Launch of OneZero – home energy retrofit for Sussex

 

Thursday 28 September, 6pm-8pm, Human Nature, 14-15 Phoenix Place, Lewes, BN7 2QJ.

Join Howard Johns, founder of OneZero, and his team for an exciting initiative aiming to transform homes in Lewes and beyond from “leaky gas guzzlers to efficient powerplants”  

It’s been a summer of wildfires and floods across the world and the rhetoric about climate action continues without much tangible progress or visible change. Here in Lewes, we have done some groundbreaking stuff from Transition Town Lewes to our own community energy company, Ovesco, of which we can all be proud.

Many people have got their homes in order in the process, but when you look around the town it’s apparent that the majority have not yet been brought into the transformation. Many of our community are still literally out in the cold and facing pressures on multiple fronts.

Creating OneZero

I have spent years working on renewables and energy retrofits and I just quit my job managing hundreds of solar and wind power stations across the UK to start OneZero – a company delivering a new way to upgrade your home with energy-saving tech. I’ve teamed up with Alex Fleetwood a games studio lead who has also quit his job to take action on climate change.

We quit our jobs because we can see that change is not happening fast enough and that people who could really benefit from fixing their home energy system are not able or inclined to make the switch. We are determined to change that and make this really positive step accessible to many more.  We believe that now is the time to deploy renewable energy technologies at wartime speed across the UK’s housing stock, and we are on a mission to make this happen.

And we need your help.

To get things started we’re identifying all the homes in our local community of Lewes District that are most suitable for one of our carefully-selected bundles of home energy upgrades.

We’re looking to match:

• the right types of home with
• the right package of measures
• Delivered by trusted local tradespeople

 

What do we mean by ‘the right types of home?’

We hear a lot about ‘the UK’s hard-to-retfofit housing stock’. But did you know that up to half the homes in any community can actually be easy to retrofit with certain measures? Solar, batteries, insulation and heat pumps can easily be integrated into many of our homes – for example those on the Malling, Nevill and Landport estates – and installation can be delivered in just a few days.

We’ve used AI and data analysis to identify all the homes and streets in Lewes that are easy to do. And are keen to work with the people in those homes.

What about ‘the right package of measures’?

If you go for a bespoke retrofit you’ll have lots of conversations, lots of tech choices and lots of salespeople – all of whom want to sell you their bit of kit and frankly it can be very confusing. We offer a very limited selection of options, keeping your choices simple and easy to understand.

All our recommendations are based on our 20+ years of experience, choosing hardware that scores highly on reliability, performance and cloud integration – and that, we know, will work well in your home.

This last part is important because our energy system is undergoing a huge transformation and our homes are going to be at the centre of things. Your home’s ability to generate and store energy will make it a key player in the energy system of the future. As we have seen in the past year, energy prices will fluctuate rapidly and if you can choose when you buy your energy you can reduce your bills in the process. We want to help you profit from this change.

And finally, we’re inviting local electricians, roofers, plumbers and other trusted local tradespeople to join this program. Because our model is based on simplicity and repeatability, we can train and coordinate tradespeople so that they can join the renewable revolution. We’ve been talking to local trades and they’re excited to get on board. They are keen to help local householders reduce carbon emissions while making their homes healthier and cheaper to run – and make our communities energy abundant and climate-resilient in the process.

Want to get involved?

We would love you to come and join us as we unveil a map of all the homes in the district that are good to go and see how many homes in Lewes we can retrofit by Christmas.

Thomas Eddison turned on the first commercial power station in New York City in September 1882 – by Christmas he had over 500 people connected – can we do the same with our new distributed power station in Lewes this autumn? It’s going to be spread across all our homes and it’s going to be owned by you all. Time to tip the energy system on its head.

Sign up to attend our launch on 28th September here and please help us to spread the word!

www.onezero.energy