A current major opportunity to improve housing efficiency at modest carbon prices is in tackling hard to treat cavity walls.
That is according to a new report from the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) which looks at the role of housing retrofitting to tackle the 20 per cent of emissions that comes from heating homes in the UK. It says that although deeper retrofits of houses are technically feasible, their cost could be potentially similar to rebuilding the entire UK housing stock, or greater than two trillion pounds, unless a more targeted approach is taken.
The report follows the completion of two projects, to identify new retrofitting approaches with significant potential to reduce wasted time and materials, reduce costs and improve quality through industrialising the planning and execution of housing retrofits. Retrofits on five typical UK dwellings to test a more industrialised approach reduced gas usage by 30-50 per cent.
ETI chief engineer Andrew Haslett said: “Improving the thermal efficiency of significant parts of the existing UK housing stock over the next 30 years is an important part of a cost-effective UK decarbonisation strategy but it cannot substitute for decarbonising the supply of energy to buildings.
“There are significant opportunities to improve the performance of a traditional business-as-usual approach to housing retrofits. A coherent long-term strategy that recognises the underlying economics will enable more entrepreneurial businesses to invest in the changes required to deliver more cost-effective, high performing retrofits more aligned to the needs and drivers of home owners.”
The report also highlights that most consumers are not motivated to spend money on efficiency measures so a combination of improved comfort and amenity, improved supply chain performance and mechanisms that mandate or reward carbon savings will be required.