Exploring the practices and roles of UK construction manufacturers and merchants in relation to housing energy retrofit (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 2017
Purpose – There is profound demand for higher skills and expertise in retrofitting the existing building stock of Europe. The delivery of low-or nearly zero-energy retrofits is highly dependent on technical expertise, adoption of new materials, methods of construction and innovative technologies. Future Irish national building regulations will adopt the EPBD vision of retrofitting existing buildings to higher energy efficiency standards. The role of key stakeholders in the industry becomes highly responsible for achieving the energy performance targets. Specifically, the paper assesses the attitudes, approaches and experiences of Irish construction professionals regarding energy efficient buildings, particularly nZEBs. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through a series of assessments under qualitative research including survey, workshop and detailed interviews with professionals in the retrofit industry. The structure of this approach was informed by preliminary data and information available on the Irish construction sector. Findings – There is a substantial amount of ambiguity and reluctance among the professionals in reaching the Irish nearly zero-energy building (nZEB) targets. The growing retrofit industry demonstrates low-quality auditing and pre/post-retrofit analysis. Basic services and depth of retrofits are compromised by project budgets and marginal profits. Unaligned value supply chain, poor interaction among nZEB professionals and fragmented services are deterrents to industry standardisation. Social implications – This study has implications for understanding the social barriers existing in retrofit projects. Support from clients/ owners has a diverse impact on energy performance and retrofit decisions. Community-based initiatives are key to unlock the promotion of nZEBs. Practical implications – This study will enable construction industry stakeholders to make provisions for overcoming the barriers, gaps and challenges identified in the practices of the retrofit projects. It will also inform the formulation of policies that drive retrofit uptake. Originality/value – This paper provides an overview of current activities of retrofit professionals and analyses the barriers, gaps and challenges in the industry.
Energy Policy, 2012
This paper reviews the thermal performance of the existing UK housing stock, the main fabric efficiency incentive schemes and the barriers to obtaining deep energy and CO 2 savings throughout the stock. The UK faces a major challenge to improve the thermal performance of its existing housing stock. Millions of dwellings possess 'hard to treat' solid walls and have glazing which is not cost effective to improve. A range of fabric efficiency incentive schemes exist, but many do not target the full range of private and social housing. From now on, the Green Deal will be the UK's key energy efficiency policy. However, the scheme is forecasted to have low consumer appeal and low incentives for investors. Moreover, calculated Green Deal loan repayments will be reliant upon estimated energy savings, yet it is claimed that retrofit measures may only be half as effective as anticipated due to a lack of monitoring, poor quality installation and the increased use of heating following refurbishment. Looking to Germany, there has been success through the Passivhaus standard, but the UK currently lacks appropriate skills and cost effective components to replicate this approach. In addition, the embodied energy in retrofit products and materials threatens to counter operational savings.
Construction Economics and Building, 2020
Carbon emissions, being hazardous, are triggering social concerns which have led to the creation of international treaties to address climate change. Similarly, the United Kingdom under the Climate Change Act (2008) has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emission by at least 80% over 1990 levels by 2050. However, being the oldest member of the EU states (before Brexit), the UK has the oldest housing stock, which contributes to 45% of its carbon emissions due to the older dwellings. To address this issue low carbon retrofitting is needed. Therefore, this paper seeks to investigate the barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting in social housing in London, UK based on the perception of experts employed in National and construction companies with an experience that ranges between 6 to 16 years. Initial literature suggested that the problem of energy efficiency retrofitting in the general building stock has been addressed, however little has been reported on its appl...
Overcoming the systemic challenges of retrofitting residential buildings in the United Kingdom
Transitions in Energy Efficiency and Demand, 2018
Transitions in Energy Efficiency and Demand provides an important contribution to the energy transition literature, correcting the usual bias towards energy supply. Drawing on case studies of innovation, it highlights demandside innovations in system change; and by using sociotechnical approaches, the case studies avoid the trap of thinking of innovation simply in terms of technical fixes.' Nick Eyre, Professor, University of Oxford, UK 'Transitions in Energy Efficiency and Demand is at the forefront of research on energy innovation and energy demand, providing new and in-depth insights into both technological and social change across a range of domains. Essential reading for scholars, policy makers, business leaders, students, and anyone else interested in a low-carbon, energy-efficient and lowdemand energy transition.' Marilyn Brown,
Business models for residential retrofit in the UK: a critical assessment of five key archetypes
Energy Efficiency, 2018
The comprehensive retrofit of residential buildings has significant potential to reduce carbon emissions and provide additional heath and economic benefits. However, in countries such as the UK, much of this potential is yet to be realised. This paper shows how the concept of 'business models' (BMs) can be a powerful tool for understanding the challenge of improving energy performance and reducing carbon emissions in residential buildings. Through a review of contemporary literature and 18 semi-structured interviews, the paper describes and compares five distinct BM archetypes: the atomised market model, market intermediation model, one-stop-shop, energy services agreement and managed energy services agreement. These models range from the traditional approach to highly innovative energy service contracts. The paper further illustrates how the UK and EU market for retrofitting residential buildings is beginning to trial the more innovative BMs. These emerging BMs are characterised by increasingly industrialised processes and integrated supply chains, a holistic customer offering and single point of sale, longterm energy-saving performance contracts (ESPC) and integral project finance. It is argued that whilst the traditional BM is suitable for the implementation of single or piecemeal energy-saving measures, BM innovation will be required to meet the UK's ambitious climate change targets. Keywords Energy efficiency. Retrofit. Housing. Business models. ESCO. ESPC. Value proposition. Supply chain. Customer interface. Financial model. Governance 1 SAP quantifies a dwelling's performance in terms of energy use per unit floor area, a fuel-cost-based energy efficiency rating (the SAP Rating) and emissions of CO2 (the Environmental Impact Rating) (GOV.UK 2017).
Energy & Environment, 2012
The UK has set a highly ambitious target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Around 27% of emissions of carbon dioxide [the main greenhouse gas] is generated by housing in use. Around 30% of the UK housing stock is social landlord and local authority owned. Meanwhile, fuel prices are increasing, and consequently fuel poverty. Turnover in the building stock is much lower than for any other product; buildings have a much longer average life, and most new build is additional not replacement, so the most important impacts on energy use and carbon emissions will come from the existing stock even in 2050. Thus considerable innovation and investment is needed to meet the ambitious carbon reduction targets and to contain rising energy costs, by reducing demand and decarbonising supply.
An Assessment of Low Energy Design Practices in Housing Retrofit Projects
Energy Procedia, 2013
The UK housing sector accounts for approximately 30% of total energy demand and accounts for 27% of carbon emissions. The uptake of low energy retrofit (LER) within the existing housing stock is piecemeal and currently not sufficient to achieve the 80% carbon reduction legally binding commitment by 2050 in the UK. Literature reveals that improving thermal insulation is the most preferred LER design approach in housing projects. Furthermore, there are no legislative requirements to drive architects to design in low energy housing retrofit strategies in their current projects. Therefore, this research engaged architects specializing in housing refurbishment through a questionnaire survey to investigate LER design challenges and enablers. Results indicate that high capital costs for microgeneration technologies; disparity in VAT between new build and refurbishment; and the complexity of the UK existing housing stock are the most considerable LER housing design challenges. On the other hand; a tax rebate for LER driven projects; removal of the VAT difference between new build and refurbishment; increased research to produce affordable low energy technologies; and increased government low carbon programs were identified as the key incentives to drive the LER housing agenda.
2019
One of the many complex challenges in tackling climate change is the pressing need to achieve a major reduction in carbon emissions from existing homes. In the UK, this is made even more difficult by the age and slow replacement of the housing stock, and the high proportion in private ownership. Making the necessary improvements will require significant investment and disruption. The home repair, maintenance and improvement market is demand-led and thriving, and offers practical opportunities to include energy improvements. The first point of contact for homeowners looking to get such work done tends to be mainstream building tradespeople: they could be the frontline in communicating, selling and implementing energy improvements. While work has been done to try to understand better the views and needs of the households and homeowners, a perspective that tends to be missing in policy debate is that of the building tradespeople themselves. Using a grounded theory approach, and qualita...
Energy Policy, 2019
Comprehensive energy retrofits by households and housing companies have been recognised as important means for emission reductions. However, the diffusion of comprehensive energy retrofits has not been as fluent as expected. In this article, we study the Finnish energy retrofit market and comprehensive energy retrofit acquisition process through participant observation and interview methods in order to better understand the work that housing companies, as potential adopters, must carry out. The results of our study suggest that to operate in the current market, adopters must expend a considerable amount of effort in finding market actors, understanding the offerings and coming to grips with what kind of energy system would be ideal for their site. Only a handful of market actors are able to help adopters in this work and even these were difficult to locate due to their position in the energy retrofit market ecology. The study indicates that future policy should foster matchmaking between potential adopters and energy counselling services and support tighter collaboration between public and private energy sector actors.