Low Carbon Home Upgrades Data Insights Report - 2026
Low Carbon Home Upgrades Data Insights Report: 2026 9.13 MB
The UK Government’s recently published Warm Homes Plan offers a significant opportunity for consumers. If delivered effectively, it could help millions of households reduce energy bills, improve comfort, and lower carbon emissions through the adoption of low-carbon home upgrades - like insulation, heat pumps, solar panels and batteries.
In this report, we analyse contacts to our Consumer Service during 2025 from people seeking help with low-carbon home upgrades.
While many consumers have positive experiences of making these changes to their home, those who contact our Consumer Service typically do so when something has gone wrong. This means our data provides valuable insight into the challenges some face throughout the customer journey.
Our key findings show that:
Consumers face problems before, during and after installing low-carbon upgrades. But they most commonly contact our Consumer Service about issues with ongoing use, after the measure has been installed, such as the low-carbon technology developing a fault.
When consumers face problems with the installation or ongoing use of a low-carbon upgrade, they can struggle to get the issue put right, either by the installer or manufacturer. This includes consumers who have used accredited installers and those who have not.
While the number of cases remains small, problems with low-carbon upgrades - and difficulty fixing them - can cause serious consumer detriment, including significant stress and financial loss, or being left with a home that is damaged, unsafe or without heating or hot water.
Where consumers lack confidence or face confusion in the market, they may become more vulnerable to poor practice, including cold calling, scams and high-pressure sales tactics that exploit uncertainty and concern.
Without action, these issues risk becoming more widespread as deployment scales - particularly as households adopt multiple interdependent technologies and new products continue to enter the market.
To address the problems highlighted in this report, we recommend:
Independent advice before, during and after installation, including throughout any redress process, building on existing statutory advice provision.
A single, mandatory quality scheme for the low-carbon home upgrade market to ensure consistent standards across providers and technologies.
A strengthened regulatory and enforcement framework to ensure consumers can access simple, effective redress when things go wrong.