Heating, cooling and ventilation of domestic buildings makes up one third of the UKs overall CO2 emissions.
Introduction
The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is proposing to fund a new project focused on the refurbishment of the domestic housing stock to improve their energy efficiency. They are looking to assemble a team of innovative companies and researchers to investigate ways the refurbishment process can be accelerated at a national level. The project is to determine ways the cost effectiveness and efficiency of conversions at volume, can be significantly improved by optimising at a whole house level, while seeking to minimise impact on owner/occupiers.
Background to the UK's Housing Refurbishment issue
The heating, cooling and ventilation of the UKs 26 million domestic buildings currently account for about one third of the UKs overall CO2 emissions. Approximately 21 million of these will still be in existence in 2050 and so need extensive refurbishment to improve energy efficiency. Recent studies indicate that the deployment rate of many of the interventions needed, and the effectiveness of them in practise, will make it extremely challenging for the UK to meet the UKs 2020/2050 CO2 reduction targets. The deployment of the easier, most cost effective measures such as loft and cavity wall insulation, and fitting low energy appliances, is expected to peak in the next two to four years, leaving the much more challenging and disruptive interventions, such as solid wall and floor insulation largely uncovered.
About the Project
In response to this challenge the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is planning a project to tackle the fundamental issues associated with the volume refurbishment of the existing housing stock:
• To increase the rate at which major energy efficiency conversions can be done at a whole house level, including hard-to-treat properties, at volume.
• To improve the quality and effectiveness of the intervention at reducing CO2.
• To reduce the costs of the interventions and improve customer value.
• To reduce the dependence on massive increases in highly specialised skills to deploy the solutions because it is unlikely these can be realised in the timescales required.
• To minimise the impact of the interventions on residents.
This project proposes to achieve these aims by doing a thorough review of the supply chain and installation processes. It proposes that the intervention strategies for whole house conversions can be optimised by applying some of the tools and principles of high volume lean manufacturing and robust systems engineering. The impact of the installation on residents will also be considered.
Who are we looking for?
This project will bring together the diverse experiences of manufacturing and building sectors. Potential project consortia need to reflect a mix of organisations and skill sets including:
• commercial participants with expertise in the built environment and/or energy sector.
• universities who are leaders in low energy buildings research.
• building technology suppliers and/or specialist consultancies in materials usage.
• specialists in lean, robust design methods and material supply chain.
• experts in UK building practices – particularly maintenance/conversions.
• market research.
• local/regional planning.