Helping People Retrofit Their Homes
We’ve been supporting residents to retrofit their homes across Manchester, Tameside, Rochdale and Oldham through the Local Energy Advice Demonstrator (LEAD) programme, part of a £2.14m initiative funded by the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero and the North West Net Zero Hub.
What we’ve been doing
Our role in this initiative was to support groups of people who are most at risk of fuel poverty, and who live in properties that are considered to have low energy performance ratings, to start the retrofit process.
If they met the eligibility criteria, we could help them to apply via the online portal. For many of the people we work with, the application process can be challenging as it requires several pieces of evidence, which we helped them to obtain.
Once the application was fully complete, it was then picked up by a local installer who guided them through the retrofit process.
Depending on the resident’s needs, installations ranged from new heating systems and windows to loft and wall insulation.
The results
In total, Groundwork and partners provided energy advice to just short of 35,000 residents across Greater Manchester, resulting in over 4,100 households (mainly from areas at risk of fuel poverty, as shown by the map) making applications to have energy efficiency measures installed.
On a national level, the GMCA led programme with Groundwork helped to achieve 40% of the national performance of all measures installed to resident’s properties.
Our work in Roch Vale Caravan Park
As a pilot scheme, we were keen to explore whether thermal drone imagery could help residents understand and engage with the scheme, highlighting where heat can escape from.
Our chosen site was Roch Vale Caravan Park, in which we assessed a number of properties across the park and took a range of before and after photos.
After installers implemented changes to properties across the site, we revisited a year later to capture identical drone shots, exploring the effectiveness of the energy efficiency measures.
For this property, wall insulation was added to ensure that less heat escapes. The colour difference in the before and after images shows that the insulation is keeping more heat in, as the external walls are now darker. This results in a warmer, more energy efficient home.
Bringing retrofit solutions to life
We created a model home, which showcases all the different ways a home can be modified to improve it’s energy performance.
This helped our team discuss various measures with residents, what they look like and how they can benefit their homes.
It’s important that residents understand the significance of a greener future, and the role they can play in climate action.
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