The 21st Century Living Project, collaboration between the Plymouth & Surrey Universities, Homebase, Acona & The Eden Project, have recently finished a year-long study and have concluded that there is a mass market for energy efficient home improvements. The provided 100 different homes nationwide with £500 to spend of green home improvements and monitored the outcome, actions taken by participants and also any problems they encountered.

Of all households that took part, over 80% adopted at least one energy saving measure over the year and on average saved around 10%. A variety of households from all income groups were included in the study and on average it was the lower income groups that were more proactive when investing in green improvements.

The most popular improvements were installing loft insulation and replacing regular light bulbs with energy efficient ones with over have the participants implementing them and around 25% replaced their white goods with more energy efficient models. What surprised the researchers was that the £500 gift led to over 60% of households putting £500 or more of their own money towards further energy efficient home improvements!

Despite the positive outcome, implementing anything beyond basic measures proved difficult and only 11% of participants installed cavity wall insulation. Many efforts from others resulted in the contractors advising that it would cause dampness issues or would be too difficult to install. A number of households in the scheme also stated they would be interested in small-scale renewable energy sources but were deterred by the lack of available advice and high prices.

The report also advises that providing consumers with tailored advice is key and thermal imaging of homes provided positive results in changing behaviours, as did electricity monitors. The report also stated that energy bills must be changed in layout in order for customers to be able to compare consumption to past months and from there think about energy efficiency.

Author:  Thomas Davies

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