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How to convince householders to energy upgrade?
When I covered the Serve project in North Tipperary for the latest issue of Construct Ireland, one thing struck me: how difficult it is to convince householders to upgrade their homes. Serve is an EU-funded sustainable energy project that is grant-aiding home energy upgrades alongside the Home Energy Saving (HES) scheme in North Tipp - more info on Serve here.
The idea of Serve is to get householders to undertake the basic insulation and heating upgrades under HES - and then go further with additional measures under Serve. Between HES and Serve homeowners can get up to 70% of the cost of an energy upgrade - but it's still a hard sell.
When I interviewed Paul Kenny from the Tipperary Energy Agency, he said most homeowners were reluctant to upgrade, and that those in houses built post-1990 were particularly disinterested. Many believed their houses to be energy efficient. Of course this generally isn't the case - according to SEI's latest stats, most building energy ratings (BERs) for existing dwellings fall between a C and a G rating.
So how should energy upgrades be sold to householders? If the experience of Serve is anything to go by, even the introduction of Pay As You Save - a scheme that would enable homeowners to energy upgrade their homes and pay for it over time on their bills, spending nothing up front - might not be enough to convince a lot of people.
A first step is to make homeowners aware of the energy performance of their homes. An idea proposed by Construct Ireland, whereby BERs must be displayed on all property advertising, is included in the current programme for government. This would ensure that BERs are prominent in newspapers, on property websites, on street signs and hoardings. It should make us all much more aware of the energy performance of typical Irish homes. After all, if my neighbor is selling her house and I see she has a D, E or F rating, I'm more likely to realise that my own home's performance must be similar and think about upgrading.
But clearly this is just one step towards making people aware of the energy performance of their home and convincing them to renovate. What else can be done to entice homeowners?
The idea of Serve is to get householders to undertake the basic insulation and heating upgrades under HES - and then go further with additional measures under Serve. Between HES and Serve homeowners can get up to 70% of the cost of an energy upgrade - but it's still a hard sell.
When I interviewed Paul Kenny from the Tipperary Energy Agency, he said most homeowners were reluctant to upgrade, and that those in houses built post-1990 were particularly disinterested. Many believed their houses to be energy efficient. Of course this generally isn't the case - according to SEI's latest stats, most building energy ratings (BERs) for existing dwellings fall between a C and a G rating.
So how should energy upgrades be sold to householders? If the experience of Serve is anything to go by, even the introduction of Pay As You Save - a scheme that would enable homeowners to energy upgrade their homes and pay for it over time on their bills, spending nothing up front - might not be enough to convince a lot of people.
A first step is to make homeowners aware of the energy performance of their homes. An idea proposed by Construct Ireland, whereby BERs must be displayed on all property advertising, is included in the current programme for government. This would ensure that BERs are prominent in newspapers, on property websites, on street signs and hoardings. It should make us all much more aware of the energy performance of typical Irish homes. After all, if my neighbor is selling her house and I see she has a D, E or F rating, I'm more likely to realise that my own home's performance must be similar and think about upgrading.
But clearly this is just one step towards making people aware of the energy performance of their home and convincing them to renovate. What else can be done to entice homeowners?
Last modified on Wednesday, 02 December 2009 10:25