Helping to inform the Green Deal: green shoots from PAYS

About the report

Findings from this energy saving home improvement trial indicate that homeowners are not only motivated by immediate financial savings on their energy bills. Motivating factors also included making their home more comfortable, improving its appearance and taking the hassle out of the improvements by having an expert come in and do the whole installation. The findings of this trial have been carried out by sustainability experts BioRegional.

The pilot will assist in informing the Government’s Green Deal which aims to help householders improve the energy efficiency of their homes; reducing fuel bills and CO2 emissions. The pilot was run in a unique partnership between B&Q, The London Borough of Sutton and BioRegional, to explore one way of delivering the finance, assessments and installations.

The 67-home pilot, based in the London Borough of Sutton, is one of five DECC funded Pay-As-You-Save (PAYS) pilots around the country that began in 2009 and ended in 2011. The Sutton homes were retrofitted by B&Q with energy efficiency measures such as insulation, draught proofing, boiler upgrades and solar photovoltaics. The average capital spending per household was around £13,000 and was funded through a 40% grant and a council-administrated interest-free loan for the remaining 60%, for which householders could choose between a 10-year or 25-year repayment period. Households should see a predicted 26% average reduction in the CO2 emissions of their property.

Published August 2011
Pages 12

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