Home Energy Efficiency Ratings increase in Last Quarter

Owners of property in need of restoration might agree that making changes to their home's energy efficiency levels would be hard.

Gordon Miller, sustainability and communications director of Sustain Worldwide, believes this is the challenge that retrofitting faces.

"The complexity of understanding how to make one's home energy efficient; uncertainty about the efficiency of the materials and technologies and who you can trust to install them for you; the cost of, say, solid wall insulation is a deterrent to uptake; and general apathy - many people simply aren't interested in saving money through energy efficiency and reducing their home's carbon impact," he explained.

In order to encourage more people to make green improvements to their properties, their "trigger point" will have to be found.

This could be showing them the financial benefits of energy efficiency, reduction of CO2 emissions and saving the planet, "or wanting to leave a better world for their children", Mr Miller added.

His comments come after research from the Department for Communities and Local Government revealed average energy efficiency ratings have increased from 80.2 to 81.7 for homes in England between the fourth quarter of 2009 and the same three-month period last year.

Building & Construction News