As the UK races against the clock to meet its carbon goals, retrofitting older homes emerges as a critical strategy, explains Trevor Wilkins, managing director at PAH Building & Construction
Environmental and sustainability issues have been part of the construction conversation for years now. Yet despite mounting urgency to address the significant impact of the built environment, the challenge of effectively retrofitting older homes means that demolishing the old to make space for new continues to be the industry standard.
Marks & Spencer’s recent court victory to demolish and rebuild its flagship 1929 art deco London store dealt a blow not only to Michael Gove, who originally blocked the controversial plans but also to campaigners concerned about the proposed scheme’s carbon footprint.
According to Green Alliance, at least 15 million homes in the UK need to be retrofitted by 2030 to meet the UK’s carbon targets.
Clearly, futureproofing our housing stock for a growing population hinges as much on bringing older buildings up to scratch as it does on building new homes.
85% of the UK’s homes still rely on gas boilers
Currently, over half of the UK’s 28 million existing homes pre-date 1965, with 85% of homes still relying on gas boilers for heating and approximately 50% featuring uninsulated walls.
Delivering an effective countrywide retrofit initiative would benefit the environment and homeowners. It would nearly triple the UK’s current rate of energy efficiency, reducing household bills while lessening the power grid’s carbon footprint.
The solution lies in an industry-wide adoption of ‘deep’ retrofitting as the norm. This involves analysing and enhancing existing systems in older buildings to improve energy efficiency and reduce operational carbon, potentially reducing emissions by up to 80%.
Tackling these types of refurbishment projects involves the examination of various elements in the home, including insulation, ventilation, and renewable energy sources.
Heat pumps, for example, are an effective alternative to gas boilers for a range of buildings, and the Government has recently increased its support for this renewable energy source by providing grants of up to £7,500 through its Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
Addressing challenges of improving the UK’s existing housing stock
Despite the financial and logistical challenges of improving existing stock due to the varying age and design of a large portion of our homes, deploying innovative design and construction methods is making the process simpler.
Commonplace issues in older properties, such as damp, draughts and heat loss, can be effectively addressed with improved insulation methods.
Solutions such as sealing masonry with a parge coat and strategically insulating hot water pipes can address these issues head-on and help to make homes more comfortable.
To mitigate overheating, reflective and green planted surfaces can reduce or slow the transfer of heat radiation, and a building can be fitted with skylights to function as an ‘exhaust’ for heat build-up.
Shading in the form of balconies and heat pumps that reverse refrigerant flow, can also tackle overheating issues.
Photovoltaic cells, or solar panels, are probably the best-known renewable energy source, and fitting them onto older homes is becoming increasingly commonplace. However, there are other possibilities.
Larger, community-scale Combined Heat & Power (CHP) has been around since the 1970s but the technology for Micro-CHP units for individual properties, while currently an expensive luxury, is easy to install and could become more popular if it was at a cost suitable for the mainstream market.
Ultimately, we need the costs to come down to roll this out more widely in households.
Modern kitchens and bathrooms fitted with effective water-saving systems, such as flow-restricting taps and dual flushes, further improve homes’ overall efficiency.
Meanwhile, the installation of new floors and fittings with naturally hardwearing and insulating materials not only futureproofs homes, but makes them more desirable, creating spaces that people want to live, work, and relax in.
Retrofitting older homes will help to upskill and futureproof the industry
PwC estimates that widespread adoption of retrofitting could support some 580,000 new roles in the UK, including over 94,000 in trade skills, particularly heating engineers, glazers, plumbers and insulation specialists, enabling the UK to become a world leader in green skills.
The scale of the problem is clear. Incentives for schemes that deliver the considerable benefits of retrofitting to upgrade the UK’s substandard housing stock are essential if we are to reach ambitious net-zero targets.
The revolution is already overdue, and proactivity from the industry and Government is now required to embrace the best of the old to make something entirely new and fit for purpose for generations to come.
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