NEA works with a range of clients, including local authorities, housing associations, network operators and manufacturers to understand how technology and innovation within the energy sector can help improve the lives of those living in fuel poverty.

Keeping Warm and Healthy educates some of the most vulnerable families with young children on solutions to fuel poverty and fuel debt, linking energy use with healthy cooking and eating.

More than one in ten households in North Devon are in fuel poverty, with many off the gas grid and relying on electric night storage heating.

Cold and damp housing conditions impact on health and wellbeing. As well as causing or exacerbating serious physical health conditions such as strokes, heart attacks and asthma, they can contribute to other issues such as poor mental health, stress.

Maureen Fildes is one of our Project Development Coordinators, providing specialist energy advice in the North East of England. Here she shares some of her experiences.

Learnings from NEA’s Technical innovation fund field trials

The Technical Innovation Fund has been groundbreaking because it enabled us to get an insight into how many new technologies can help households in vulnerable situations to reduce their energy bills and improve the comfort of their homes.

NEA commissioned this report to help stimulate debate on the policy options we must consider as we seek to decarbonise heat alongside delivering fuel poverty strategies across the UK. It helpfully draws out some of the tensions and challenges we face in changing the way in which we heat our homes, and the authors help us to consider the cost implications and distributional impacts of different funding mechanisms.

This research investigated the relationship between fuel poverty and carbon monoxide (CO) risk in households on low incomes and in vulnerable situations.