Our Services - Stage 2

Our aim is to help you plan your retrofit project by identifying improvements, supporting you to decide which measures to go for, and exploring the implications.

If you know what you want or suitable energy efficiency measures are straight forward, we may decline to progress you further in the People Powered Retrofit service. We might think you can meet your priorities yourself with some signposting to information.

If you want to do something more complicated, or want to explore your options, Home Retrofit Planner is an in-depth survey carried out by one of our expert Retrofit Surveyors.

It's different to many home assessments, such as Energy Performance Certificates, because it considers householders’ motivations for retrofit, their priorities and preferences as well as factors like comfort, health and indoor air quality.

Then you can move on to Making a Plan Part 2, and commission your Retrofit Surveyor to help you finalise your plan, and develop a Scope of Works.

1. Firstly, we'll assign an assessor, and ask you for energy bills, an Energy Performance Certificate if you have one, any construction drawings you might have, plus planning and building approvals or certificates.

2. Your assessor will get in touch with you to arrange a pre-visit video to speak to you before they visit, and also a time for the survey.

3. In a pre-visit video call your assessor will ask you about your motivations, priorities, preferences and perceptions. We’ll also ask about your future plans, timescales and budget.

4. During the survey your assessor will take some measurements of your home and carry out a visual inspection of its condition. They will assess the existing ventilation system and construction materials. In doing this they will take a lot of photographs as a record, as well as making notes and sketches.

5. Where appropriate and depending on weather conditions, your assessor may also use thermal imaging (only possible on cold days) to help visualise heat loss. They may also use tools like a boroscope or a moisture meter to be able to understand more about the construction of your home. As an optional extra, we may also be able to arrange an air-pressure test or more detailed thermography survey to assess the leakiness of your home.

6. Back at the office, our assessor will create an energy model of your home as it is now. We’ll use this to develop three potential retrofit scenarios based on low, medium and high intervention measures, tailored to what you told us about your priorities and future plans, so that these are integrated with any non-retrofit works you might be planning, or are aligned with your biggest concerns or budget. Our tool allows assessors to use their knowledge and judgement to develop suggestions that are more likely to be suited to you and your home.

7. The next step is to give you a detailed report explaining the findings of the assessment. We’ll also include three retrofit scenarios with approximate performance outcomes and budgets. Recommendations will range from ‘quick wins’ to deep retrofit measures, usually targeted at making your home ‘zero carbon ready’ in the third and final scenario. The report will also highlight any issues you might need to address alongside your planned retrofit, and some of the risks you’ll need to be aware of in making more detailed plans for the work.

8. To clarify the report findings, we’ll arrange a 30-minute follow up consultation where you can ask any questions and discuss further support available from People Powered Retrofit.

Prices start at £800 for standard sized homes, and will be higher for larger or more complex homes.

Home Retrofit Planner will help householders to create a whole-house retrofit plan even if they decide to do the work in stages rather than all at once.

Find a Sample Report here.

You can enquire about Home Retrofit Planner here.

Jonathan Atkinson, People Powered Retrofit Business Director explains more about this assessment tool

There are certain things that our survey doesn’t include. For example:

We don’t recommend specific contractors to carry out retrofit works. All of our advice is completely impartial.

Our report isn’t prescriptive, telling you exactly what action to take. Instead, we make recommendations and develop potential scenarios that will support your decision-making process.

Securing statutory permissions such as planning, building control, party wall and right to light are not part of the Home Retrofit Planner assessment. However, People Powered Retrofit can help you with gaining these permissions.

Our assessors don’t create a detailed retrofit works specification or construction drawings for you. You’ll need to do this design work after you have your assessment - when you understand exactly what measures you want.

We rarely carry out invasive work during our survey and only ever with your explicit permission and co-operation, for instance, drilling a hole in your wall to check cavity construction or lifting floor finishes.

Now it's time to choose and 'lock in' your measures.

A Retrofit Surveyor can:

• Call to discuss and confirm your energy efficiency measures.
• Draw up a Scope of Works: listing the improvements you want to commission.
• Identify who needs to be involved and how to manage risks linked to your project.
• Specify any initial investigations required and design requirements
• Identify a suitable pathway to progress any design work either within or outside the People Powered Retrofit service.

And we’ll need you, as the householder, to:

• Make the final decision on which works you want to include in your Retrofit Project.

This is a small commission which is reflected in the price, also based of the size and complexity of the home.

For more information about any part of Stage 2 of the retrofit process, enquire here, or call 0161 826 0141