The potential of ‘in-use’ performance measurement of homes: a paradigm shift for demand-side energy policy?

Peer-reviewed paper 2-231-26

Home heating represents nearly a fifth of total UK carbon emissions, and reducing demand-side emissions is critical to meeting legally binding net zero targets. A fundamental strategic problem undermining effective delivery of the demand-side transition is the lack of sufficient, accurate information on individual home performance. This paper introduces in-use performance measurement – made newly viable at scale by the GB smart meter rollout – as a potential systemic response to this problem.

We review existing evidence on Smart Meter Enabled Thermal Efficiency Ratings (SMETER) as a method of measuring the Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) and informing the closing of the fabric thermal performance gap. We then explore the wide-ranging policy and market opportunities that a national system of in-use home performance measurement could unlock, across five key areas: policy coordination, performance management, fiscal management, market transformation, and behavioural and organisational change.

We argue that these opportunities are most fully realised through a national system, and that much of the infrastructure to support such a system is already in place. We also identify evidence and operational development work needed to make it a reality. Finally, we posit that in-use measurement extends beyond any individual policy application: by providing the informational foundations on which effective governance of demand-side energy policy depends. It creates conditions for a paradigm shift in demand-side energy policy, via the removal of information barriers that have constrained progress to date.