TENEMENTS PROJECT
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The Tenements Project aims to help owners and renters in Edinburgh with hard-to-treat tenemental properties to improve the energy efficiency of the whole stair and to reduce their risk of fuel poverty. The project intends to maximise the take up of CERT funding and offers a package of measures including loft insulation, hot water tank jackets and draughtproofing. |
About the Tenements Project
Tenements make up 45% of all housing in the City, and 25% of all housing is pre-1919 stone built properties which are particularly 'hard to treat' and have been somewhat neglected in the past in terms of energy efficiency as well as general maintenance. Changes to the Tenement Scotland Act, introduced in 2010, include energy efficiency as a repair measure that can be carried out with a simple majority of households in a stair agreeing to this.
From what we learn from this project, we intend to produce a model which can be adapted to suit a particular stair and help many others conserve energy in tenement buildings, wherever they are located.
We have put together six fact sheets to help residents to improve the energy efficiency of traditional stone-built tenements. You can find these at the bottom of this page.
Maximising the use of existing schemes
Our close working relationship with The Energy Saving Scotland advice centre South East allows us to offer a package of measures using Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) funding through the power companies, encouraging residents to get involved whilst keeping their individual costs to a minimum.
Building on existing relationships we have with the energy companies and CERT funded schemes allows us to offer affordable and effective energy saving measures. The Scottish Government¹s fuel poverty initiative, the Energy Assistance Package, will also be promoted.
The project is developing standard neighbour consent agreements to help increase the speed of work in individual stairs.
The Edinburgh Tenement project intends to maximise the take up of CERT funding and offers a package of measures including:
- Loft insulation
- Hot water tank jackets
- Hot water pipe insulation
- Low energy light bulbs
- Lobby doors in the stairwell
- Draughtproofing of front doors to flats from communal stairways, and windows in the stairs
- Draughtproofing of communal front and back doors in the tenements
- Radiator panels that fit behind radiators to reflect the heat back into the rooms in individual flats
Example benefits
By installing loft insulation residents could benefit in several ways:
- Top floor flats will save approximately 30% of heat from escaping
- Ground floor properties will save 7%
- The average financial savings for installing loft insulation is £100/£115 a year the measure will pay for itself within a year or two and last for at least 40 years
- The carbon savings are around 800kg CO2
- The better insulated the home, the less energy is needed to keep it warm - the more money the resident will save in the long run.
Tenement fact sheets:
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Tenement Fact Sheet 1: | Loft insulation, draughtproofing of stair doors and windows, adding a draught lobby door |
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Tenement Fact Sheet 2: | Draughtproofing of doors and windows and between floorboards; secondary and double glazing |
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Tenement Fact Sheet 3: | Solid wall insulation and under floor insulation for ground floor flats |
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Tenement Fact Sheet 4: | Selecting an appropriate heating system and heating controls |
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Tenement Fact Sheet 5: | General information on energy efficiency improvements in tenements |
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Tenement Fact Sheet 6: | Solar water heating, photovoltaics, heat recovery ventilation, domestic wind turbines, ground and air source heat pumps and community energy solutions |
Contact us
Ian Smith
T: 0131 555 4010
E: consultancy@changeworks.org.uk
