Poll: UK homeowners want sustainable energy upgrades for ‘mouldy, cold and damp’ homes

A survey conducted by the Energy Savings Trust has found that a majority of UK homeowners believe they live in homes with insulation and energy problems – with over half wanting sustainable energy upgrades.

The poll, carried out by Ipsos MORI, found that 44% of homeowners believe they live in homes with draught problems, 38% said their home has condensation problems and a further 29% say their homes are mouldy. All three of these issues were even more common among renters.

However, homeowners rather than renters are far more likely to take action to combat these issues. Some 24% of respondents that lived in draughty homes professed plans to install energy efficiency upgrades over the next year – a little over 12% of homeowners overall.

Respondents also said, if money were no object, their preferred choice of energy upgrade would be solar panel installations. Most survey participants identified this as a higher priority than home insulation and draught cancelling measures.

David Weatherall, energy efficiency expert of Energy Saving Trust, said, “We need to move away from big messages for broad audiences to information that is tailored to people’s individual motivations, their lifestyle and their home.

“We can no longer get away with a ‘one size fits all’ energy efficiency message for UK consumers.”

A total of 47% of homeowners also said that they would like to know more regarding suitability of their home for renewable energy measures. Tools such as the Energy Saving Trust’s Home Energy Check, which helps homeowners identify what energy saving improvements they could make, were broadly popular among those surveyed.

Weatherall added, “People’s motivations for changing behaviour, or choosing how and where to invest money in energy efficiency, are diverse across genders, age groups and UK regions, as well as being heavily influenced by the type of property people own or rent.”

Photo: Edmund Tse via Flickr

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