Soap Homes Energy Efficiency – The Result
- EastEnders’ Dot Branning has the worst performing home in soap land
- Making Tyrone and Fiz’s Coronation Street home more energy efficient could save them £475 each year
- Hollyoaks veteran Tony Hutchinson tops home energy efficiency table
Soap Property Energy Efficiency League Table
Eastenders – Dot Branning’s House
The worst offender was the two-bedroom, mid-terrace Albert Square home of EastEnders’ resident, Dot Branning.
Taking into account the nature of the property, as well as the number of residents and their lifestyles, we awarded Dot’s property an energy efficiency rating of just 2.5/10. This was based on the property being of solid wall construction, having no loft insulation, an old boiler and single glazed sash windows.
We found that Dot could be wasting in excess of £290 every year, and a complete overhaul would be needed to bring her up to modern energy efficiency standards.
Despite the daunting sound of the amount of work that would need to be completed, schemes like the Green Deal and ECO would help these improvements to be made at relatively low cost (or sometimes in the case of ECO at zero cost) by fully certified Green Deal installers.
Coronation Street – Tyrone & Fiz’s House
On Coronation Street, Tyrone and Fiz’s mid-terrace home didn’t fare much better, with an energy efficiency rating of 4/10. The family’s average energy bills are estimated at £1,150 per year, driven up by an inefficient boiler, no loft insulation and no cavity walls to fill with insulation.
However, Tyrone and Fiz’s energy efficiency report estimated that they could save around £475 annually by investing in external wall insulation and a new energy efficient boiler.
In addition to reducing their energy use, they could also potentially generate an income if they were to install Solar PV ‘panels’ on the south-facing roof of their home.
Emmerdale – Debbie Dingle’s House
Debbie Dingle’s countryside cottage is an interesting one. Like many rural properties it is ‘off-gas’ grid and is currently heated by an inefficient oil boiler.
Coupled with the stone based structure, which lacks good thermal insulation properties, the annual heating bills of £2,200 are assumed to be much higher than a similar home of this size.
A full thermal upgrade of wall, roof and floor insulation is needed to bring the heating demand down to a manageable level. From this point the Dingle’s can benefit from installing a heat pump, which is an alternative and more efficient way of heating a home. In addition from Spring 2014, approved renewable heating solutions will benefit from the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which will pay Debbie a set amount (guaranteed for seven years) for every unit (kWh) of heat the heat pump produces.
It is important to point out that while heat pumps can significantly reduce energy bills, this is only the case for homes that are well insulated. Prior to an installing a heat pump it is extremely important that a house has been thoroughly insulated to prevent heat loss, otherwise you may end up paying significantly more on your energy bills!
Hollyoaks – Tony Hutchinson’s House
At the other end of the scale, Hollyoaks veteran Tony Hutchinson’s 1980s Cheshire flat topped the energy efficiency table – scoring 7/10. The flat is relatively modern compared to the other soap properties assessed and was totally renovated following a major fire in 2010. It now boasts the latest insulation and heating technology, which helps Tony reduce his fuel bills whilst keeping his home warm and cosy.
What is the Green Deal?
The Green Deal is a Government backed initiative which aims to help people in England, Wales and Scotland improve the energy efficiency of their homes, without having to pay all of the costs up front. Anyone taking out a Green Deal finance plan to pay for the improvements repays the loan through the savings they make on their energy bills. The key point is that the monthly repayments should not be higher than the monthly savings on their energy bills created by installing the measures.
For free and impartial advice or to find out if your home could benefit from initiatives like the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) contact the Energy Saving Advice Service on 0303 123 1234 or give us a call on 0208 144 0897 – We will happily guide you through the energy efficiency minefield!
If you would like more information on this study – including how the research was conducted please get in touch.
BREAKING NEWS!
See Nick Miles talk about energy efficiency and the soap homes feature on Sky News Sunrise by clicking on the video below.
Pages: 1 2
I work as a GP and see lots of elderly patients living in places that seem even less efficient than Dot’s! How can I help them to save money and keep warm this winter? Is there anything the NHS should be doing to try to tackle this? I know our local East Berkshire CCG would be interested.
Many thanks,
Hi Lizzie,
Thanks for your comment – there is so much that can be done here, in terms of schemes specifically designed to help the elderly with this sort of thing, I think the best thing is actually to give us a call on 0208 144 0897, and we can get you started. We can tell you about which types of measure to prioritise, in terms of cost savings as well as all the grants available and exactly how to go about getting your hands on them! This is a really important issue so we would love to help if we can.
Thanks
James