Energy efficiency service providers are missing on a large group of potential customers—at least this is the case in the UK, according to a new poll published yesterday. There are a lot of people who are renovating their homes and are not looking specifically for energy efficiency solutions, but wouldn’t mind installing some while they are at it.
According to a survey of 1,028 UK homeowners published yesterday (pdf), among the people renovating their kitchens and bathrooms (amenity renovators), only one out of ten is considering energy efficiency renovations alone, much more people (three out of ten) are thinking about the renovations that would combine amenity and energy efficiency measures.
The researchers, led by Dr George Chryssochoidis of Norwich Business School and Dr Charlie Wilson at the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia fund that most customers are motivated by things like the need to make better use of space at home. Approximately 27% of the renovations are triggered or precipitated by events outside the rhythm of domestic life, for example, if something breaks and needs to be fixed or replaced. The desire to be more energy efficient, on the other hand, is not a significant motivation for most people.
Indeed, the study found that energy efficiency-related renovations are rarely done alone. Amenity renovations dominate the market, sometimes with efficiency measures included. The small percentage of efficiency-only renovators are more likely to be made up of people who have lived in their home for more than 10 years (33% compared to 23% of amenity renovators), own their homes outright (53% compared to 39%), live in smaller households (2.3 compared to 2.4 members) and have fewer dependent children (present in 20% of households compared to 26%).
Based on the study findings, Dr. Wilson recommended that instead of targeting energy efficiency solutions at committed efficiency renovators, service providers could be seeking a ‘foot in the door’ with the much larger group of amenity renovators.
“One approach would be to develop value propositions which bundle efficiency measures into amenity renovations and align with people’s deeper motivations for renovating. They should be focusing less on how these measures can save money on bills, and more on how they can make homes better adapted to families’ needs,” said Dr. Wilson.
Researchers found that the most important features of an attractive value proposition for both efficiency and amenity renovations would be (in order): lower upfront cost, more reliable contractors, less disruption to domestic life and less “hassle factor”.
While energy-efficient home renovations can lower energy bills, there are a lot of other options for energy efficiency. In a review of some less obvious ways to increase energy efficiency we published earlier, we talked about significant energy savings that can be achieved with a help of cloud computing, advanced traffic control systems or even by simply planting some trees in a right place.