Our Services
Home Energy Efficiency & Condition Assessment
This service could be standalone but normally forms the first part of developing a whole house retrofit plan. The home energy efficiency assessment consists of a survey of your property to determine where and how it loses heat. It also identifies if there are defects to the existing building that would need fixing before energy efficiency measures such as insulation are applied.
Cost as a standalone service: £250 to £300 inc. VAT
Whole House Retrofit Plan (lower cost version)
Homeowners often want to know how to make their homes more energy efficient but do not need exact figures on the degree of improvements. This service delivers a more affordable plan for the whole-house retrofit. It uses similar but a bit more sophisticated data than is used in determining a home’s energy performance rating as found on an EPC certificate, and uses a software tool to estimate the improvement in EPC rating from each retrofit measure – such as wall insulation, improved windows. A problem with the software tool is it uses the Government’s SAP methodology for calculating the EPC ratings, and this method has a bias against heat pumps. To overcome the bias, we provide additional data and calculations to show how a heat pump is likely to perform. This service provides a report of the types of insulation or renewable technology that could be applied, how in outline this would be done, the approximate improvement in EPC rating and reductions in energy use and carbon emissions that are likely to result, and gives you a step by step plan of how to improve your home as funds allow over the next 5, 10 or 20 years.
(Houses over 200m2 floor area, pre-1900 homes & those with more than 2 extensions attract a higher fee)
Whole House Retrofit Plan (Passivhaus modelled version)
Architects and those wishing to undertake a ‘deep’ retrofit of their home, need greater accuracy than is delivered by the lower cost plan version. To meet this need and to overcome the SAP problem referred to above, we offer a service that models the whole house using the ‘Passivhaus Planning Package’ (PHPP). PHPP is a highly accurate tool that estimates heat losses through the building fabric, windows, ventilation; allows overheating risk to be calculated, and predicts the efficiency of different types of heat pump and solar panels and solar hot water. It enables the future house to be designed to be highly energy efficient, and adequately shaded to avoid overheating. The output of this service is a full report on how to remodel your home, and what the predicted effects are of each step along the way. It acts as a design brief for the architect or homeowner to take their retrofit forward, and also includes a step by step plan showing the ideal sequence of works by which the retrofit can most efficiently be done without re-work.
Passivhaus Data Modelling
Some architects or homeowners want a succession of different design options to be modelled using the PHPP software described earlier. We offer additional, iterative PHPP analysis, working closely with the homeowner or architect, to further refine the whole-house plan analysis from the previous step.
Cost: £50 inc. VAT per hour, as required
Retrofit Design and Project Management
Depending on the complexity of your home retrofit, you may either need individual retrofit measures specifying, to be implemented by relevant individual contractors, or you may need to integrate a series of six or more measures together in a single design to meet your overall objective. If the latter, than it is likely that you would need the services of an architect for the design detail; but if the former then Owens Insight offers the option to be retained to specify the design detail, find suitable insulation contractor or contractors, and manage the process through to completion.
Cost: £50 inc. VAT per hour, as required
Why Owens Insight?
We offer considered and thoughtful home retrofit analysis for homeowners that care about the planet and wish to reduce global heating and mitigate the rate of climate change. Until the UK Government steps up with adequate insulation grants, most homeowners will find it difficult to finance their retrofit home improvements. Our analysis provides a route-map for a staged retrofit, so that each element builds on earlier steps in a phased plan to create a warm, well ventilated and comfortable home with low or zero energy costs.
Nick Owens our CEO has over 7 years’ experience in advising on home renewables and retrofit and over 30 years general business consulting experience with Ernst & Young , PwC and Owens Insight. He is also Chairman of HKD Energy, a community benefit society in the Hassocks, Ditchling and Hurstpierpoint area, that seeks to promote renewable energy and energy self-sufficiency in the locality. Additionally, he is a director of OVESCO Limited and of OVESCO Sunny Solar Schools which are similar community-owned companies in the working in the Lewes area. Read more about us.
