Subject: Is your home ready for winter? How we are preparing...🧣

Hi Friend,


It's starting to get darker, and heating is starting to go on, which for many brings the considerations of home retrofit to the forefront of people's minds. We have plenty of resources and information for people looking to get started. The latest EcoHome Lab has just been added to the calendar (in December) which will look at how households with batteries can optimise the use of their batteries over the winter period. We have also created some easy to understand documents for householders undergoing retrofits, so make sure to check them out!


As a reminder, if you want to track your energy use over the winter, we have made some recent improvements highlighting costs and energy efficiency to PowerShaper Monitor. So if you haven't used the service for a while, now is the perfect time to dive back in - PowerShaper Monitor is free for all Carbon Co-op members.


New Easy Read & Plain English Retrofit Guides Now Available!

We’re excited to share a new set of Easy Read and Plain English guides from the Retrofit for All project — designed to make retrofit communication clearer, more accessible, and genuinely people-centred.

These innovative resources help explain retrofit works to tenants in simple, engaging formats — building trust, improving understanding, and supporting smoother delivery across retrofit programmes.


Do you know any housing associations who could benefit from these resources?


If so, help us amplify the message directly or by resharing our LinkedIn post. It’s a quick way to ensure these valuable insights reach more of the people who need them most.

Twin Report Release

Carbon Co-op has released two new reports that shed fresh light on the human side of retrofit, offering critical insights for the wider housing and retrofit sector—from registered landlords and delivery teams to tenants and journalists.


The findings speak to key challenges many in the sector face—tenant refusals, communication breakdowns, and trust issues—and offer a roadmap for people-centred retrofit that can inspire real change.

📘 The Research

Drawing on interviews with housing providers, delivery teams, and tenants across Manchester and beyond, the reports offer:

  • First-hand experiences from tenants: What matters most to people living through retrofit works? What builds trust—or breaks it?

  • Lessons from the frontline: How landlords have navigated engagement challenges, rebuilt relationships, and redesigned retrofit programmes to work with tenants, not just for them.

  • Insights into organisational and delivery barriers: From internal silos to rushed communication, we explore why well-intentioned programmes sometimes falter.

You’ll also find case studies, including one from Lancaster West post-Grenfell, where trust-building and transparency were put at the heart of retrofit planning.

EcoHome Lab: 13 November

At EcoHome Lab we're always looking for new ways that data can support more effective home retrofit/energy-efficiency work. One method used for commercial and public buildings is energy performance contracts, where a company verifies and guarantees the energy and cost savings of improvements. This incentivises high-quality work as it moves the risk of under-performance from the building owner to the contractor.


We've been involved in an EU research project called EBENTO, which has developed an integrated platform designed for householders, public organizations, and energy communities to expand the reach of energy performance contracts into new areas.


Join the EcoHome Lab to learn more and demo the platform.

Handover on Area Based Schemes

Summer 2025 saw the much anticipated completion of construction works on homes in the first phase of the Levenshulme Area Based Scheme (LevABS).


Whilst this was undoubtedly a big milestone for householders and partners, work doesn’t stop once tools are downed on-site, and we were keen to ensure that householders have the information they need to make the most of the retrofit works now and in the future (and for potential future occupants).

EcoHome Lab: 11 December

Now we're entering the darker months, we thought it would be interesting to share strategies for making the most of your battery storage (without the sun). We'll be hearing from a couple of people with fully electric households on how they use scheduling and Home Assistant automations to maximise the use of off-peak energy to reduce costs and carbon. We'll also have a short into to the Batpred addon, which can automate your battery charge and discharge.


All welcome and please do get in touch if you've anything to share on the night.

PowerShaper Monitor cost updates

We've been working on some exciting updates to PowerShaper Monitor, a service freely available to all Carbon Co-op members. If you haven't checked in recently, or haven't yet connected your smart meter, why not take a look right now?


Our latest work has focused on integrating cost and tariff data, and we are interested to hear how people find it!

Upcoming Events

Online

Thursday, Dec 11, 6:00 PM · 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM

Online



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