Urgent action on energy efficiency standards is required to hit greenhouse gas emissions targets, BEIS report suggests

Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is crucial if the UK is to meet its climate change targets, eradicate fuel poverty, and reduce domestic energy bills, the latest report by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee has argued.

After carrying out an inquiry into the issue, MPs on the Committee discovered that the rate of efficiency measures – such as insulation and low energy lighting – installed in UK homes under government schemes has plummeted by 95 per cent since 2012.

At the same time, builders are currently able to exploit loopholes allowing them to construct new homes to outdated standards and sell homes that do not meet advertised energy standards, the report claims.

MPs on the Committee said energy efficiency should be treated as a national infrastructure priority. They argued that as such the government should deliver far more robust building regulations and fill the “substantial” gap in funding needed to bring existing homes up to scratch.

“Improving energy efficiency is by far the cheapest way of cutting our emissions and must be a key plank of any credible strategy to deliver net zero by 2050,” said Labour MP Rachel Reeves, who chairs the BEIS Committee. “If the government lacks the political will to deliver energy efficiency improvements, how can we expect it to get on with the costlier actions needed to tackle climate change? More energy efficient buildings are not only crucial for tackling climate change but are vital for lowering customers’ energy bills and lifting people out of fuel poverty.”

The report additionally recommends the government “drastically” increases the £5m it has put towards the new Green Finance Innovation Fund, which was set up last month to encourage the private sector to develop financial products that encourage households to install efficiency measures. And it calls on Ministers to urgently set out how they intend to meet the government target for all homes to be at EPC efficiency rating C or above by 2035.

HeatingSave – the low-cost BMS that offers in-depth analysis tools for your building

Building management systems (or BMS systems) monitor and control building operations, such as heating and hot water provision, air-conditioning, electrical power, fire alarms and fire suppression, lighting, ventilation and even security (access control, video surveillance, etc.). These systems are increasingly connected to other information systems and the internet.

Quite obviously, in order to be able to deliver such a high level of control, BMS systems employ an array of sensors, each of them transmitting sensitive data to the main controller. Ensuring the data remains private and secure at all times is paramount f or the security of the buildings and residents.

The HeatingSave building management system features multiple sensors – temperature, flow and return temperature, PIRs, LUX, air quality, etc. – all contributing to the achievement of the ultimate goal – that of helping you drive down energy costs, while keeping your building comfortable and secure.

HeatingSave collects and stores meter readings each minute so that you have the granularity to be able to see the cause and effect. The same applies to other inputs such as temperatures, air quality and occupancy.

The starting point for the normalisation of most energy consumption related to heating is degree-day analysis. Since the outside temperature can vary significantly for site to site within a local geographical area, HeatingSave calculates the degree-days for each day for each site.

However, unlike some other competitors, data generated by HeatingSave is stored on the system itself – users can access it any given time. We don’t have access to the data (unless granted by the users when carrying out system diagnostics), and the data is most certainly not shared with any third party.

Furthermore, HeatingSave has top-level security protocols in place, meaning that even when you’re controlling your system remotely (for example, via the smart phone app), the security and privacy of your data are guaranteed.