Ecofurb Coordinators are certified Retrofit Coordinators. They hold the Level 5 Diploma in Retrofit Coordination, which means that they are trained to manage technical risks of retrofit projects. They have a range of backgrounds, for example architects, energy experts and green building assessors. Ecofurb Coordinators work with qualified Assessors; it is often an Assessor who carries out the home visit.

An Ecofurb Coordinator will guide you through your home refurbishment. They will understand your goals, advise you of the most suitable improvements for your home and the right order in which to install them. They can ensure the work is correctly specified, and subject to availability, obtain quotes from approved contractors who are members of our co-operative, and inspect the works during and after installation. 

Yes, certainly! And please note that as our contractors are very busy at the moment, we may recommend that you seek your own contractors if you have near timeframes for install.

The Home Survey and Ecofurb Plan can be a stand alone service: the information helps you decide which improvements to carry out and is just as useful if you decide to use your own contractors.

If you’ve had an Ecofurb Plan, Building Performance Requirements can also be purchased to use yourself to seek contractors. This document makes sure you’re well informed and know what contractors need to include in their quote and be aware of.

We aren’t able to oversee installations without an Ecofurb Plan and Building Performance Requirements where needed, or if works are being carried out by your own contractors. However, you can recommend a contractor to become a member – see Can I use the full Ecofurb service with my own contractor?

Not all projects will need Building Performance Requirements, but most do. Ecofurb can support you with complex or multi-measure projects, and this requirements document helps make sure you get the most from the energy efficiency work you have done.

Subject to availability, yes. Please note that quotes for some improvements are more difficult to get currently (particularly internal wall insulation). We can phase your Ecofurb Plan to account for this.

As a part of the end-to-end service we can request estimates from vetted local contractors who are members of our Cooperative. We aren’t able to request quotes without an Ecofurb Plan or Building Performance Requirements where they are recommended for the project.

We request estimates based on the information we have collected, saving you and contractors valuable time. Once you’ve chosen an estimate you’re interested in, the contractor is likely to visit to confirm the quote and discuss in more detail.

Our contractors are very busy at the moment, and we may recommend that you seek your own contractors if you have near timeframes for install. (The Ecofurb Plan and Building Performance Requirements are stand-alone services, which you can use with contractors you find yourself.)

Please bear in mind that quotations are valid for a limited time. If you are planning a large renovation you could consider using a quantity surveyor to help with budgeting, and this is something Ecofurb could normally arrange alongside your Building Performance Requirements. However, there are currently significant price volatilities for materials, and labour shortages within the construction sector, resulting in fluctuating market costs over time. You can discuss this with your Coordinator.

No – and yes!

We don’t source quotes and oversee works for simple jobs like loft insulation. This service becomes useful for complex or multi-measure works: around £10k plus is a good guide.

However, if you want to improve the efficiency of your home in stages, and take just the first step now, you could book a Home Survey and Ecofurb Plan. This helps decide what to do, and how not to block future improvements.

Another option is to use our free Plan Builder, to get a good idea of which improvements would have the biggest impact for your home, and the costs. This can’t replace a human, but we think it is one of the best ways you can check your choices if you aren’t ready to book a Home Survey and Ecofurb Plan.

Yes, there are two ways you can do this:

• You could use our advice services (Home Survey and Ecofurb Plan, and Building Performance Requirements) to inform works you book yourself.
• Or, if you have contractors you would like to work with but want to retain the services of an Ecofurb Coordinator, your contractor may want to get in touch with us to ask about membership.

We aren’t able to oversee installations if works are being carried out by non-members as we haven’t assessed the quality of their work and practices.

The Ecofurb service takes a ‘whole house approach’ to energy efficiency, so normally applies to works yet to be started.

However, we may be able to help if you are in the middle of a building project when you realise you would like to bring in energy efficiency measures. Please get in touch using the Plan Builder to discuss how we may be able support this.

We can’t offer advice and quality control on works that you have arranged separately.

Find out all about our Contractors, the cooperative model of working and the standards we work to here

We have made a best guestimate about your home using leading housing, energy and mapping data sources:

Alaine, “the brains”, built an algorithm which cleverly gets what we can from the database of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC). This data is published by the government to help services like Ecofurb provide advice.

Chris, “the brawn”, (and now a few helpers!) has spent days and weeks and months looking at towns, villages and cities on Google Earth Pro, using local building characteristics to help fill in information we can’t get elsewhere.

Dave, “the artist”, strung it all together and filled the gaps with statistics magic with some help from Ordnance Survey data. He also brings in LIDAR data to give the size and shape of the roof to give an accurate prediction of Solar PV suitability.

Put all of these together and voila! as far as we know, the best housing dataset available for Great Britain.

But it won’t be as good as a survey done by yourself or an Ecofurb Coordinator, so your first step should be to change our guestimate by editing the info about your home on the Plan Builder.

Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data:

This data includes addresses and postcodes in which intellectual property rights are owned by Royal Mail Group Limited (‘address data’). The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has published the address data with the consent of Royal Mail Group Limited, which reserves all its copyright, database rights, trademarks and other intellectual property rights.

You can read more about acceptable uses of this data here.

All data fields from EPC datasets other than the address and postcode data (address, address 1, address 2, address 3, postcode) are licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Ordnance Survey (OS) data:

We access OS mapping data by kind arrangement with the Greater London Authority and local authorities.

OS is Britain’s mapping agency. As well as making the most up-to-date and accurate maps of the country, it is also a digital business. Together with its Partners it provides content helping governments, companies and individuals to be more effective both here and around the world.

• © Crown copyright and database rights 2020 OS 100032216
• © Local Government Information House Limited copyright and database rights 2020 100032216