In the UK, there is an ongoing issue of many families suffering from fuel poverty. This is a consistent problem for those in the lowest-income households. Luckily, some measures can help, such as our own social housing window blinds, known as Flutter Shutter.
Social housing blinds are a fabric-first measure designed to tackle the energy inefficiency within a home. By offering improvements to the building’s thermal envelope, the blind can reduce the overall cost of keeping the home warm.
We previously discussed the importance of considering improvements to the thermal envelope of homes for landlords in another blog, which outlined the planned changes to the MEES.
Why Social Housing Blinds?
In terms of measures that are both cost-effective and easy to implement, social housing blinds are among the best. Designed with the tenants of social housing stock in mind, these measures don’t require a great deal of labour to install, nor do they have a high cost vs their potential benefit.
From our testing in our local area, we found that these bespoke blinds in Liverpool social housing stock require no additional, expensive work to the surrounding structure. Meaning that there is no extra cost to fixing the damage caused by other measures, such as that of triple glazing.
How Do These Social Housing Blinds Reduce Fuel Poverty?
There are several ways that social housing blinds can reduce effective fuel poverty in the home. Here is what we found through our own work with household blinds in Liverpool home retrofits.
Energy Efficiency Improvements
Blinds, as part of social housing windows systems, can offer significant improvements to the thermal envelope of the home. With these social housing windows systems, the amount of energy needed to maintain warmth in the home is reduced as less energy escapes through the windows.
Thereby cutting down the amount of energy used by a family. This, in turn, means a lower spend on energy over the year, which is the primary cost at the centre of fuel poverty.
Low Installation Cost
Many energy efficiency measures are quite expensive to install. This makes it difficult for already struggling families to afford the necessary retrofit to lower their monthly home costs. With our own bespoke blinds, developed from Liverpool’s technology hub, we’ve found that our window system – including a bespoke blind design – costs significantly less to produce than other measures.
Including the cost of materials and installation for triple glazing within a home. A significant part of the problem with helping these homes is that they are not being addressed, as social housing stock tends to benefit low-income families the most.
Regulating Internal Temperature
In our testing, our bespoke blinds in Liverpool homes enabled far better temperature regulation within the homes. Initially, this doesn’t seem to impact the level of fuel poverty, but that is without considering how it affects the overall energy usage in the home.
When heating can be used consistently and does not spike suddenly during colder periods, a family’s overall heating costs can be reduced. Using the blind to trap heat when it is most needed, even when the outside temperature is lower. The natural indoor temperature can be better maintained with this additional barrier to the outside.
More Consistent Spending
As part of this regulation, families suffering from fuel poverty can better manage their spending. Which doesn’t just mean they can pay less, but they can pay more consistently. With social housing windows systems, households can better regulate when they need to pay for heating.
Possibly even limiting the use of heating to specific months within the year, making it easier to both save and maintain a pot of money for when heating is required.
Interested in your own Social Housing Blinds?
As we’ve mentioned, we offer our own bespoke blinds for Liverpool social housing as part of our comprehensive window system.
Which, thanks to our partners, we can install with no additional cost for those living in social housing. Helping to tackle fuel poverty in many of the poorest homes.
If you’re interested in installing your own system as a homeowner or registered social landlord, please get in touch with us today.
You can reach us via our contact form, by phone at 01512454691, or via email at contact@fluttershutter.org.
You can find more information about our work on the rest of our site, including our content with registered social landlords, heritage, and our brochure.
At Flutter Shutter, eliminating fuel poverty is not just our aim; it is our purpose!
