retrofit reality a dissemination report by Gentoo - part 1 of 3

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1 retrofit reality a dissemination report by Gentoo - part 1 of 3

2 Gentoo met the decent homes standard in 2005 and is now looking at ways to improve the efficiency of the stock further Gentoo Group is a people and property business and is made up of various subsidiaries including Gentoo Sunderland which looks after a housing stock of around 29,500 and Gentoo Construction, a one-stop-shop, incorporating a wide range of design, construction and maintenance services all under one roof. Retrofit Reality is a TSA Innovation and Good Practice supported project. This stock generates around 180,000 tonnes of CO 2 per annum with associated fuel costs of about 30m. Gentoo met the decent homes standard in 2005 and is now looking at ways to improve the efficiency of the stock further and reduce CO 2 emissions, whilst helping customers reduce their fuel bills. Retrofit Reality Aims We wanted to test products that are meant to make homes more sustainable. We were interested in understanding how they worked so we put solar thermal panels, A rated condensing combination boilers, energy efficient showers and double glazing into homes to find out how much they reduced fuel bills by. The questions we were interested in were: How difficult are these products to put into a house? How easy are they to use? What are the benefits to people living in the homes? What type of maintenance do they require (for example, how often would they need to be fixed)? To get this information we put products into 139 of our homes. We wanted to get a real understanding of how hard it is to make homes more environmentally friendly. We looked at three key things: Ensuring the products are people friendly we wanted to ensure residents were keen for these improvements to be made to their homes. We worked closely with them to check they understood the changes. Choosing the right homes not all homes can use the technologies we selected. We needed to identify homes that were suitable. We also needed to check that people were able to use the technologies. Choosing the right products we checked how much the solar thermal panels, boilers and improved glazing cost. Whether it was cheaper to gain grant assistance from Government or whether there were other ways to purchase these products at a lower cost. The following report will tell you the answers to these questions. This project has just started, and this is the first of three reports. We have not yet monitored the actual results of the products but wanted to share some of our findings as we move along this journey. Here is what we found so far. E nsuring the products are people friendly It would be easy to think improvements to homes are equally useful for everybody. Actually there can be quite big differences. In some houses, the benefits can be quite small. For instance the elderly and those living alone generally use less hot water so solar thermal panels, are not really of great help to these households. Homes with more people would benefit more significantly from solar energy installations. We are going to ask people lots of questions after the project finishes next year but even right now, at the start of the project, we have learned a few things: some residents want to know a great deal about the project. They can ask questions like: Why was my house chosen and not others? How does a solar panel work? What is the benefit for me when you install that? We wanted to get a real understanding of how hard it is to make homes more environmentally friendly 2 3

3 Some solar thermal installations in Area 2. : We also learned some useful points about the discussions on the works. These worked better when staff dealing with the project could clearly communicate how the products worked (technical detail) and what the benefits were. Technical staff needed to understand how to interact with residents (customer services). It might sound simple but customer services needed to understand installers and the installer team needed to understand the customer services role. Choosing the right homes When we were trying to decide which homes to choose we identified 1500 Gentoo homes which were soon going to be improved to the decent homes plus standard. So, to minimise additional costs, we thought we would choose some of those 1500 homes due for refurbishment. When you have 1500 homes to choose from you would think finding 139 homes that fit would be easy! It wasn t. It was very hard to find homes that could work with the products. Many homes had things which made them unsuitable for retrofitting, for example some of the homes could not be used because the external part of the house was not right: : There was not enough space on some roofs to fit technologies Some roofs had quite a bit of overshading or did not face south, meaning they would not get enough sun for solar thermal panels to be effective Sometimes it was difficult because the houses did not have room. : Some homes: Did not have many cupboards, so customers did not want them filled up with cylinders Would have needed to have had their gas or electricity meters moved, which can be quite expensive Needed a large amount of plumbing to get the water to and from the hot water cylinders Had floors that were not strong enough to support the weight of hot water cylinders Required strengthening of roofs, which is expensive Despite all those issues we did find enough homes in the end. One hundred and thirty nine homes received some of the following products: solar panels A rated condensing combination boilers double glazing energy efficient showers external insulation The following table outlines which homes will have what products installed: Location Details of decent homes plus work Number receiving energy efficiency products Area 1 Area 2 Area 3 Area 4 Area 5 Homes will gain a modern kitchen and bathroom and some insulation They will also have A rated condensing combination boilers Homes will gain a modern kitchen and bathroom and some insulation They will also have A rated condensing combination boilers Replacement of back boilers with A rated condensing combination boilers Internal modernisation and conversion of bed sits to form one and two bed apartments A number of properties had refurbishment and alteration of communal areas and replacement of single glazed windows with double glazing Residents were identified as in fuel poverty Non-traditional build, no cavities and poor insulation capabilities 49 of the homes have electric fires. For these homes double glazed windows will be put in and a modern energy efficient shower The 20 homes which face south will have solar thermal units 39 homes will receive double glazing Many of these homes will receive energy efficient showers A single home also received solar thermal installation Incorporation of a solar thermal system with main boiler and a communal hot water system which will service 23 of the apartments 8 of these homes received external cladding and insulation to the ceiling External wall insulation to non-traditional build in Area

4 P roducts There is a lot of evidence that some of the products are very effective. For example, many homes have had lower fuel bills after A rated combination boilers and external cladding were used. Some of the other products are not as well known. With Entec, a consultancy firm assisting us, we looked more closely at how these products work. We calculated which products were the best at reducing carbon emissions for their price ( per tonne of CO 2 emissions saved). This analysis showed some really interesting and surprising results. The technical stuff Solar thermal panels Solar thermal panels generally sit on roofs of homes and use the heat of the sun to heat water for people to use in their homes but they can be situated on the side of houses and even boundary walls. The right size of water tank needs to be chosen. If it is too small for the number of people using it the system will be over used. If it is too large it will be underused. When fitting solar systems to connect with existing combi boilers it helps to or call the boiler manufacturers to confirm that they are suitable. You normally get a ten year warranty for solar panels. But they do need to be checked: Once a year the unit needs to be viewed by a specialist Every five years they need to be examined If you heat the water stored in the solar panel to 60 o C, this drastically reduces the chance of bacteria growing in the tank. If you do this late afternoon you will take advantage of all the hot water heated by the afternoon sun. Solar thermal Benefits can be between 50 per tonne of CO 2 saved to 207 per tonne of CO 2 saved. The more people using the system the more CO 2 emissions are saved. Double glazed windows A window that allows more daylight into a room is useful. This reduces the need for electric lighting. But a large window also allows more heat to leave a home. It is also possible to provide coatings that allow light through while keeping heat in. These are called Low E coatings. The British Fenestration Rating Council (BFRC) grades windows A (good) to G (poor) according to how much daylight windows let in and how much heat they allow to leave the house. Double glazed windows Changing to A rated double glazing is predicted to give a CO 2 emission benefit of between 10 per tonne of CO 2 to 23 per tonne of CO 2 saved. When the existing windows are of low quality the saving from replacing them is greater. A larger house also means greater savings as there is more opportunity to save heat. Energy efficient showers Showers are interesting to focus on. We wanted to provide showers that people liked and saved energy. People like aerated flow shower heads because they generate a sensation of a higher volume of water. Lower water flow showers have two benefits for residents. They save water and they also save all the energy that was needed to heat the water. The benefits can be significant as illustrated below. Our studies show that putting low flow showerheads on electric showers is not useful. The problem is that sometimes the shower unit overheats, there can also be a problem of not getting enough water to provide a pleasant shower. Energy efficient showers The benefits of fitting low flow showers range from 18 per tonne of CO 2 saved to 1284 per tonne of CO 2 saved. The most benefit comes from installing low flow mixer showers into homes that have no showers in them. The least benefit comes from replacing existing mains fed showers with a low flow shower. Improvements to electric low flow showers were generally not as effective as not as much CO 2 was saved. 6 7

5 Photovoltaics Photovoltaics are panels that generate electricity. Gentoo are not using photovoltaic arrays in this project. However we did consider their use. We thought it might be useful to see how they compared with our other products. Photovoltaics These panels are currently an expensive way to save CO 2 relative to the other methods we have been looking at. Even after additional money is provided to support them the costs are still between 300 per tonne of CO 2 to 600 per tonne of CO 2 emissions saved 1,400 1,200 1, H ow we think products will compare The following table compares how much each product costs to reduce a tonne of carbon. For each product the blue bar shows the lowest possible cost for reducing a tonne of carbon. The red column shows the highest cost found. The graph shows that A rated windows can be a cost effective method for reducing carbon emissions. While photovoltaics, some improvements to showers and some installations of solar thermal units can be less cost effective. We look forward to showing you the actual findings from installing products in a further report as we continue down our journey. 207 Cost Savings (Range) , Solar thermal Windows Low flow Photovoltaics panels showers n Bottom Range (Cost/tCO2) n Top Range (Cost/tCO2) Buying the products We learned quite a bit from our discussions with suppliers. We found that some suppliers of micro-generation technology were able to operate under the Low Carbon Building Programme framework and obtain 50% Government funding. However, there were others that were not eligible. We asked both types of suppliers to tender so that we could evaluate their proposals. Interestingly we found that some suppliers who were not eligible for grant funding gave better value for money than companies who were eligible for grant funding. We are very eager to ensure that our suppliers give us, and our customers, best value for money. To find out more we surveyed them after our tendering process. We found that suppliers were happy to assist in providing further information in structured questionnaires and meetings. Camco are now collating these findings into a separate report. We would like to thank our suppliers for their input. We have just started the journey of understanding how to make homes more energy efficient. We have already learned a great deal. We know how hard it is to find the right homes to fit products into. We now have a better understanding of lifetime costs of the various interventions. We also know more about choosing between the different technologies available. The lessons learned during the procurement process will enable future purchasing decisions to be made from a stronger start point. We believe we have made the best possible decisions when choosing between the sustainable solutions. The challenge of Difficult to situate: solar cylinder. the existing stock is extremely demanding. Approximately twenty six million existing homes need to be refurbished to at least 80% less carbon. We are proud to provide some findings that will hopefully be useful to you and others in the sector as we start down this journey together. We look forward to sharing other results as our work continues. Gentoo will be sharing further valuable lessons learned in at least two other similar reports. Watch this space! Also, visit for further updates. 8 9 E xecutive summary

6 T hank you to those who helped make this project happen The Tenant Services Authority and the Low Carbon Buildings Programme are really interested in how homes can be made more energy efficient. Together they have provided over 115,000 worth of support for this project, with 100,000 coming from the TSA s Innovation and Good Practice Grant programme. We appreciate this support and endorsement. At Gentoo we very much believe in this research. We want to assist residents to gain good housing and low fuel bills. We are proud to be assisting the sector in understanding this important issue, in fact we have allocated 255,000 to the project from our own funds. Gentoo are working in partnership with Northumbria University and are funding two PhD students for a period of three years to assist with the technical and behavioural aspects of the project. The findings will be disseminated to others and Gentoo have enlisted the help of Sustainable Homes to assist with this. We anticipate attracting many other exciting partners throughout the course of the project. H ow are the funds used? The TSA funding is being used to manage the project and towards the dissemination of its findings. Gentoo s investment has predominantly funded the installation of the energy efficiency measures. However, we have agreed to pay each of the households involved in the project 100 as they have agreed to co-operate fully with the monitoring of the energy performance of their homes for a minimum of 18 months. Something you ll find out about in a later report! C losing This is just a small part of what Gentoo does. Other innovative sustainability projects we are working on includes: Construction of the UK s first accredited PassivHaus development Commercial and residential community sustainability. ecosmart consultancy service Our environmental report, Footsteps Carbon footprinting Waste management advice Other innovative carbon reduction projects. Visit our website for more information or us at enviro.info@gentoogreen.com Notes Gentoo Construction working on a 10 Gentoo Sunderland home. 11

7 Working with: ISO National Winner for Green Employee Engagement 2008 Top 60 Best Green Companies 2009 Sustainable Homes Index for Tomorrow 2009 Sustainable Developer of the Year 2009 Committed member of the Good Homes Alliance 2009 Gentoo Group Limited Emperor House, 2 Emperor Way, Sunderland, SR3 3XR Tel: Statex: FSC logo to go here