HOME ENERGY
EFFiCIENCY PLAN

Retrofit West are currently offering discount vouchers (called Home Energy Assessment Vouchers) which provide a 70% reduction on energy assessments for households located in Bristol, Bath and South Gloucestershire (our HEEPs are available to all households in B&NES). Every household is eligible for up to 2 vouchers.

We can apply for a voucher on your behalf. All you have to do is tick the box when you book in your survey with us.

It’s possible to swap a voucher from one survey option to another - please let us know if you would like to do that.

Or, you can apply for a Retrofit West discount voucher yourself, by following these steps:

1. Visit www.retrofitwest.co.uk/vouchers and scroll down the page until you see a tile called ‘Home Energy Efficiency Plan for B&NES’.

2. Choose ‘BWCE Home Energy Efficiency Plan for B&NES’ and click button saying ‘Get Voucher’ button.

3. Follow the instructions and enter your contact details.

4. Against ‘Which type of assessment are you using this voucher for?’ – select the option called ‘Retrofit Plan’.

5. Against ‘Please select your Retrofit Plan service provider’ – select ‘HEEP - Bath & West Community Energy’.

6. Accept the Terms and Conditions (listed at the bottom of the web page, you’ll be directed to), and press ‘Submit’.

Retrofit West will then be in touch by email within a few days confirming your voucher code and that your address is eligible.

Any questions? Please get in touch with us so we can help.

You are required to have an valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) previously undertaken for your home, which you can check on this website: www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate.

The EPC provides essential data for creating the Home Energy Efficiency Plan report and its recommendations. Even if your EPC is expired, it will still provide helpful background data to inform your report. Your assessor will accurately compare the current condition of the home with the EPC, noting any changes or updates since the last certificate was issued. 

Additional Fees: If you do not have an EPC, you will need have one alongside the Home Energy Efficiency Plan assessment, which will incur an additional fee. For homeowners who have a valid or expired EPC and wish to update it, this can also be arranged at an extra cost. 

If you have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) generated by us, but don’t want it to be formally lodged and made available on www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate then that’s fine. We can generate an EPC to provide the necessary baseline data for your Home Energy Efficiency Plan, but the lodgment stage of the EPC is optional.

If you don’t want your EPC formally lodged, please be sure to make this clear when booking and to your assessor when they visit.

Even if your EPC is expired, it can still be used to help generate your report. Your assessor will compare the current condition of the home with the EPC, noting any changes or updates since the last certificate was issued. 

However, having a more up-to-date EPC will help in the accuracy of your Home Energy Efficiency Plan (HEEP) report, and can also be useful for instance when you come to sell your home. Therefore, if you would like to update your EPC at the same time as your HEEP assessment, then you can choose to do this for an extra fee.

An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is required for most homes when they are bought or rented. An EPC is designed to give information in a standardised way to any interested party on how a house performs, regardless of who lives in it. It can be a useful guide when moving into a property as to how difficult to heat it might be. However, an EPC only considers a limited range of energy efficiency improvement measures, and lacks the flexibility to recommend more sensitive or bespoke alterations. It's not designed as a decision making tool.

A Home Energy Efficiency Plan is much more comprehensive than an EPC. Its analysis is based on a much more detailed library of measures, enabling a much wider range of improvement options to be considered. It takes account of your motivations in terms of cost, comfort and carbon, so that recommended measures can be targeted for the outcome that’s most important to you. Finally it considers the cumulative impact of measures, so that recommended works can be phased into improvement packages, which can be implemented as time and budget allows.

A Home Energy Efficiency Plan is therefore significantly more valuable than an EPC and is designed to offer you tailored and bespoke advice for your home and needs, so that you can plan your home energy efficiency improvements with confidence.

Home Energy Efficiency Plans are supported by Parity Projects’ Surveyor Pro methodology.

After you submit a booking enquiry, we will contact you to book in a date and time for your home visit.

You will receive your summary report in the weeks following your appointment.

The report will be issued within 15 working days of survey date. If you do not hear from us within this time, please get in touch.

Home Energy Efficiency Plans are suitable for all homes, including listing buildings.

However, if you live in a listed building, you might want to consider joining our Listed Building Champion Scheme, and receiving additional discounted advice on which energy efficiency measures are most likely to receive Listed Building Consent.

Read about our Listed Building Champion Scheme to find out more.

After booking, you will be sent a link to a ‘homeowner questionnaire’. Please fill this in at least one week in advance of your appointment booking. This will maximise the efficiency of the surveyor on site.

A few important things to keep in mind before we arrive:

• Be Home: It’s important that someone is home for the whole survey – we can't do it otherwise. So please make sure you or someone you trust is there when we arrive.

• Clear the Way: Make sure we have easy access to boilers, loft spaces and any other key areas. Clearing these spots will help us work efficiently and safely.

• Gather Your Documents: Ahead of your survey, please gather any building regulations, heating system certifications, manuals, or warranties ready to go. These help us make sure we're giving you the best advice possible.
  If you're having a new EPC, please also gather any plans, quotes/invoices, guarantees, or photos of insulation work that isn’t visible – such as insulation behind plasterboard or in roof spaces. Having this ready for your surveyor will ensure your EPC accurately reflects these works.

• Your EPC: If you don't have a Energy Performance Certificate, we aim to take one at the same time as your survey, so there will be 3 of our team visiting your home (BWCE Home Energy expert. B&NES Council Conservation Officer, and EPC assessor). If our EPC assessor is unavailable, they’ll be in touch to schedule an alternative date before your survey.

Don’t live in B&NES? Get in touch and we can signpost you to partners providing similar services in your area.

Let our Retrofit Advisor guide you through the options by getting in touch.