We are delighted and privileged to announce that we are second place winners at the Energy Efficient and Healthier Homes 2017 awards for the Best Small Project category. The Awards took place earlier this month and we are estatic that our efforts and achievements have been recognised within the industry.
For the past 12 months, we have been helping our local borough and its residents by carrying out loft and/or cavity wall insulation. After being appointed by London Borough of Redbridge to carry out domestic energy health checks and assess properties for loft and /or wall cavity insulation, the social housing residents were sent letters from the council. This was to inform them of the service that we provide and how we can assist them to reduce their energy bills and help keep their properties warmer for longer. Within days, calls and emails came flooding in and our diaries quickly filled up with appointments to carry out an energy health check on the properties in question.
A local council resident named Derek aged 87, made an appointment for us to visit him at the earliest opportunity. Derek lives alone in a large semi-detached house of cavity brick structure. Due to his health, he lives a fairly inactive lifestyle and due to not moving around too much, he says that he often feels cold. As a result, he spends excessive money on heating which seeps out of the house and constantly needs topping up. Derek had a small amount of insulation in the loft already (about 100mm), but it was in disorder and needed topping up. His cavity walls were also uninsulated.
Derek advised us that he looked into getting double glazing however the quotations were over £3000 therefore he was looking for other ways to keep his house warm. In this case, free loft insulation and free wall cavity insulation were the immediate options. Loft insulation is quick and easy to install and a very effective way to keep your house warm and save money on energy bills. As people are aware, hot air rises and without any barriers the heat will exit the property via the roof. By having loft insulation, it can stop up to 20% of heat loss. The external walls of any given property have the largest surface area where again the heat loss is the greatest. By having cavity wall insulation, it can stop up to 35% of heat loss.
The insulation material used for the loft is Knauf Earthwool due to it being a flexible glass mineral wool quilt which is lightweight, resilient and non-combustible. The objective was to add an additional 200mm of this insulation to produce an overall 300mm blanket in the loft.
For the cavity wall insulation process, Supafil 34 is used for the cavity walls. This offers an unrivalled combination of thermal performance and on-site practicality. Supafil 34 is a high quality blown-in mineral wool with a thermal conductivity value of just 0.034W/mK.
Two teams went to the property on the day of the install. One for loft and the other for the wall cavity. The whole insulation process took about 2.5 hours in total to complete, leaving the customer with a fully insulated loft and walls and allowing him to feel the immediate benefits.
Derek was very surprised at how simple the whole process was and the efficiency on the day of install.
“The installers gave me a call an hour before my appointment time to tell me that they are on their way. They arrived on time and started work straight away. They were really friendly, professional and helpful in answering all my questions too. I’m very happy in how they carried out the work and happier that I am saving money on my quarterly bill”
Our aim is to make our local borough as Green and Energy Efficient as possible and at the same time ensuring all properties are warmer with the current ECO funding. Residents like Derek don’t come by very often and is an example of a severe case of fuel poverty. We need to focus on the general residents who occupy majority of the borough; working families with young children, families with very little or no income, working couples and individuals and those unable to work due to health problems.
We are the first point of contact for our residents and give them hand held support throughout the entire customer journey. We ensure our communication and correspondence with our residents is to the highest level and have an admin team available to answer any of their queries that they may have. We provide an in-depth service for every property we assess and carry out all the below as standard:
- Conduct a thorough ECO inspection looking at all homes improvement measures.
- Prepare and complete floor plans as well as lodging all the EPCs against the Landmark database.
- All administrative tasks are conducted by us minimising disturbances to the residents.
- Be the point of contact for the customers to any queries for their insulation needs.
To date, Eco Target has managed to successfully install loft and/or cavity wall insulation in over 1,500 properties within The London Borough of Redbridge under ECO funding. Without having ECO funding, the cost to have the same level of work conducted would have been approximately £675,000 which is a huge saving in itself. As a result of this, the borough has been able to reduce its carbon emissions by well over 27,000 carbon tonnes and at the same time reduce the energy bills of their tenants. The impacts in savings are immediate and the residents are delighted in having warmer homes through the winter period.
It gives us immense pride giving something back to the borough/community that we live and work in, whilst knowing that we have helped so many fellow neighbours by providing them with more comfortable living in their homes. The rewards have been wonderful to watch and they are getting greater each day as we cover more of the borough.
Our vision is to work with every borough so together we can tackle fuel poverty regardless of each residents’ income and personal circumstances.
We will also be running ‘mini-projects’ across the borough in various community centres and places of worship to help promote and raise awareness. For further information and an opportunity to join us, please visit www.ecotarget.co.uk. Regular updates can be monitored via our Twitter @ecotargetuk and EcoTarget Ltd Facebook pages.
