What are we doing to make your homes more efficient? By David Conway, Senior Contracts Manager

We are nearing the final year of our 7 year Heat Replacement Programme.

We’ve invested over £10m and secured a further £2m in external funding to remove ineffective storage heaters. We’re replacing them with gas central heating and high heat retention storage heating systems that offer tenants significant fuel savings and increased levels of comfort. Nearly 70% of our housing stock now has a heating system that is less than 6 years old.

We’re planning the next phase of energy-efficiency works to ensure our improvements and investments support ambitious targets set by the Scottish Government to increase energy performance and reduce carbon emissions.

In the near future, we will be renovating your homes with a focus on reducing energy consumption as much as possible and to address any energy inefficiencies. We’ll focus on insulating your homes to reduce the energy needed to heat them and we’ll install high performance external insulation, including loft and floor insulation where possible. We’ll also install new windows and doors to tackle heat loss and air leakage.

Over time, we’ll need to fit air cooling, heating and hot water systems that are low consumption and high efficiency, using low carbon technology. We’re also exploring the options of installing solar and thermal panels, and possibly battery technology so that your homes can generate energy. It’s very likely that your heating system will be powered by heat pumps or connected to a heating network powered by renewable technology or even hydrogen.

There’s no doubt the future is renewable, but what exactly that future looks like is still to be decided. Emerging technologies will inform how we further develop our low carbon strategy.

This is a long-term strategy and we’re very much in the planning phase, but hope to share our plans with you in 2023. The remainder of this year will be spent installing energy efficient heating systems and photo-voltaic panels, while securing external funding to further trial wall insulation works – all of which will help lower your energy bills.