Intelligent home technology provider, Wondrwall, has launched Energy Service Contracts (ESC), a funded model enabling all new build homes to be net zero energy from build, without incremental costs to the housebuilder or homeowner.
In an industry-first, Wondrwall ESC provides housebuilders access to thousands of pounds worth of renewable technology at no additional cost, keeping build costs down in an environment where skills shortages, material prices, and land values are all increasing development costs. Instead, the cost of the renewable technology is attached to the property with a fixed-price monthly service charge. The service charge has no upfront fees for the homeowner or housebuilder and includes all maintenance, energy management services and free hardware upgrades for long-term optimised energy performance and the chance to significantly reduce the homeowner's energy bills.
Only 4% of new homes in England and Wales were built to the highest EPC A rating last year. With the majority of new builds built to EPC B (80%), Wondrwall ESC can improve SAP scores by 8 to 10 points, meaning nearly all of the UK's low-carbon new homes built could be taken to EPC A to ensure housebuilders today aren't building the retrofit homes of tomorrow.
Typically, housebuilders limit themselves to building homes to the environmental performance standards required by building regulations to keep costs low. Higher build costs translate to increased house prices and a tougher selling environment in a market that is already out of reach for the majority of prospective homebuyers. Wondrwall ESC hopes to redefine what is thought to be possible for new sustainable developments by being uniquely pro-industry, pro-consumer, and importantly, pro-environment.
Wondrwall is the UK's only integrated, domestic energy solution that utilises machine learning and predictive modelling to deliver automated energy efficiencies. The AI-powered home energy management technology 'gives the home a brain' and the ability to control itself, for ease of use for the homeowner. By being an end-to-end solution that removes individual renewable assets from working in silo, the opportunity for low-carbon and low-cost living is maximised.
The Wondrwall solution brings together AI-powered home automation; gas-free heating options, which can include infrared heating, air source heat pump, underfloor heating, and an intelligent hot water cylinder; along with the ESC funded renewable energy technologies, including solar PV generation, hybrid inverter, battery storage and EV charging. Wondrwall recently secured a phased investment programme worth up to £100 million in 2023 to expand and reach a footprint of over 100,000 homes.
Daniel Burton, CEO and founder of the Wondrwall Group, says, “We need to make this decade a catalytic moment for change in the housebuilding industry. Currently, we are still building the retrofit homes of the future. Wondrwall ESC has the potential to change this. With ESC, it is like offering homeowners a self-driving electric car, for the same cost as a dirty diesel but with lower running costs.”
Benefits for housebuilders
Housebuilders are facing some of the most challenging macroeconomic conditions in recent memory, coinciding with a deepening UK housing crisis. The race is on to create more homes, quickly, and cheaply, that are fit for the future.
Daniel Burton, CEO of Wondrwall, said, “Keeping the pressures facing housebuilders front of mind, the funded model of Wondrwall ESC is designed specifically to remove the cost barriers to net zero housebuilding. Savings that are made via energy bills allow Wondrwall to implement the ESC model. Without this model in place, housebuilders looking to create future-proofed, net-zero homes would need to pass this cost on to buyers or swallow costs themselves. The ultimate beneficiary of Wondrwall ESC, the homeowner, is the party absorbing the cost through their monthly service charge, a cost offset, and some through energy bill savings.”
Wondrwall ESC gives housebuilders the option to stay ahead of their competition by achieving their sustainability goals at no additional cost, attracting buyers with more energy-efficient and cheaper-to-run homes.
Dan continues, “At a time when energy costs have fluctuated so aggressively, providing a guarantee of reduced costs now and ongoing, will be a real asset to housebuilders selling in a competitive market.”
Ordinarily, housebuilders need to work with a large number of suppliers to provide all of the specialist technology and hardware required to construct a sustainable home. Partnering with Wondrwall, this pressure is reduced and the supply chain is simplified, saving time and money getting homes ready for exchange. Housebuilders can entrust the installation, maintenance and energy management services to Wondrwall, creating an intelligent home with no upfront cost.
Benefits for homeowners
By lowering the cost of renewable assets for housebuilders, and therefore removing the expensive 'green premium' price tag on high-performing energy homes, Wondrwall ESC aims to give more people access to low-carbon, low-cost living.
The funded solution also removes the need for homeowners to purchase expensive renewable energy technologies upfront, simplifying the installation of multiple pieces of kit into one easy-to-manage fully integrated system. The service charge model provides predictable pricing over a fixed term, calculated on the size and type of home and on the value that Wondrwall will deliver.
Daniel Burton, CEO, is keen to ensure the pricing strategy for ESC is not only advantageous to housebuilders, but also fair for homeowners. “With average ESC service charges being priced well below potential energy bill savings delivered by the technology, we're confident every ESC homeowner will benefit.”
The average home is expected to save over 50% on its energy bills, more than offsetting the ESC charges.
Hardware costs and upgrades to both the battery and inverter throughout the lifetime of the energy service contract will be subsidised by Wondrwall, providing peace of mind to consumers for long-term low-energy bills. Every new build Wondrwall ESC home will generate and store renewable energy, with energy consumption for heating that is typically halved, resulting in significant energy bill savings which more than offset the service charge fees paid by homeowners.
The Technology
Wondrwall's end-to-end hardware and software solution goes one step beyond smart technology to create intelligent homes that optimise energy use and prioritise user convenience. Complete with home automation and gas-free heating options, which can include infrared heating, air source heat pumps, underfloor heating, and intelligent hot water cylinders; along with the ESC funded renewable energy technologies. The Manchester-based tech disruptors even include both Amazon Alexa and Sonos speaker integrations into their own hardware platform, allowing the system to offer a rich user experience whilst also changing the way we think about energy in the home to support the grid.
Dan explains, “Systems like Wondrwall are helping to democratise the grid, enabling homeowners to interact with our energy systems in a dynamic two-way process. Historically, this has never been the case.”
Average UK energy bills have risen 63% in less than three years, marking a profound economic challenge as well as an environmental one.
Wondrwall ESC homes will help to tackle all these challenges without the additional financial burden and has since been proven in multiple homes across the UK to deliver significant energy savings. At its core, it is data and machine learning that is driving the savings of Wondrwall homes, fact. Through the Wondrwall light switch, with built-in sensor technology, Wondrwall learns the homeowners' living patterns and the thermal performance of the home. The innovative home energy management system analyses over 20,000 data points every day to control the lighting, heating, hot water, security, energy, and EV charging throughout the home, with little need for human assistance.
“Inspiration for Wondrwall ESC came after receiving positive feedback on the benefits of using the core Wondrwall technology in homes across the country since 2018, with the only opposition being the upfront price for housebuilders, which was pushing house prices up,” says Daniel.
“This prompted the idea to create a system where housebuilders were not burdened with the cost of installation, instead the savings for homeowners were in part used to pay for the technology and service.”
By giving a home a brain and the ability to generate and store its own energy, intelligent net-zero homes can reduce overall energy demand and automatically respond to the grid, helping to balance and prioritise increased demand when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, and reduce demand when there is little or no wind or sunshine.
Daniel adds, “Wondrwall is dedicated to changing the way we live and use energy. I am determined to leave the planet in better shape for my children, and I believe that by providing renewable technology and home energy management as a service, ESC will be key to that transformation, making affordable, low-carbon homes accessible to all.”
Grid Benefits
As we transition towards electric heating, cooling, hot water, and electric vehicle charging, residential electricity demand is expected to double or even triple. However, the electrification of our homes and transport plays a vital role in addressing the UK's ambitious net zero challenge.
The existing power grid does not currently have the network capacity to manage this surge in demand, necessitating the need to build a smarter, more flexible energy system to connect more distributed renewable generation like wind farms and solar installations. This large-scale infrastructure upgrade will be costly and time-consuming. The Wondrwall solution allows homes to generate their own energy today, reducing the need for increased generation capacity and upgraded transmission lines.
Not only this, Wondrwall is a two-way system that allows a home to respond to grid demands instantly, adjusting energy purchasing, storage and export automatically. When renewable energy production is intermittent, flexibility to increase demand when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, and decrease it when conditions are less favourable, are needed. Through the use of AI, the system is agile and reactive. The Wondrwall system seamlessly integrates homes into the energy network, providing vital demand flexibility to optimise renewable utilisation.
Daniel Burton, CEO, comments, “Our grid infrastructure is not prepared for electric homes, meaning more grid-scale renewable energy generation will need to be brought online to supply this increased demand, all of which are expensive and take a long time to deploy. It also means we need to reinforce distribution networks and provide larger substations to get the electricity from where it is generated to our homes. I believe the key to supporting our grid is through a combination of distributed generation technology and grid flexibility. Private sector innovation has a role to play alongside Government policy, and by working together, we can create a more balanced and fairer UK energy system for all.”
“Our technology has the potential to decarbonise, decentralise, and digitalise the grid. With Wondrwall's intelligent home solution, residences across the nation can enjoy the benefits of a smart, energy-efficient living with a reduced requirement to overhaul our ageing electrical grid. The future of sustainable housing is rooted in this democratised power use system.”
A Green Future
Advances in clean intelligent home energy management will have lasting and positive environmental impact. With pledges being made to deliver 1.5 million new homes in the UK over the next five years, if just half were installed with Wondrwall technology, the carbon saving would be the equivalent of more than 14 million trees with the potential to absorb 321 million kilograms of CO2 per year.
With Wondrwall ESC, the advantages for housebuilders are clear. Already contending with tighter margins and rising debt, ESC allows housebuilders to futureproof their builds without the burden of increased material cost considerations. The knock-on effect means improved planning and DNO applications with reduced grid connection costs, and the ability to sell new homes faster with a clear advantage for buyers differentiating their product as 'greener' in the market.
The advantages for homeowners of a 'Wondrwall home' using ESC are also significant. Wondrwall opens the door to low-cost, low-carbon living without the excessive price tag or the need for heavy user interactions.
Daniel Burton, CEO, knows this is the tip of the iceberg, in which there is a future where intelligent net zero energy homes are the norm.
Daniel concluded, “Wondrwall supports housebuilders to create some of the most intelligent homes in Britain. By harmonising energy generation, storage, and demand, we are improving our chances to live more sustainably, helping to position the UK as a global leader in this field.”
“With the right build design alongside Wondrwall ESC, we could take the vast majority of new homes built tomorrow to an EPC A rating[5]. We want to go further though, we want to support housebuilders to create homes that are capable of generating enough energy savings in the spring, summer and autumn months to offset against the increased winter demand. We want to create a future where best-case scenario households can capitalise on grid balancing mechanisms, with their homes supporting clean local energy systems and achieving negative bills.”
