How well are retrofit, ventilation and smart tech working together?

Housing providers and residents share a common goal: homes that are warm, dry and energy efficient. With the long‑awaited Warm Homes Plan committing £15bn to upgrade five million properties, and legislation such as Awaab’s Law and the updated Decent Homes Standard driving change, the sector is entering a period of potentially rapid transition. At the same time, emerging technologies are giving landlords new tools to understand their stock and make meaningful improvements to home performance.

This survey, in association with AirEx, explores how affordable housing providers are integrating retrofit, ventilation and smart technology - and how these elements are working together to monitor, manage and enhance residents’ living conditions.

The questions should take just a few minutes to complete. The results will be shared at the Warm and Safe Homes Summit on 15 April and will also be used as the basis for a free-to-read Inside Housing article shortly thereafter.

No respondent will be identified without their express permission, and as a thank you for your time, you can choose to be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 Amazon voucher or donation to a charity of your choice.

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* 1. Which of these retrofit activities is your organisation priortising? Please rank in order of importance.

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* 2. Can you explain your answer to the previous question?

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* 3. Are you currently using smart monitoring technology to track any of the following in your homes? Please select all that apply.

Humidity levels

Temperature

Energy usage (e.g. smart meters)

Air quality (e.g. CO2 or carbon monoxide)

Something else (please specify)

We don’t use smart monitors in our properties

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* 4. Whether or not your organisation is currently using smart monitoring technology, which of the following areas do you think is most critical for your organisation to have accurate, real‑time insight into? Please select all that apply.

Humidity levels

Temperature

Energy usage (e.g. smart meters)

Air quality (e.g. CO2 or carbon monoxide)

Something else (please specify)

We don’t use smart monitors in our properties

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* 5. Do you feel that teams covering damp and mould, retrofit and smart monitoring technology are well integrated in your organisation?

Yes, very well integrated. They carry out joint programmes together and share data.

Somewhat integrated in how they communicate and share data, but sometimes work happens in siloes.

Poorly integrated. Work is often duplicated and data sits in siloes.

Please explain your answer

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* 6. When carrying out major retrofit works (e.g. installing solar energy), which other work would you consider carrying out at the same time? Please select all that apply.

Improvements to passive ventilation

Active ventilation technology

Draughtproofing

Optimisation of heating systems (e.g. room-by-room thermostats)

Something else (please specify)

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* 7. What obstacles do you face in deploying smart home technology? Please select all that apply.

Resident pushback

Cost or funding issues

Concerns over longevity of products and maintenance costs

Concerns over integration with existing systems and dashboards

An inability to act upon the data we would get from smart devices

An inability to evidence return on investment

Something else (please specify)

None of the above

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* 8. What obstacles do you face in improving ventilation in homes? Please select all that apply.

Resident pushback

Cost or funding issues

Lack of awareness of suitable, affordable products

Concerns over quality of installation and ongoing maintenance regimes

An inability to evidence return on investment

Something else (please specify)

None of the above

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* 9. Do you use smart technology that actively responds to monitored conditions in homes in the following areas? (E.g. smart thermostats that adjust heating conditions automatically.) Please select all that apply.

Temperature

Air quality (e.g. CO2 or carbon monoxide)

Humidity levels

Something else (please specify)

None of the above

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* 10. Thinking about your organisation’s residents, how would you characterise their overall attitude towards the installation of smart monitoring devices in their homes?

They are enthusiastic and see the benefits

Residents were sceptical initially, but are now on board

Residents don’t care

Residents don’t like it

Residents have turned devices off or removed them

Something else (please specify)

We haven’t rolled out smart monitoring devices

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* 11. Thinking about your organisation’s residents, how would you characterise their overall attitude towards the installation of ventilation technology in their homes?

They are enthusiastic and see the benefits

Residents were sceptical initially, but are now on board

Residents don’t care

Residents don’t like it

Residents have turned devices off or blocked vents

Something else (please specify)

We haven’t included ventilation in any of our retrofit projects

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* 12. Do you provide residents with access to their own data (e.g., via an app) to help them manage their home’s environment?

Yes, and generally we have seen good uptake

Yes, but generally we have seen poor uptake

Something else (please specify)

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* 13. What do you do with environmental data from homes once it is collected? (Select all that apply)

We use it to make proactive decisions about asset management

We actively use it to decide how and when to engage with residents (e.g. fuel poverty support)

We directly integrate the data with other systems or dashboards

We use the data to take automated actions, e.g. triggering alerts to residents

We interrogate the data only when we need to

We don’t make good use of the data

Something else (please specify)

We are not collecting environmental data

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* 14. Is there anything you would like the sector as whole to look at to improve the adoption of or outcomes from retrofit, ventilation or smart home technology?

33% of survey complete.