Energy solution

As the government announces groundbreaking plans to boost minimum energy efficiency standards for rental properties by 2030, Howard Trotter, Business Manager at leading uPVC window and door manufacturer and supplier Shelforce, discusses the implications for housing associations and their tenants.

Cottsway is West Oxfordshire’s largest housing provider and has over 5,100 homes across Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire. Cottsway are working to reduce carbon emissions and energy costs for customers in these homes and are working with Sava to help achieve these objectives.

What did Cottsway want to achieve?
At the beginning of the project Cottsway held only enough energy data to calculate ratings within Sava Intelligent Energy for a small number of properties. Cottsway had commissioned a large number of EPCs over several years which they no longer had access to. Cottsway also held a lot of useful energy data in separate asset datasets such as PV information and gas boiler makes and models.

Over the last couple of years, consumer trust in the gas and electricity industry has dropped significantly.  This erosion of trust is primarily based on rising bills, particularly when record profit announcements are made by the big oil and gas producers. When headlines announcing that companies like Shell are making profits of $11.5 billion are published alongside other headlines telling stories of pensioners dying alone in unheated homes, it is no wonder that questions are being asked - and so they should be!
 
The complexities of the energy supply chain have resulted in a lot of misery on the streets of the UK. The conflation between energy retailers and energy producers creates a confused narrative that is not necessarily the true picture. The retailing part of the entire supply chain is particularly volatile - which is why the UK lost 28 gas and electricity providers back in 2021, leading to 4 million customers being hoovered up into the larger companies. Overall, the erosion of trust is exacerbating the levels of anxiety in our communities.
 

InstallerSHOW 2023 and elemental are delighted to welcome the UK Government’s Heat Pump Ready programme as an event partner.

Heat Pump Ready is a major innovation programme funded through the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) which is delivered by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. The programme is supporting the development of novel solutions to transform the market for heat pumps in the UK, with many of the projects in the spotlight at InstallerSHOW from 27 to 29 June at the NEC.

Last year was elemental’s first as part of InstallerSHOW and, as our content takes shape for the 2023 event, it’s clear our focus on decarbonising buildings has never been more important.
With three days of inspiring and informative discussion on all the latest approaches to creating buildings that are ready for net zero, the elemental content theatres at InstallerSHOW 2023 will give visitors the tools and the connections to decarbonise existing buildings and new developments.

For the offsite sector, the focus is not just on building efficiently but also building efficient and healthy buildings. To achieve both aims, offsite manufacturers need to be able to rely on their supply chain partners to make sure every aspect of a build is as efficient as possible. Close and early collaboration is key, as the fabric first approach demonstrates with more efficiencies achieved when important ‘hidden protectors’ are designed in from the start.

Building Product Design Ltd, which encompasses three subsidiary companies – Glidevale Protect, Passivent and Kingfisher Louvres, is an excellent example of this industry collaboration in practice and as Adam Ford, director of technical & marketing at Building Product Design Ltd explains, the company has developed
a package of specialist support and healthy solutions tailored specifically for the offsite sector.

A new scheme that local authorities can invest their Local Authority Delivery Scheme (LADs) and Home Upgrade Grant Scheme (HUGs) budgets in has received backing from British Gas and So Energy.