October 25, 2024
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Blog, Renewables, Thought leadership

Why the social homes of the future must be energy smart

Decarbonising England’s 4 million social homes is no small feat.

Along with the rest of the housing sector, social housing must become carbon free for the UK to meet its legally binding net zero targets by 2050.

However, decarbonisation must be implemented in a way that does not result in higher energy bills for tenants. Instead, delivering carbon free social homes and tackling energy poverty – which currently affects 18.4% of social housing tenants – must go hand in hand.

Where social housing is getting it right

When it comes to energy efficiency, the social housing sector has already made commendable progress.

English Housing Survey 2022-2023: rented sectors notes that 70% of social rented dwellings have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of A, B, or C. This figure compares to 45% in the private rented sector, and 43% of owner occupied dwellings.

In its decarbonisation guide for housing associations, the National Housing Federation stresses the need for fabric improvements to further improve energy efficiency. Moreover, the Federation offers guidance on implementing low carbon or carbon free heating systems through:

Heat networks
Hydrogen heating systems

The need for a comprehensive, energy smart approach

Decarbonising social housing and tackling energy poverty requires going beyond improving insulation and installing carbon free heating.

Social homes must become energy smart – able to maximise use of clean energy, and export energy to balance the grid.

The modern energy smart social home needs:

Solar PV panels

Battery storage

Heat pump

Smart meter

Here’s what this modern mix of green technology could do for social housing.

1️⃣ Unlock the potential of heat pumps

Under the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), heat pumps made up just 3% of installations. While heat pumps don’t directly emit any carbon, they do use electricity.

Standalone heat pumps drawing electricity from the grid could leave residents with higher electricity bills and cause strain on the grid during times of peak heating demand.

However, these issues can be offset by combining a heat pump with solar PV panels and battery storage. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany have already demonstrated how this is possible. Their study found that the combination improved heat pump efficiency and resulted in drawing less energy from the grid.

In short, the combination offers carbon free heating without an extortionate electricity bill.

2️⃣ Provide clean and low cost electricity

In 2017, the government planned to install solar panels on around 800,000 social homes. By 2022, only 170,237 social homes had solar panel installations, according to MCS data.

Solar panels are the most affordable and scalable means for social housing tenants to generate renewable energy. However, to maximise use of solar, social homes also need battery storage.

A home battery storage system can:

– Store solar energy when generation is high

– Discharge said energy when generation is low and demand is high

While solar and battery storage is the ideal combination, social housing tenants could also benefit from standalone battery storage. Such a system can:

– Charge from the grid when electricity is cheaper, e.g. during off peak hours

– Discharge when electricity is more expensive, e.g. during peak hours

3️⃣ Help balance grid supply and demand

According to a report co-authored by the Centre for Net Zero, annual consumer electricity demand in the UK will rise by around 50% by 2035. Behind this increase is the rise of heat pumps and electric vehicles.

Moreover, the UK is increasingly dependent on time variable renewables, such as solar and wind. In short, you can’t simply turn the wind and sun on and off, as and when electricity demand requires.

In future, grid operators will increasingly call upon the distributed energy resources (DERs) of ordinary households. And there’s no reason why those in social housing should be any exception.

For instance, operators can pay residents to export energy stored in home batteries during times of high demand. This is, in fact, something offered by GivEnergy through its smart “GivBack” flexibility services.

Such grid balancing schemes can become accessible to social housing tenants through smart meters and energy monitoring software.

Standardising social home decarbonisation

Barriers to social home decarbonisation remain, especially among ‘hard to decarbonise’ social homes. Social housing providers may need to adapt decarbonisation measures on a case by case basis to overcome specific challenges.

However, in the long term, the sector could work towards standardisation. For instance, social homes could follow the Centre for Net Zero’s proposed Smart Building Rating (SBR).

Such a measure would complement an EPC and indicate a building’s capacity for energy flexibility, or ‘smartness’. An SBR score would depend on whether a building had a battery storage system, solar PV installation, heat pump, smart thermal store, etc.

This could lay the groundwork for standardising social home decarbonisation.

Decarbonisation which is not only in line with net zero, but also delvers affordable energy to help tackle energy poverty.