Energy Matters | Issue 8 | 2021
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Why carry out retrofit evaluation? Retrofitting our existing buildings to reduce their energy usage and improve the quality of life for their occupants is a key area to target if the UK is to reach its target of net zero carbon by 2050, which was enshrined in law in 2019. In 2019, buildings accounted for 30% of the UK’s emissions, with 23% of this produced by heating buildings.
James Brooman, Technical Consultant for Elmhurst Energy Consultancy
Building new homes to higher standards will be set out in the upcoming interim update to Part L of the Building Regulations, intended to be released in December 2021 and come into force in June 2022. Ensuring newly built homes meet higher standards is an important step in minimising emissions from future
homes, particularly with a commitment to building 300,000 new homes a year by the mid2020s set out in the last conservative manifesto . Whilst minimising the energy usage of new homes is clearly important, addressing our existing housing stock is also a key area. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) notes that “the 29 million existing homes across the UK must be made low-carbon, low-energy and resilient to a changing climate”, and it is clear that retrofitting our existing homes to reduce their energy usage will be a key area to address to allow the UK to achieve its target of net zero by 2050.
Retrofit evaluation Retrofitting existing homes to reduce their energy consumption can be done in a number of ways, with a fabric first approach being widely favoured. Fabric first
