White Paper Makes Progress On Home Energy Efficiency

Onzo, the designer of home monitoring systems,  welcomes much in yesterday’s government White Paper setting out plans for the move towards a low carbon economy.  This is of course a massive undertaking, and the ambition of an 18 per cent cut in carbon gas emissions from last year’s levels by 2020 is hugely ambitious.  The White Paper recognises the importance in this process of improving home energy efficiency – after all existing homes account for almost 40 per cent of this country’s carbon gas emissions – and Onzo is entirely supportive of efforts to achieve this.  Improving the energy efficiency of our homes is perhaps the main way in which we can all play our part in reducing carbon gas emissions.

As we have long argued, one of the chief obstacles to this is the fact that householders will not recoup their investment for years.   The White Paper proposes piloting a “pay as you save” model of financing, which suggests that the cost of such activities as home insulation will in some way be paid for by the savings achieved.  The details of this scheme are not clear, however, and it seems unlikely that on its own it will stimulate a major programme of domestic home improvement.  We have proposed that local authorities should raise funding for this through issuing bonds, making loans to householders which will be repaid through the mechanism of the council tax.   This, or a similar scheme, seems to have the best chance of achieving results.

Confirmation of the deadline of 2020 for the rollout of smart meters is welcome.  This will provide real benefits to consumers by removing the need for estimated and potentially inaccurate bills.  Once again smart meters are extolled, however, as enabling people to understand their energy use and maximise opportunities for energy saving, although in fact their ability to do this is strictly limited.  Alongside them there should be greater use of tools that manage energy use, such as individual appliance controls.  Behaviour change should also be encouraged through differential pricing tariffs, printed analysis of energy use, information and recommendations provided through electronic media such as the internet and mobile telephones, and, of course, real-time in-home energy displays.  The reduction in energy use these tools could bring about will go some way to cushion the effect of the increased bills the government admits are inevitable as we move towards a low carbon economy.

The White Paper speaks of the provision of displays prior to the availability of smart meters, benefitting two to three million households, through the Carbon Emission Reduction Target Scheme (CERT).  Onzo certainly supports the inclusion of displays in CERT but, as we have pointed out before, the weighting they are to be given in this scheme greatly underestimates their potential to help users save energy.

All in all, the White Paper is a real step in the right direction, but much needs to be done to put flesh on its bones as far as saving energy in the home is concerned.