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The Scottish Executive's Central Heating Programme and the Warm Deal Annual Report 2003-04: BENEFITS FROM HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY SCHEMES IN SCOTLAND 2003-04: A REPORT BY THE SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE

Effect of Central Heating Programme improvements

The effect of improvements on the energy efficiency of the homes can be measured using the National Home Energy Rating (NHER). This is a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is a very energy inefficient property and 10 an efficient one. ⁵

Of the 6,588 local authority and housing association properties, an NHER could be calculated for 6,361 (96%). For 10,200 properties improved by Eaga, ratings were calculated for 9,457 (93%).

Before the installation of central heating and insulation, the average NHER of homes improved under the Central Heating Programme was 3.2. After improvements the average NHER increased by 3.2 (from 3.2 to 6.4).

Properties can also be grouped together in bands as shown in Table 3. Figure 7 and Figure 8 show the percentages of properties falling into each band before and after improvements were carried out.

Table 2

Figure 7

Figure 8

Effect of improvements on predicted emissions and running costs

Total emissions of CO ₂ are predicted to be reduced by 45,036 per year (a reduction of 32%). By comparison, the UK is committed to achieving a 20% reduction in CO ₂ emissions by 2010. ⁶

Emissions of nitrous oxides (NOx) and sulphur dioxide (SOx) are predicted to fall by a total of 374 tonnes per year and 741 tonnes per year respectively. ⁷

The predicted expenditure on fuel is the annual expenditure required to light and heat the dwelling to the standard heating regime. This cost fell by £356 a year on average, from £960 to £604 a year (a 37% reduction) in homes improved under the Central Heating Programme. ⁸

How the benefits are taken

Improvements in energy efficiency can be realised in lower fuel bills, resulting in lower emissions of pollutants as outlined above, or they can be realised as a higher level of heating (higher temperatures or more of the home being heated) for the same level of expenditure, or a combination of both. The homes that have been improved under the Central Heating Programme were only partially heated before intervention, in most cases only one room had heating (where more than one room was heated, heating was provided by independent systems). It is possible therefore that households will use much of the increased efficiency to achieve a higher level or heating and comfort. The benefits will then be realised as an improved home environment and potentially improved levels of health. This in turn means that actual spend on heating and the emissions of pollutants after improvements will be higher than the predictions made in this report.

The Scottish Executive has commissioned more detailed research to explore exactly how the benefits of a more energy efficient home are taken by the occupants, the effects on fuel poverty of the programme, and the effects of the Programme on the health of the occupants.

Effects on NHER by tenure

In 2003-04 the percentage of owner-occupier properties rated poor was lower than the percentage of local authority properties (Figure 9). Private-rented properties continue to form the least energy efficient tenure prior to improvement.

Figure 9

Figure 10 shows the change in NHER by tenure. After improvements, the average NHER for public sector properties increased by 3.2 to 6.9: the average NHER for private sector properties increased by 3.4 to 5.9.

Figure 10

Effects on running costs

Figure 11 shows households which have benefited from improvements to their home under the Central Heating Programme grouped by predicted annual expenditure on fuel before and after improvements. For example, before improvement more than a third of households (39%) would have to spend more than £900 a year to adequately heat their homes, after improvements this fell to 11%.

Figure 11

Before improvement, privately rented properties were on average the most expensive to heat homes, costing around £1,355 per year on average. Housing associations properties were the cheapest, costing £740 per year on average to heat, while local authority properties cost £876 a year on average and owner-occupier homes cost £1,012 a year on average.

After improvement, private rented properties show the biggest reduction in heating costs of £561 a year, with costs for owner-occupiers falling by £352 per property per year. For local authority tenants fuel costs are predicted to fall by £353 a year and for housing association properties the reduction is £285 a year.

Differences between urban and rural areas

The table below shows the number of installations completed in urban and rural locations, ⁹ based on the property postcodes. ¹⁰

Table 3

Figure 12 compares the types of heating systems installed in each area, which shows that properties in a rural location were less likely to have a gas-fired system installed than urban properties.

Figure 12

Figure 13 shows the change in the average NHER for urban and rural areas.

Figure 13

Figure 14 shows the change in the average predicted expenditure on fuel in each location. While the difference between the NHER of rural and urban properties prior to improvement is relatively small (1.5), there is a considerable difference in the fuel expenditure, with rural expenditure twice as great as the average for an urban home.

Figure 14

Results of the partial upgrade programme

Local authorities also upgraded the heating systems in 803 properties which had some form of partial central heating. Table 4 shows the results of the improvements.

Table 4

Assessing the impact on fuel poverty

The Scottish Executive has commissioned more detailed research to show the effects of the Central Heating Programme on levels of fuel poverty. A report on the impact on fuel poverty in properties improved under the first year of the Programme (2000-01) is now available at www.scotland.gov.uk/socialresearch.

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