Upgrading the UK Housing Stock: Insights into the Performance of Ready for Market Retrofit Solutions

While the UK government withdrew from the zero carbon building agenda, the need to provide a high quality, controllable and comfortable internal environment remains. Regardless of the shifting government sands, the thermal performance and energy efficiency of new buildings has improved, creating a gap between new and the 28 million existing properties in the UK. In Britain, many of the existing buildings are draughty and poorly insulated, making the buildings difficult to control and condition; positioning the UK housing stock amongst the most expensive to heat in Europe. Uninsulated thermal elements, bypassing of the insulation layer, and excessive thermal bridging, are present in many of these properties. The resultant cold temperatures and risk of condensation and mould have an impact on the health and wellbeing of the occupants, contributing to excessive winter death rates. To achieve thermal upgrade at scale, affordable and reliable ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions are required. This research provides the results from a deep retrofit project, where off-the-shelf measures were introduced in stages, under controlled conditions, on a hard to treat property. At each stage, significant reductions were achieved in the energy required to heat the property. The whole retrofit provided a more air-tight, thermally efficient fabric that brings many of the environmental benefits associated with new builds