SELFBUILDER SURVEY: BUILDING A GREENER HOME
What measures are you undertaking to improve the sustainabilty of your project?
a project overall to be a low carbon build is another. With that in mind, we asked our respondents if their project could reasonably be considered low carbon, when thinking of it as including design choices intended to reduce carbon emissions such as improving energy effi ciency, generating renewable energy, reducing reliance on gas or using lower carbon materials. ith our given defi nition meaning respondents needed to be using several sustainable measures, it’s positive that 25% said yes, they do believe their project would be considered a low carbon build. Given the uptake of many of the individual measures in the previous question was somewhat low, it’s positive that a quarter of respondents do believe their build overall qualifi es as low carbon. While almost half (49%) of respondents less encouragingly said no, the remaining 26% said they don’t know. This could be indicative of gaps in knowledge and a lack of understanding from many self-builders about sustainability and low carbon building in general. It could also be down to respondents using architects, contractors and project managers and therefore not necessarily always being up to speed on what methods and technologies are being utilised and installed.
Motivations & barriers Following our question on low carbon building, we asked those who said yes what their motivations for taking on a low carbon build are. Unsurprisingly given rising costs over the past few years, the most popular choice was to reduce energy bills, selected by 63%. In a similar vein, looking ahead to potential future increases, 38% said they want security against energy price rises. Sticking with respondents’ more personal reasons for building low carbon, 53% of respondents said their motivation was to create a warmer home and 41% said they want better air quality and a healthy living environment. The motivations which have a wider impact on the environment
were marginally less popular: 34% said they want to reduce their overall carbon footprint, and 31% said their motivation is to avoid contributing to climate change. 28% said they want to reduce reliance on gas, and 13% said they are hoping to reduce embodied carbon.
While not as popular as the more personal reasons relating to
comfort and cost/saving money, it nevertheless indicates self- builders have a reasonable understanding of the impact they can have on the wider environment. It also proves the reasons and motivations for self-builders to consider building low carbon are farreaching – from those having a direct personal benefi t to those which can help mitigate the effects of climate change – which in turn should encourage others to consider pursuing it. Unfortunately, while the motivations are plentiful, there are also barriers that can put self-builders off or even prevent them from fully undertaking a low carbon build. Unsurprisingly, the overwhelmingly most popular option when we asked participants what they have found to be the biggest barriers was high upfront costs (59%). This is a recurring concern and criticism of many self- builders and homeowners looking to make eco-friendly upgrades, though the industry as a whole is working hard to change this and debunk what it considers to be a ‘myth’. As technology emerges and evolves, costs also tend to decrease over time, making this a barrier that will hopefully dissipate over the coming years. Financial incentives are also in place, but perhaps not as widely known as necessary. Many renewable technologies and products qualify for 0% VAT such as solar panels, heat pumps, batteries and insulation. Those installing solar panels can quality for Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) which allows excess electricity to be sold back to the grid, and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme offers consumers £7,500 towards an air or ground source heat pump, £5,000 towards certain biomass boilers, and £2,500 towards some air-to-air heat pumps. Some lenders now also offer green mortgages for energy effi cient homes, or low interest loans for retrofi tting and home upgrades. A potential lack of knowledge and understanding also surfaced again, with the second biggest barrier being uncertainty about the reliability of products such as heat pumps (28%), closely followed by lack of information about solutions on offer (22%). Those working in the industry might be privy to more in-depth information, CPD training and access to successful projects which have used certain products. For self-builders on the other hand, while there are educational courses available, specifi c information and case studies are arguably less accessible, leading to uncertainty over how products – particularly new or expensive ones – will perform. The theme of uncertainty continued with 19% of respondents
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