How To Retrofit A Home

The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) is an environmental education charity situated in mid Wales. Over the last 15 years we’ve undertaken comprehensive research and modelling on Zero Carbon Britain (ZCB), developing a possible zero carbon endpoint scenario. One of the big things that we’ve identified is that in order to meet our energy needs we need to power down the amount of energy that we use. The retrofit agenda sits very well within that and CAT offers a variety of training to look at identifying solutions for community groups, councils, and organisations.

Pre-pandemic, we were hosting about 35,000 visitors a year. We have a Graduate School of the Environment, which has 600700 students studying Masters programmes via a blended approach of on-site and digital learning. Much of our training now is delivered online and we intend to continue and develop our digital training as we move forward.

Why do we do this? We want a sustainable future for all humanity as part of a thriving natural world. And that’s key to our mission centred on inspiring, informing, and enabling humanity to respond to the climate and biodiversity emergency.

We also wanted to build expertise within the building industry itself, so we secured funding for a new partnership project to provide sustainable skills training in support of green jobs. We focused on sustainable and energy efficient construction and retrofit solutions. We wanted to demystify the skills involved - it wasn’t about creating experts or a full qualification in its own right, but about understanding what we mean when we talk about retrofitting a home and what the skills needed for that are.

We looked at the importance of retrofit in terms of the climate agenda, linking it to our ZCB report and findings. We looked at multisolving opportunities, as well as addressing fuel poverty. Critically, we looked at the whole house approach - where the house is, its history, how it’s used, and how it’s built. We looked at EPC ratings. We looked at moisture in buildings. We looked at all this theoretically, so all the participants had the same sort of base level of understanding before we started the practical work.

Then we moved into four days of practical and theoretical sessions. We looked at dampness, how buildings perform, and the use of sustainable materials - such as hemp lime and insulation types. We used an existing row of cottages on our site for participants to survey and get practical tips and experience, and looked at both traditional and modern buildings. We considered planning, air tightness, insulation types, and U-values. We looked at solar, wind, and hydro renewables energy sources and how to site them, as well as an extensive session on heat pumps. Towards the end, we considered careers and opportunities in retrofit and comprehensive overview on how you retrofit a home.

So what did we learn? We know that if we’re going to retrofit the 20,000 homes a week that we need to to meet those 2050 targets, training and knowledge is essential. We learnt that understanding the building is key. Expert tuition was key and hands on working with plaster, and external and internal insulation, brought about a better understanding of the materials and qualities of air tightness. We learned that collaboration between owners, occupiers, supply chain, and trades was particularly important.

I also want to highlight the work of the Supply Chain Sustainability School who are building networks and working with training providers and practitioners to look at what’s important throughout the supply chain in terms of retrofit.

Going forward, we’re looking at programmes to encourage retrofit as a career choice through programmes for both post-16 education and also 14-16 year olds, and signpost those opportunities to the green apprenticeship rates or further training. We’re also expanding our short courses to meet the needs of householders. We’re looking at upskilling the existing workforce through specific programmes and supporting roles in the workplace.

Our website contains a new programme of webinars - all free to join. Our previous webinars are also on the website. We produce blogs and articles with retrofit as a key running theme on our website. We’ve also got a Zero Carbon Britain resource hub with online tools, reports, guidance training, and webinars. We also have a free information service and fact sheets on retrofit, sustainable building, materials, renewable energy, and more.

Amanda has over 20 years’ experience in teaching, school leadership, adult training, and organisational improvement. She is a highly qualified and experienced educator with Qualified Teacher status, the National Professional Qualification for Head Teachers, and is a Specialist Leader of Education. Amanda is the Training Manager for the Zero Carbon Britain Hub and brings a passion for and belief in the power of education and learning to change lives and bring the understanding that the choices made as individuals, policymakers, or organisations are important at a global level.

As an outcome, these are our top 10 retrofitting tips:

1) Look at the house in context

2) Understand the building, its occupants, and their use of it

3) Learn from experienced tutors

4) Use practical skills and demonstrations

5) Understand the detail of what’s involved in retrofit

6) Gain as much hands-on experience as possible

7) Have opportunities to try different materials and methods

8) Build understanding

9) Share best practice

10) Collaboration and communication is key

Amanda Smith, Training Manager at Zero Carbon Britain Hub