Providing energy efficiency advice to your residents

Over half of UK homes (18 million) have EPC ratings of D or lower. Many people could benefit from making home improvements like installing insulation, draught proofing and double glazing. But doing this at scale is challenging for both homeowners and local authorities.

Firstly, residents need to cover the upfront cost of making improvements to their homes. There are schemes in place, such as the UK Government’s Warm Homes: Local Grant, that can help with funding.

But even if they have the money, residents still need support to work out what’s right for them. When it comes to seeking energy efficiency advice, residents tell us:

• They’re confused by the language around energy efficiency.
• They don’t know where to find reliable information.
• They’re wary about energy scams.
• They’re concerned about the cost and return on investment.
• They’d value independent advice to help them make sense of it all.

Being able to help all the residents in an area is challenging. To target your efforts, you need to understand your residents’ individual circumstances, homes and energy needs.

Using resident geographic data and home Energy Performance Certificate data can help. This allows you to narrow down households that are more likely to face high energy bills, or are suitable for specific measures.

If you’re looking for an in-depth understanding of the homes in your area, try our Home Analytics database. It has address-level data for every property in Great Britain, including EPC bands, suitability for renewable technologies, fuel types and property tenure. You can use this information to plan and deliver your retrofit strategy.

We know from the services we run that retrofit is generally more successful when homes have access to tailored energy advice. This helps residents understand exactly what they need to do to save energy and cut carbon at home.

Local authorities tell us it can be costly and time consuming to support residents with energy efficiency advice at scale. This where digital tools can streamline the process.

For example, our Homewise property tool creates personalised home energy action plans for residents in minutes. By completing a simple online survey, residents get set of recommendations tailored to their needs and budget. They also get a breakdown of the cost for the work and potential savings.

After making residents aware of the energy efficiency improvements they can make at home, the next step is to highlight any available funding.

Depending on their situation or household, you may be able to direct them to specific financial support. You can also signpost them to grant advice and guidance to help them understand their options.

With Homewise, you can build this into the user journey by adding custom links to advice and funding in your area. This makes it a useful tool to tie to your funding opportunities, for example, to deliver funding to the right people through the Warm Homes: Local Grant.

Find out how Waltham Forest Council used Homewise to support its zero interest loans for home energy efficiency improvements.

Reaching the right households with your messaging can be a challenge. We know from speaking to local authorities that blanket marketing campaigns to entire cities or regions are expensive and often have low return on investment.

Having access to data can help you to focus your efforts on residents who are more receptive to advice.

For example, Homewise provides you with data on who has used the tool and where they are. This allows you to identify areas with clusters of interest and target your marketing to these areas.

What’s more, people who’ve used Homewise have already bought into retrofit and have learnt about their property. They’re more informed and confident, which makes them easy wins.

Find out how Leicester City Council used Homewise to reach more residents with retrofit advice.

If you’re offering energy saving advice, it’s important to make sure it’s up-to-date, accurate, easy to understand and in an accessible format for your audience.

Our Infact bulletin, available for free to local authorities, has energy saving tips and easy-to-reference facts and figures you can use in your marketing materials. Covering insulation, heating and cooling, appliances, lighting, water and solar power – the information can help your residents take action to reduce their energy use. Find out how to get our energy saving facts and figures for free.