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Articles

Why EPCs aren’t a good measure of home energy efficiency
Energy performance certificates (EPCs) tell prospective tenants and buyers how energy efficient a property is on a scale of A to G, with A being most efficient and G, least. The Conversation has released an article based on a new piece of research, arguing

PWC report finds that high cost of home retrofit ‘could hold back UK from achieving net zero goals’
A new PwC report released ahead of UN World Environment Day found that from energy bill savings alone it can take, on average, at least 10 years to cover the upfront costs of making energy efficiency improvements to UK homes. A survey of 1,000 adults found

National shortage of construction materials is getting worse
The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has reported that the national shortage of construction materials is getting worse. With the UK opening up after a series of lockdowns, construction activity is at the highest rate in the past seven years. But, this

SuperHomes has relaunched: a network of homeowners ‘redefining green living’
SuperHomes is a network of homeowners who have refurbished their homes (usually old, hard to treat homes) to the highest standard of energy efficiency – meaning that little energy is being wasted in the home, and there is no reliance on fossil fuels for

Nottingham Uni research gives 10 top tips for retrofitting older homes
Researchers at Nottingham University have released the results from their recent research into the best approaches to improving the energy efficiency of older homes. Professor Mark Gillott and his team constructed a replica 1930s semi-detached house on campus

Councils are struggling to meet ‘unrealistic’ deadlines for Green Homes Grant
The Green Homes Grant scheme for homeowners was scrapped in March of this year. At this time the Government allocated an additional £300 million of funding to the Local Authority Delivery side of the Green Homes Grant scheme, wherein households could access

How to make your home more energy efficient: an infographic
Our homes have a huge role to play in the climate emergency. To address the climate crisis and meet our carbon reduction targets in the UK, we need to retrofit millions of homes, reducing the amount of wasted energy which is causing excess carbon emissions.

International Energy Agency: ‘Ban new gas boilers to reach net-zero’
The International Energy Agency (IEA) have advised that no new fossil fuel boilers should be sold from 2025 onwards if the world is to achieve net-zero emissions by the middle of this century. This is part of their newly released report Net Zero by 2050,

Aberdeen social housing to benefit from £5.2 million green retrofit scheme
100 social housing properties in the north east of Scotland will be upgraded to improve energy efficiency, using a fabric first approach to retrofit. This will be at no cost to tenants or landlords, due to £2.2 million of funding from the government through

Ministers ‘dodge’ recommendations to improve energy efficiency of homes
The Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s report on Energy Efficiency of Existing Homes was published today. There is little response in the report itself, with the focus instead on the imminent Heat and Buildings Strategy, where

What is energy efficiency – and why is it important?
When we talk about home retrofit and our Cosy Homes Oxfordshire service, we often use the term ‘energy efficiency’. But what is energy efficiency, why is it important, and how does it relate to our homes? That’s what we’ll cover in this post. Defining

The end of our grant-funded pilot phase – what’s the next step for Cosy Homes?
Our whole house retrofit service has been operational for two years now. These two years (2019-21) have been our ‘pilot phase’, during which we’ve received grant-funding from the UK Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy