Get advice and support for low carbon energy upgrades and energy efficiency measures if you rent your home.
In a typical British home up to a third of the heat produced by central heating is lost through the roof, walls, floor and windows. This means a poorly insulated property wastes £1 out of every £3 spent on energy.
Below is advice and support to help you make your home more energy-efficient, reduce energy bills, and upgrade to low carbon and more efficient systems such as solar, heat pumps and electric vehicle charging.
We welcome your input. If you have suggestions for new information or resources, send an email to net.zero@brighton-hove.gov.uk.
Get information about how to check the energy performance and insulation of rental properties on the Energy Saving Trust website.
The property you rent should have an Energy Performance Certificate. See this useful guide to EPCs on the Energy Saving Trust website and find your property’s latest energy certificate on the gov.uk website.
The government also introduced minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) to improve the quality and increase the energy efficiency of privately rented houses and buildings.
More about EPCs and the MEES regulations.
If you think your home doesn’t meet the MEES standard, you can find out about your rights to energy efficiency improvements.
If you need to talk to someone about a problem in your home, you can contact us about your private rented housing or contact Citizens Advice Brighton & Hove.
If you rent your home, you can apply for a grant to make changes to your home. You should talk to your landlord before you apply as you will need permission to go ahead with any work.
Your landlord might need to pay some of the cost of making the improvements.
For example, you could apply for the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, which typically focuses on providing a 'whole house' approach to energy upgrades for low-income households.
Find out more about the ECO grant and how to apply.
If you can’t apply for a grant or your application is unsuccessful, your landlord might be able to apply for help from other schemes such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
See how to be energy efficient at home for advice on how to become more energy efficient, how to get a free smart meter and help for private tenants to save energy, including grants.
Use this step by step guide for ways to improve your home that could make it cheaper to heat and keep warm on the gov.uk website .
Learn more about low and zero carbon technologies for heat and power.
The Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2035 is the British Standard for whole house retrofit, designed to ensure best practice and improve energy efficiency in housing.
The PAS 2030 certificate verifies that installers are competent in carrying out energy efficiency measures within retrofit projects.
Find out more about the PAS standards on the National Energy Foundation website.
The Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) is an independent certification scheme that provides quality assurance for renewable energy installations.
Find out more about the MCS quality mark and the technologies it covers.
Look out for Trustmark registered installers.
Trustmark offers support for traders to be accredited for installing energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating.
Choosing an electric car or van can help you save money and improve air quality.
Learn more about the different types of electric vehicle, how they work and the benefits of owning one in the Energy Saving Trust’s electric vehicle guide.
Find out about electric vehicle (EV) charging in Brighton & Hove, how to find one and how to request an EV charging bay in your street.
Find out about the electric vehicle chargepoint grant for renters to help towards the cost of installing an off-street electric vehicle chargepoint socket at eligible properties.
LEAP is a free service that helps people keep warm and reduce their energy bills without costing them any money.
LEAP works in partnership with Brighton & Hove City Council and can:
Find out how to keep your home cool in extreme hot weather with the Overheating Adaptation Guide for Homes from Shade the UK and the Red Cross.
Some people are at higher risk from indoor overheating due to age, pre-existing health conditions, or property type.
For further information, see:
Talk to your neighbours, family, and friends at risk about the following home adaptations.
Completely turn off electrical appliances not in use, as they continue to generate heat in standby mode; for example, a 100W high-efficiency TV will generate a similar amount of heat as an extra person.
Measures to reduce heat from the sun include:
Other passive cooling measures include:
See more options with cost indicators and images on pages 20 to 26 of the Overheating Adaptation Guide for Homes from the British Red Cross.
Prioritise external shading, if possible, as it is much more effective than internal shading. If you cannot afford to install measures across your property, prioritise south-facing windows/walls/rooms. If planting vegetation for external shading, choose plants and trees that shed their foliage in winter to invite heat from the sun during the winter months.
Insulation and glazing keep your home warm in winter and cool in summer. Keep windows closed during the day and cross-ventilate at night by opening windows on opposite ends of a room or building.
If the air inside your property becomes warmer than the air outside, cross-ventilate during the day too.
Very well-insulated properties will often have a Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) system installed. If your property has an MVHR system, ensure it’s on ‘summer bypass mode’ to reduce indoor overheating.
Read more about MVHR systems on the Centre for Sustainable Energy website.
When installing any kind of insulation or draught proofing, speak to the installer about what ventilation measures they’re considering as part of the design.
The following measures are listed in order of cost (lowest to highest):
Read more about cooling with Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) and ASHPs.
Drink plenty of fluids if pointing fans directly at you, as this can increase the risk of dehydration. When using evaporative coolers, keep internal doors closed and ventilate the room with the evaporative cooler, since these units can increase the amount of moisture in the air in your property. Drive down running costs for ASHPs by installing rooftop solar.
Read more general advice on staying safe and well during heat waves.