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IRIS

Repository consolidation notice:

IRIS is currently delivered through four separate open-source repositories covering data ingestion, data transformation, the backend API and the visual interface. Work is underway to consolidate these into a single mono-repo. This will streamline development, simplify deployment and provide a unified codebase for future releases. The documentation below reflects the current structure and will be updated as consolidation progresses.

IRIS is an open-source application that provides national-scale insight into the energy-efficiency performance of domestic properties across England and Wales. It brings together EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) data, fuel-type information and geospatial attributes to support analysis, decision-making and planning across the housing, energy and retrofit sectors.

IRIS processes large, complex datasets, standardises them through a robust data pipeline, exposes them through a modern API, and presents them through an interactive visual interface designed for exploration and evidence-based assessment.

What IRIS delivers

IRIS enables users to:

  • explore domestic energy-efficiency performance at national, regional or local scales
  • examine EPC ratings, fuel types and building characteristics for millions of properties
  • identify patterns, trends and areas where intervention or investment may be beneficial
  • analyse how performance varies across geography, housing stock types or fuel sources
  • extract property-level or aggregated data for reporting, analysis or integration with other systems
  • work with a consistent, well-structured dataset that supports reproducible and transparent decision-making

The system is engineered to handle large datasets efficiently and provide fast, intuitive access to housing-stock information.

Architecture and components

IRIS is delivered as a set of modular open-source components. Each addresses a distinct part of the data lifecycle, and together they form a complete end-to-end system. All components are maintained in dedicated repositories and follow consistent design patterns.

Data Cleanser

Responsible for ingesting and preparing raw data sources such as EPC records and geospatial datasets. It performs ETL operations including validation, cleaning, address profiling and coordinate processing, producing high-quality structured data ready for transformation.

Data Pipeline

Transforms cleansed inputs into a standardised, canonical form. Using an Adapter–Mapper approach, the pipeline supports multiple input formats and unifies them into a consistent representation suitable for analysis, API access and visualisation.

IRIS API

A RESTful backend service that exposes property-level and aggregated data. The API provides filtering, querying and export capabilities, allowing users and external systems to access the underlying dataset programmatically.

IRIS Visualisation

A web-based interface for interactive exploration. It provides geospatial mapping, filtering, region selection and property-level detail, enabling rapid assessment of housing-stock characteristics across England and Wales.

These components are designed to operate together or independently, depending on the requirements of the deployment environment.

Documentation structure

The IRIS documentation is organised into four sections to support different user needs:

  • Tutorials – step-by-step introductions that guide users through running IRIS, loading data and exploring core features

  • How-to Guides – focused instructions for completing specific tasks such as data ingestion, deployment, API queries or extending the interface

  • Reference – authoritative technical details including API specifications, data schemas, configuration files and pipeline parameters

  • Explanations – conceptual material covering system design, data assumptions, architectural rationale and future development direction

Only sections that contain completed content are displayed.

Current capabilities and evolution

IRIS currently supports:

  • full coverage of domestic EPC data for England and Wales

  • integrated fuel-type information

  • geospatial mapping and filtering

  • large-scale data ingestion and transformation

  • API-based access to property and aggregated datasets

  • configurable deployment options

Planned enhancements include:

  • consolidation into a single mono-repo

  • additional data layers and building attributes

  • expanded analytical metrics

  • performance improvements across the data pipeline

  • interface refinements

  • improved interoperability with external systems and shared data environments

Updates are published through official repositories and reflected in this documentation.