According to a survey of 1,028 UK homeowners published today, people renovating their kitchens and bathrooms (amenity renovators) are a giant ‘foot in the door’ for service providers looking to sell energy efficiency products.
The VERD (Value propositions for Energy efficient Renovation Decisions) project, led by a team at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), explored what motivates homeowners to renovate their homes with efficiency measures in order to assist service providers, local authorities and other agencies in improving take up of domestic energy efficiency.
The researchers, led by Dr George Chryssochoidis of Norwich Business School and Dr Charlie Wilson at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at UEA, found that people considering energy efficient renovations are motivated as much or more by factors relevant to amenity measures – such as the need to make better use of space at home, and what other people are saying and doing about renovations - as by any desire to be energy efficient. Moreover, around one in four renovation decisions are triggered by events outside the normal rhythm of domestic life, for example, if a boiler breaks and needs replacing or fixing.
Energy efficiency renovators have tended to be seen as a discrete group, driven mainly by a desire to save money or be environmentally responsible. But the VERD findings reveal this not to be the case. In reality, they are broadly similar to amenity renovators, in that they are not particularly motivated by saving money on their energy bills, and are no more influenced than anyone else by policies or marketing campaigns aimed at promoting energy efficiency.
The study finds that efficiency measures are rarely carried out in isolation. Just one in 10 households is considering energy efficiency-only renovations, whereas renovations that combine amenity and energy efficiency measures are three times as common.
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%).
Dr Wilson says: “Our research clearly shows that efficiency-only renovators are a small segment. Amenity renovations dominate the market, sometimes with efficiency measures included.”
“Instead of targeting efficiency measures 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.”
Dr Chryssochoidis adds: “Our findings explain how to support homeowners in the Green Deal market, and also why homeowners may be considering efficiency measures in the first place. The Green Deal may work if offered at the point-of-sale when homeowners are about to renovate. It needs to fit in to renovation plans already underway, and ideas homeowners may have about their home as a project. These must be considered as major aspects of sales and marketing strategies.”
The report also highlights the potential for service providers to use the Green Deal to add or ‘piggyback’ efficiency measures on to amenity renovations at no upfront cost. When asked to choose between different renovation options, homeowners spending £5,000 on kitchen remodelling were twice as likely to add a further £5,000 of efficiency measures into their renovation plans using the Green Deal. Homeowners spending up to £10,000 on a full kitchen revamp were also more likely to substitute in some efficiency measures, again using the Green Deal to pay the upfront costs.
The authors also make a series of recommendations for local authorities, which they say are well positioned to use their status as a trusted, independent ‘brand’, for example by backing local suppliers, and supporting service providers by offering customer support, risk guarantees, badging and certification.
To read the full report, go to the VERD project website at:
www.tyndall.ac.uk/renovation-decisions