if it’s worth paying more for an energy efficient home, 94% agreed. Both these insights imply there’s a willingness to change from households to positively affect climate change.
Beyond the economic incentives, how do we find ways that create low energy consumption, here’s a few high-level ideas:
Make it more conceptual – help households in being able to visualise / inform better decisions. Ultimately carbon emissions are invisible, and the impact of changes is often unseen. Demonstrating the positive results will encourage further change.
Targeting specific life events as they create a high propensity for change – having children, buying a home etc
Help in informing habit and change – There’s a number of small habitual changes around the home that can be made that will have a positive cumulative effect.
Essentially, there is no silver bullet when it comes to reaching net zero both from a policy and behavioural perspective.
Households have a key role, creators of carbon emissions and consumers of goods and services, they embody the opportunity for positive change. The UK is currently experiencing a period of low economic growth and lower disposable incomes as the result of the cost of living crisis. These, at least in the short-term are likely to impact the economic levers available that appear to be the main driver for change.
In the meantime, other less capital intensive ways to encourage change are required, but if we are serious about climate change, the economic levers need to be improved and made more inclusive now, to make change a ‘no brainer’.
Failing to reach net zero for the UK according to the London School of Economics ‘What will climate change cost the UK’ report would represent a decline of 3.3% in GDP by 2050, and gets exponentially worse as we move into the second half of the century. Equally, getting it right would provide a positive boost for the UK’s economy by over 4% by 2050.
As a final note, we’ve focused heavily in this post on household energy consumption in reaching net zero, however other household elements such as travel and food consumption also play a significant role in that goal.
