Actis sees rise in retrofit insulation enquiries, as think tank calls for more support to tackle energy crisis

Insulation specialist Actis says it is seeing a rise in enquiries for its products following the latest leaps in fuel prices – driven in part by the shorter payback period in carrying out retrofit improvements.

The announcement comes as a government think tank urges the new Prime Minister to look longer term at tackling the energy crisis – by helping householders with the cost of home insulation.

The report, Tackling the UK’s Energy Efficiency Problem, published this month by the Institute for Government (IfG), points out that the UK’s housing stock is the oldest and least energy efficient in Europe.

“If the government focuses only on short-term financial support, and long-term measures to boost supply that are unlikely to have a major impact, it will find itself in an even more difficult position in a year’s time,” its authors warned.

It stresses that the UK could face an even worse energy crisis in 2023 if it does not look to improve insulation in homes and cites a 2020 study which suggested that a UK home with an indoor temperature of 20C and an outside temperature of 0C lost 3C of heat on average over five hours.

It says the government’s new energy price guarantee does not tackle the root cause of excess domestic energy use, and calls for more support to enable householders to insulate their homes.

Actis UK and Ireland technical director, architect Thomas Wiedmer, says that with more than 25% of the UK’s traditional housing stock more than a century old, action must be taken to stem the flow of heat leaching from these homes. Recent enquiries to its technical desk and increases in sales suggest there is greater interest in taking action to retrofit such properties – driven in part by the shorter payback period.

The new energy price guarantee, which comes into effect in October, means payback periods on insulating a roof alone are now as little as three years. A similar payback period applies to insulating just the walls or the suspended timber floors.

“It now makes more financial sense to ensure that the existing building fabric is as energy efficient as possible before spending resources on other measures. Insulation is generally among the most cost effective and long-lasting measure and a reduction in energy use is good for the environment,” said Thomas.

The Actis Hybrid range includes clean and easy-to-fit honeycomb insulation Hybris, which comes in variety of thicknesses, insulating vapour control layer HControl Hybrid and insulating breather membrane BoostR Hybrid and BoostR Hybrid Roof. These products provide excellent solutions for retrofitting roofs, walls and suspended timber floors.