Our Rating Scheme is designed to help you understand the true energy performance of any retrofitted home.
Our SuperHomes Rating Scheme is designed to help you understand the true energy performance of a fully retrofitted home with the goal being to reach zero carbon emissions
The SuperHomes Rating Scheme (SRS) is aimed at residents who are aiming to fully retrofit their home to the highest standard possible. This was initially our SuperHomes Pioneers, whose aims were to reach zero carbon or even positive carbon emissions within their household. We have now broadened our reach to any resident with sustainable living in mind.
The SRS is an assessment encouraging the uptake of gold standard retrofit. It measures two variables of your home: ‘Energy and Emissions’ & ‘Health, Comfort and Wellbeing.’ Each level sets benchmarks for household energy consumption and emissions, and prioritises outcomes with a Level 5 rating.
Retrofit projects are assessed against five performance levels, with the pinnacle of these (Level 5) being zero carbon emissions and optimum comfort. Ratings are set to provide flexibility in retrofit ambition in recognition that many existing homes face renovation design constraints and that performance following best practice retrofit will vary.
Our rating scheme accommodates for all approaches to best practice retrofit.
It was apparent to SuperHomes that as the UK embarks on the challenging journey to net zero carbon, there was an absence of a rating scheme to help facilitate a nationwide programme of retrofitting.
Creating a rating scheme that is straightforward in its aims and linked to NEF’s highly successful SuperHomes initiative was the ideal opportunity. Funding for the SuperHomes Rating Scheme was provided by the MCS Charitable Foundation.
The SRS has been designed to align with the provisions of PAS 2035 ‘Retrofitting dwellings for improving energy efficiency’.
The SuperHomes Assessment is based on actual, rather than just the predicted performance.
The SuperHomes Rating Scheme Assessment takes place at two key stages, Design and Evaluation. Ratings can be generated whether retrofit work takes place in a single operation or step by step over an extended period.
The SuperHomes Rating Scheme is innovative in that retrofit outcomes are evaluated and verified prior to the award of a one to five level rating meaning success is based on actual, rather than predicted performance.
The design stage assessment includes a comparison of estimated pre and post retrofit running costs as an affordability alert check.
Levels 1 – 5 of the SuperHomes Rating Scheme
View detailed information about this rating by clicking on the SuperHomes Rating Scheme Graphic.
Energy & Emissions
No more than 2.0tCO2/yr
No more than 90kWh/m2/yr
Health, Comfort & Wellbeing
Daylight – compulsory at level 4 and 5 only
Acoustics – optional at this level
Until 2030 this is the highest level rating that homes heated by gas can reach. After 2030, no newly retrofitted home will be able to achieve a SuperHome rating if it has a gas heating system.
Homes will display a good level of fabric performance.
View detailed information about this rating by clicking on the SuperHomes Rating Scheme Graphic.
Energy & Emissions
No more than 1.0tCO2/yr
No more than 90kWh/m2/yr
Health, Comfort & Wellbeing
Daylight – compulsory at level 4 and 5 only
Acoustics – optional at this level
This is likely to be the highest rating that homes with constraints over their retrofit options, such as flats or historic buildings, will be able to achieve.
Fabric performance will be of a good level and heating using electricity is likely, to satisfy the emissions cap.
No gas heating permitted at this level.
View detailed information about this rating by clicking on the SuperHomes Rating Scheme Graphic.
Energy & Emissions
No more than 0.5tCO2/yr
No more than 60kWh/m2/yr
Health, Comfort & Wellbeing
Daylight – compulsory at level 4 and 5 only
Acoustics – optional at this level
This level represents a deep retrofit with high fabric performance and achieving close to zero emissions meaning the retrofit package is likely include on site micro-generation.
It is anticipated that many homes, which do not face significant retrofit constraints, can aspire to reaching this level or better.
No gas heating permitted at this level.
View detailed information about this rating by clicking on the SuperHomes Rating Scheme Graphic.
Energy & Emissions
No more than 0.3tCO2/yr
No more than 50kWh/m2/yr
Health, Comfort & Wellbeing
Daylight – 2% daylight factor for habitable rooms.
Acoustics – optional at this level
A level four rating requires a challenging level of retrofit to attain very high levels of fabric insulation. One or more on-site microgeneration systems are also required.
The carbon emissions performance will be very close to zero.
No gas heating permitted at this level.
View detailed information about this rating by clicking on the SuperHomes Rating Scheme Graphic.
Energy & Emissions
0.0tCO2/yr
Between 30-50kWh/m2/yr
Health, Comfort & Wellbeing
Daylight – 2% daylight factor for habitable rooms.
Acoustics – optional at this level.
The level five rating is the pinnacle of the rating scheme and requires emissions to be zero (or positive).
Micro-generation provision will include considerable on-site electrical generation capacity.
This level is extremely challenging to achieve and represents true exemplar retrofit performance.
When the you choose to have an assessment against the SuperHomes Rating Scheme, the journey will include two main stages...
The Design Phase is completed prior to the start of any installation work. The SuperHome assessment with production of a Whole House Retrofit Plan is recommended although it is not compulsory. It will however improve the likelihood of achieving the desired retrofit outcomes and performance requirements of SuperHome rating levels at the compulsory evaluation phase assessment.
A SuperHomes assessment is also consistent with the provisions of PAS 2035 ‘Retrofitting dwellings for improved energy efficiency’.
- Once we receive your request we will provide you with details of your SuperHome Assessor who will book in a time to visit your property. During the visit the SuperHomes Assessor will assess your home to find out about its energy performance and what your priorities are for improvement.
- The SuperHomes Assessor will use this information to develop a bespoke Whole House Retrofit Plan for you and provide you with a design phase SuperHomes Assessment. This will set out the Assessor’s view of the predicted SuperHomes levelr you could expect to achieve once the work set out in the Whole House Retrofit Plan has been completed.
- Depending on the nature of your retrofit project and its complexity, you may require the services of a professional surveyor or architect to produce a detailed design and specification which can also be used to obtain quotations for the work.
- The next step is for you to find and appoint an installer(s) and get the work done. It is recommended that accredited installers are used such as those belonging to Trustmark and MCS. If you are pursuing grant funding, it may be a condition that only accredited installers can undertake the work to be eligible.
- Alternatively, you could approach your SuperHomes Assessor with a view to them project managing the retrofit process for you from start to finish. This can include finding contractors for you, managing the work in progress, and signing it off on completion.
- The cost of a Whole House Retrofit Plan starts at £600 (+VAT)
- The cost of a SuperHomes Assessment is £150 (+VAT) if completed at the same time as the Whole House Retrofit Plan; done independently the cost is £250 (+VAT).
- If you have already obtained your own Whole House Retrofit Plan (or other energy assessment) we can still complete a SuperHomes assessment. You just need to let us know that you already have a Whole House Plan when you request your SuperHomes Assessment.
The second stage of the process to obtaining a SuperHomes rating is the compulsory evaluation phase which begins after the retrofit work has been completed. Certified SuperHomes status is only awarded at the end of the evaluation phase. To commence this phase, it is therefore necessary to have a monitoring kit that satisfies minimum SuperHomes requirements.
It is permissible for you to pursue SuperHomes status by joining at the Stage 2 Evaluation phase because SuperHomes are certified based on actual performance rather than performance predicted at the design stage. This provides flexibility if, for example, you have already completed your retrofit work.
- The minimum monitoring kit provision comprises smart or traditional fiscal energy meters and at least two sensors to record indoor environmental conditions located in the main living and principal bedroom. The sensors are essentially data loggers. Electric heating needs to be sub-metered to separate consumption for heating from total household electrical use, something which is simple to do.
- SuperHomes will advise you of the specification for the monitoring kit, contact details for suppliers and typical costs. If you are working with a SuperHomes Assessor, they will be aware of the SuperHome monitoring requirements and may make recommendations for additional monitoring or specialist testing to suit your project to help improve retrofit outcomes.
- The monitoring kit must remain in place and record data for a minimum of 12 months so that performance over all seasons can be evaluated. If manual energy meter readings are being taken, this will need to be done on at least a monthly basis. The SuperHomes team can provide a template for you to record your energy consumption data.
- At the end of the monitoring period, manual energy reads should be submitted to us for review together with copies of 12 months energy bills. The sensors will ordinarily be returned to the supplier of the equipment to download the data from the loggers.
- The SuperHomes team will then review the performance of your home against the SuperHomes assessment criteria. We will also contact you to conduct a short survey to help understand your experience of comfort since the retrofit work was completed.
- Within 4 weeks of the survey date, you’ll receive a summary of the performance monitoring findings together with a SuperHomes certificate confirming the verified level achieved. At this you will be formally awarded your SuperHomes status.
- The fees for the SuperHomes Evaluation phase assessment are £250 + VAT.
Frequently Asked Questions
The SuperHomes Rating Scheme (SRS) is an assessment of your retrofit (i.e. one or more recommended measure having been installed), against a level rating scheme with benchmarks at five performance levels. The rating scheme provides a framework to help you achieve retrofit design aspirations and is a means to understand the true performance of refurbished homes.
The SRS measures two variables of your home: ‘Energy and Emissions’ and ‘Health, Comfort and Wellbeing.’ Each level of the variables sets incremental benchmarks for household energy consumption and emissions, and prioritises favourable outcomes for health, comfort and wellbeing. A level five rating represents the pinnacle of SuperHomes performance, producing zero emissions and offering optimum comfort conditions.
You will get two ratings and they are issued at different stages of your SuperHomes journey.
The first is at the design stage where a prediction of your home’s performance is given following the production of your Whole House Retrofit Plan but prior to any retrofit work having started. This stage also includes a comparison of estimated pre and post retrofit running costs as an affordability alert check.
The second is at the evaluation stage when a number of recommended retrofit measures have been installed and the 12-month monitoring period has been completed. This rating will be your verified rating and will mean your home becomes SuperHomes certified.
Your assigned Retrofit Coordinator has received training from The National Energy Foundation to carry out your SuperHomes design stage rating.
Yes, and the price of it is dependent on when it is issued. A design stage rating is £150 + VAT and an evaluation stage rating is £250 + VAT.
The reason an evaluation stage rating is more expensive is because the Retrofit Coordinator will be assessing your Whole House Retrofit Plan and the quality of your existing retrofit measures without prior knowledge of your home and your Plan.
The SRS was developed by The National Energy Foundation with funding from the MCS Charitable Foundation.
It is not a requirement of SuperHomes that pre-retrofit monitoring is carried out. This is however encouraged where practicable, as it enables the before and after retrofit performance of the home to be compared and the overall impact of the retrofit to be more accurately assessed.
Where retrofit work is carried out in steps incrementally over time, the monitoring period would ordinarily commence once all retrofit work has been completed, however, customers may choose to start the monitoring sooner, where there is likely to be a gap of twelve months or more before further work is going to be done. A second twelve month monitoring period is always possible if the customer is hopeful of achieving a higher level rating once additional work has been done.
Customers have the option to monitor performance of additional factors and to undertake specialist testing to help improve retrofit outcomes and understanding. Providing the minimum monitoring requirements for SuperHomes are met a certificate can be issued. Additional monitoring and testing are encouraged as it will help to improve the accuracy and quality of the evaluation. You should, however, have a plan in place for who will evaluate any additional data you collect and cover the associated costs as this is not covered by the SuperHomes assessment fee.
Initially speak to NEF as a reduced frequency of data collection should be possible, however, monthly readings are recommended as minimum good practice. If manual meter readings cannot be obtained speak to NEF about options for more sophisticated monitoring packages which have remote access to live performance data.
You’ve started your retrofit journey…
Let’s evaluate its efficiency for both your home and the planet
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