Lord Callanan, Energy Efficiency Minister, opens Q-Bot's new Head Office in London
Government minister sees Q-Bot home-insulating robots in action and discusses how Q-Bot’s use of AI and robotics can increase levels of insulation in homes and support retrofitting and the roll-out of heat pumps.
Lord Callanan, the UK Energy Minister with responsibility for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance, has officially opened Q-Bot’s new head office and retrofit research centre at The Oval in south London. Lord Callanan took the opportunity to see and hear how Q-Bot uses AI and robots to insulate floors of homes and commercial buildings quickly and with no disruption, and how Q-Bot is helping homeowners achieve a C rating (if not better) Energy Performance Certificate, a key objective of Government policy.
John Kennedy, Q-Bot’s Chief Executive said: “We were delighted to welcome Lord Callanan and officials from the Department of Energy Security & Net Zero. We explained the benefits of using our robots to deliver high performance retrofit insulation and how robots and AI can help insulate the UK’s 8-12 million hard to treat homes with suspended floors. By using our technology, we make the EPC C target easier to achieve. It’s by far the easiest thing to be done to a house, helping people cut their energy bills and reduce their home’s carbon emissions.”
“These are vital to the country’s well-being, and the UK will not be able to achieve its carbon reduction targets without addressing the issue of uninsulated floors. We urged Lord Callanan that the Government should not relax its commitments and targets on energy efficiency and Net Zero, especially now that the technology is catching up with UK’s Net Zero ambitions.”
Q-Bot is a provider to the UK Government’s Green Homes Local Authority Delivery Scheme, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Great British Insulation Scheme and Home Upgrade Grant, so the company’s work programme and future investment is heavily dictated by Government policy.
John Kennedy added: “We offer by far the most transformational retrofit technology that in 30% of cases can single handedly upgrade UK homes to EPC C at less than a quarter of the cost currently being debated, and without disruption.”
Lord Callanan, Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance, said: “I have been hugely impressed by Q-Bot’s ground-breaking use of AI and robots to insulate people’s homes, keeping them warmer for less and helping drive down energy bills.”
“It was a pleasure to open Q-Bot’s new headquarters and meet the team responsible for this cutting-edge work, which has contributed to significant progress in improving the energy efficiency of the country’s homes – and will be a key part in achieving our mission to cut carbon emissions and achieve our goal of net zero by 2050.”
Q-Bot’s floor insulation is installed in over 200 homes every month with building ventilation and building safety at the heart of its work. Verified by the Energy Saving Trust and the Residential Property Surveyors Association, the company works with over 50 registered social housing providers, energy companies such as E.ON and British Gas, as well as a network of accredited installers and property agents.
The company has recently insulated a series of homes in Greater Manchester where heat pumps have been installed. Studies undertaken by the project partner indicate that the heat pump running costs are as much as 30% lower in properties with Q-Bot floor insulation when compared with properties where only heat pumps were installed.
Tom Lipinski, Q-Bot’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer said: “By reducing heat pump running costs, Q-Bot’s floor insulation can both expand the applicability of heat pumps to the majority of older homes and help to increase public acceptance of heat pumps. Greater use of Q-Bot’s insulation will help the heat pump industry and the Government deliver the heat pump roll-out that is so important in the Net Zero journey. Q-Bot is a perfect match for heat pump installations, particularly in older homes.”
For further information, visit www.q-bot.co or contact
Leigh Fairbrother, Q-Bot’s Head of Commercial: 07407 657626 / leigh.fairbrother@q-bot.co
Paul Taylor, Taylor Keogh Communications: 07966 782611 / paul@taylorkeogh.com
Notes to Editors
An average-sized UK household, insulated by Q-Bot, could typically save c£850 a year in an electrically-heated home, and c£270 a year in a gas-heated home. Studies show that the Q-Bot system reduces heat loss through the floor by 77% and cold draughts by 1/3 for the whole house. With retrofitting existing buildings seen as essential for the UK to reach Net Zero, a household using Q-Bot’s solution can cut its annual CO₂ emissions by an average 700kg.
Using AI and robotics, Q-Bot’s insulation is deployed beneath suspended timber floors or to the underside of suspended concrete floors. A remotely operated robotic device applies a continuous layer of spray-foam insulation to the underside of the floor, resulting in a reduction in heat loss through the floor and a barrier to cold air draughts.
A technical survey is completed for all properties, with the evidence that is collected stored digitally in Q-Bot’s secure ‘Digital Retrofit Management system’. The survey determines the suitability of a property by assessing floor health, moisture content, physical conditions and the building’s ventilation. The robot is controlled remotely by qualified installers, spraying the underside of the floorboards to the desired thickness in the case of suspended timber floor construction, or the underside of solid concrete floors in solid floor construction.
Q-Bot’s work has received grant support from the UK Government and Innovate UK, and it has won numerous awards, including the CIBSE Building Performance Award and the Queen’s Award for Enterprise (Innovation).
The Q-Bot system has been in operation for over 10 years, installed in over 4000 properties across the UK and Europe and there have been no failures, nor any incidents where the insulation has needed to be removed. Q-Bot’s strict quality assurance process allows the company to offer customers a 25-year insurance backed guarantee with every floor insulation.