Anyone debating whether to self build or retrofit an existing building to improve energy efficiency will be interested to read that new research has found that ‘greening’ up an existing building requires a far larger investment than previously thought.
The University of Nottingham findings show that retrofitting your home to the highest levels of energy efficiency costs significantly more than the government’s expected average £30,000, with a typical home costing around £68,000.
The research has created a retrofitting roadmap for the decarbonisation of the city’s housing stock, which reflects a major national issue, as 80% of the buildings that will form our future housing stock have already been built. Many of these date from before the 1990s, when Building Regulations had comparatively low targets for energy efficiency.
The Government put up £350,000 to support the “Nottingham Carbon Neutral Housing: Cost vs Carbon Retrofit Roadmap” retrofitting project to address the fact that 22% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from residential buildings, according to the London Energy Transformation Initiative.
Professor Lucelia Rodrigues, project lead and Professor of Sustainable and Resilient Cities at the University of Nottingham said that, “for most homes, it is both more cost- and carbon-effective to first improve the building’s fabric before electrifying heating.”
This fabric-first approach is an essential tenet for all self builds as well, as the effectiveness of any energy efficiency measures or micro-generation is dependent on this principle.
Register for Nottingham Retrofit Roadmap Guidance, once published
Image credit: Image by MVOprp from Pixabay
