News
A new External Wall Insulation invention might be the Silver Bullet for Fuel Poverty : March 2012
The numbers of UK households suffering from fuel poverty will rise above 6 million this year (National Energy Action Feb 2012) and the long-term outlook for energy prices is an upwards trend.
The problem of heating the nations’ 6.6 million homes made with Solid Wall construction is a big issue as these properties typically can lose up to 45% of their heat through the external walls. So why is the External Wall Insulation category worth only 5% of the total £1.2billion insulation market?
Could it be due to cost? An average installation costs between £10,000 to £20,000. Even with financial support through the CERT and CESP government funding schemes, not many homes can benefit from this limited resource. With the ‘Energy Company Obligation’ funding scheme due to launch in autumn, External Wall Insulation is a strong candidate for a large chunk of this funding. It looks like much of this funding will be targeting vulnerable and deprived communities, roughly 15% of UK homes.
Could it be due to a lack of trained Installers? One of the leading insulation installers is investing heavily in training new employees to install the complex systems. It can take over a year to gain the skills to be let loose on actual homes. Not many companies can afford this level of investment. That means much of the installation will continue to be delivered by larger construction contractors, ensuring high quality delivery for Residential Social Landlords, but keeping smaller businesses out of the sector.
Could it be due to complexity of the product? Taking between 3 to 4 weeks to install, current External Wall insulation systems are difficult projects that have to be installed in perfect conditions. A well planned job, could quite quickly be rained off for few days.
Whatever the issue is, External Wall Insulation has to become a mainstream product and become more widely adopted. Perhaps EnvirUP has the answer? This small firm of Chartered Energy Managers has invented a simple, easily installed and low cost, patent pending, External Wall Insulation system that could be the Silver Bullet that propels this category to the prominence it deserves and helps reduce the effects of fuel poverty in the UK. EnvirUP claim that their system, which is in early stage development, will be over 50% quicker and cost at least 50% less than anything currently available. They believe new installers with some construction sector experience could learn to install the system on residential properties with one weeks training.
Managing Director, Assim Ishaque, believes ‘whilst the economy is not moving, low cost, high performance External Wall Insulation has enormous potential with consumers who need it now!’, ‘Whenever I speak to potential partners about the product, they tell me about the cold wall on their own homes, it is a product that will easily capture consumers imagination and that is a great sign at this early stage’, said Mr Ishaque.
EnvirUP are busy working on the next phase of their products development, such as architectural planning, colour options and product certification. One thing is sure; their timing to launch a new External Wall Insulation system is perfect and will offer a huge business opportunity. They are now looking for manufacturing and investment partners to help commercialise and launch the product later this year.
ENDS.
- 0oOo0 -
EnvirUP in the Nottingham Post business section 16th January 2012
The story of EnvirUP’s fantastic new low cost External Wall system takes centre stage in the Business Section of the Nottingham Evening Post
EnvirUP in the News
The story of EnvirUP’s fantastic new low cost External Wall system takes centre stage in the Business section of The Nottingham Post on the 16th January 2012
Read the article on the Nottingham Post website by clicking on the link below:
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Green-Deal-heads-Nottingham/story-14436486-detail/story.html
Links
