Building Better wins funding to measure customer experience of MMC homes

Building Better has been awarded an Innovate UK Fast Start Innovation grant of £36,582.

The funding will be used to develop metrics that evidence the performance of net zero homes and their impact on residents – making sure the design of these homes gets better over time.

Building Better will partner with social housing providers to measure how heating and cooling technologies in MMC homes are working in terms of energy performance, ventilation and warmth, as well as customer ease of use and affordability. Almost half of the grant will go to housing providers to fund their time and contribution to the project.

Following an initial study by the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research (CCHPR), which looked at customer-centred approaches to MMC development, Building Better will create a best practice post occupancy evaluation process that is replicable across the sector.

The Innovate UK funding will also allow Building Better to test different processes and develop a system to store and analyse data collected. The aim is to build a compelling body of data that will enable more social homes to be built to high environmental standards.

Four housing associations and local authorities, plus their residents, will be involved in the work, alongside three MMC manufacturers and a team of post occupancy evaluation experts, led by the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research (CCHPR). The housing providers involved have a combined pipeline of over 7,000 homes.

Previous attempts to understand how people experience their homes have focused on the cost and quality of manufactured homes rather than feedback from the user. There is little understanding of the relationship between customer experience (including comfort, pride and affordability) and environmental performance of homes.

Building Better seeks to change this, placing residents, their feedback and opinions, firmly at the heart of the evaluation process. A key goal is to identify how customers can be supported to use heating and cooling technologies in the easiest way possible, alongside sensor technologies.

Building Better project director, Trina Chakravarti said: “As we experience the worst cost-of-living crisis for decades, building low energy properties has never felt more important. Building without gas means that many homes will use air source heat pumps but there is little evidence on customers’ understanding of novel heating and cooling technologies in MMC homes, how easy they are to use or the levels of comfort they provide.”

“This Innovate UK funding will enable us to understand how best to collect data and feedback on the delivery, performance and customer experience of homes built to operational net zero. It will help us to identify the most effective ways to support customers around heating and cooling technologies, so these systems are simple and intuitive to use. We’ll also be creating a road map to roll out all our learnings at scale.”

Innovate UK is the UK Government’s innovation agency, and it is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Promoting business growth through the experimental development of new products, services and processes, Innovate UK acts as an innovation funding service.

We’ll keep you up to date on this Innovate UK funded project as it progresses.