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.
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. 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.
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.
For more information visit https://parityprojects.com/
Header image ©William W. Potter/AdobeStock
