探花直播 of Cambridge - retrofit

Insulation only provides short-term reduction in household gas consumption

fpjl2 — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 09:52:05 +0000

Insulating the lofts and cavity walls of existing UK housing stock only reduces gas consumption for the first year or two, with all energy savings vanishing by the fourth year after a retrofit, according to research from policy experts at the 探花直播 of Cambridge.

探花直播latest study is the first to track in detail household gas use across England and Wales for at least five years both before and after insulation installation.

Researchers analysed gas consumption patterns of more than 55,000 dwellings over twelve years (2005-2017), and found that cavity wall insulation led to an average 7% drop in gas during the first year. This shrank to 2.7% in the second, and by the fourth year, any energy savings were negligible. 聽聽

Loft insulation was half as effective as cavity wall, with an initial fall in gas consumption of around 4% on average, dropping to 1.8% after one year and becoming insignificant by the second year. For households with conservatories*, any gains in energy efficiency disappeared after the first year. 聽

探花直播findings suggests that when it comes to home insulation there may be a significant 'rebound effect': any savings through energy efficiency get cancelled out by a steady increase in energy use.**

探花直播UK Treasury recently announced some 拢6 billion in funding to reduce the energy consumption of buildings and industry by 15% over the next eight years, with a major focus on insulation retrofits across the residential sector.聽

Researchers behind the study, published in the journal Energy Economics, say it is extremely difficult to identify specific causes of the 'rebound effect' they found, but behaviours such as turning up the heating, opening windows in stuffy rooms or building extensions may all contribute.

They argue that good insulation is vital, but any drive to insulate UK homes should be combined with investment in heat pump installation and campaigns to encourage behaviour change if 2030 targets for energy independence are to be met. 聽聽

To capture the overall effect of insulating homes, the researchers accounted for various factors, including the age and size of buildings, the weather and gas prices.

However, they did find that gas price influenced energy use 鈥� so the soaring cost of gas may mean greater energy reductions from insulation now than during the study period. 探花直播research also found household gas consumption fluctuated less after both loft and cavity wall insulation. 聽聽聽聽

鈥� 探花直播recent spotlight on increasing the energy efficiency in UK buildings is both welcome and long overdue, and there are very real benefits to households from good insulation, not least in terms of health and comfort,鈥� said study co-author Prof Laura Diaz Anadon, Director of the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance.

鈥淗owever, home insulation alone is not a magic bullet. High gas prices will reduce the rebound effect in the short term, as homeowners have the need to keep costs down at the front of their minds. In the long term, simply funding more of the same insulation roll-out to meet the UK鈥檚 carbon reduction and energy security targets may not move the dial as much as is hoped.鈥�

Anadon and her Cambridge co-author Dr Cristina Penasco say that insulating old and draughty housing across the UK is a vital step, but argue that not encouraging homeowners to 鈥渇ully degasify heating鈥� while going through the disruption of a retrofit is a missed opportunity.

Heat pumps, which extract warmth from outside to heat internal radiators, are highly efficient and negate the need for gas boilers. Recent research suggests the UK lags behind many other European countries on heat pump sales, and the UK Committee on Climate Change has also highlighted the need to speed up heat pump deployment.

鈥淲hen trying to get middle income households to conduct energy renovations, as the government are currently doing, it makes sense to further encourage heat pump installation at the same time," said Penasco, the study鈥檚 first author from Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Politics and International Studies.

鈥淭his could be through incentives such as more generous and focused grant schemes, as well as obligations for boiler manufacturers and additional investments in skills for installers.鈥�

鈥淲e found that energy efficiency retrofits are often combined with home improvements that actually increase consumption, such as extensions.鈥�*** Scotland currently offers grants and interest free loans for heat pumps, while the rest of the UK has reduced VAT in the form of a tax rebate.

Residential housing accounted for almost a third (29.5%) of the UK鈥檚 total energy consumption in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency. In the UK, 85% of households use gas as their main heating source.聽

探花直播study used data collected by the UK鈥檚 Department of Energy and Climate Change, and compared energy use in individual households before and after insulation, as well as comparing households that did have efficiency renovations with those that did not.

Researchers found that, compared to wealthier areas, households in more deprived areas had half the reductions in gas use: an average of 3% during the first and second year after insulation. Neighbourhoods where deprivation was highest had the lowest reduction in gas consumption.

鈥淗ouseholds in more deprived areas often have to limit energy use, so any savings created by home insulation can quickly get redirected into keeping a house warmer for longer,鈥� said Penasco

鈥淭his is a good outcome if policies are aimed at reducing fuel poverty in low-income households, but will not help with the UK鈥檚 emissions reductions targets or reliance on gas.鈥� In fact, when it came to household income, those in the bottom 20% increased gas consumption straight after insulation. 聽

鈥淣ational caps on gas prices will not incentivise people to conserve energy,鈥� said Penasco, who argues that energy reduction targets could be set for individual households, and associated with waivers on energy bills in the long run, particularly for low income households.

Added Anadon: 鈥淧eople do not deliberately squander energy savings. There is a need for education to lessen the rebound effect we have documented. Media appearances by ministers to discuss flow temperatures of boilers are positive signs that parts of the government are starting to think about this.鈥�

聽

*Conservatories are one of the most popular home improvements in the UK. Data from 2011 suggests that almost 20% of households in England had some form of conservatory, and 80% of those had some form of heating.

** 探花直播'rebound effect' is a fundamental concept in economics, and was first identified by William Jevons in 1865, when he observed that more efficient steam engines increased rather than reduced coal use, as engines were put into more widespread use. 聽

*** Previous research suggests that extensions in the UK increase household energy consumption by 16% on average.聽聽聽

For more information on聽energy-related research in Cambridge, please visit聽Energy聽IRC, which brings together Cambridge鈥檚 research knowledge and expertise, in collaboration with global partners, to create solutions for a sustainable and resilient energy landscape for generations to come.聽

First study to look at long-term effect of home insulation in England and Wales finds fall in gas consumption per household was small and only lasts a few years.

We found that energy efficiency retrofits are often combined with home improvements that actually increase consumption, such as extensions

Cristina Penasco

Getty images

Man installing loft insulation

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright 漏探花直播 of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified.聽 All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways 鈥� as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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A retrofitting revolution

cg605 — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 12:01:37 +0000

Laying the foundations for buildings to stay cool in extreme heat.

Cambridge unveils plans to become Retrofit City

tdk25 — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:11:27 +0000

A landmark energy-efficiency initiative which aims to reduce the carbon emissions from buildings in Cambridge by 30% before 2050 through a massive, city-wide retrofit scheme, has been launched.

探花直播Cambridge Retrofit Project will function partly as a social enterprise, and partly as a professional delivery service, and is being run by representatives from organisations and businesses across the East Anglian city.

It has set itself the formidable task of supporting the retrofits of approximately 20,000 private homes, and another 20,000 non-residential properties, before the mid-way point of the 21st century. These will include Victorian terraces, modern shopping centres, and the medieval college buildings of the city鈥檚 804-year-old 探花直播.

探花直播aim is to make a decisive contribution to the UK鈥檚 carbon reduction target of 80% by 2050 in a single move focused on the energy-efficiency of buildings. In the process, the project will also seek to make Cambridge the first city to hit that national objective. From today, businesses and residents are being urged to sign up through a newly-launched website, www.cambridgeretrofit.org, where a full list of the many organisations already involved can also be found.

鈥淩etrofitting鈥� essentially means adding new technologies and features to a building to increase its energy-efficiency and reduce its energy consumption. In practice, that can involve the introduction of measures such as loft and cavity wall insulation, enhanced window glazing, draught-proofing, energy-efficient lighting and improved boilers. 探花直播result is reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions, but the programme also aims to build up local businesses, create warmer homes and increase the value of properties.

Making those improvements throughout an entire city 鈥� especially one which, like Cambridge, has a daunting range of buildings dating back to the Middle Ages 鈥� will require a huge community effort that cuts across public and private sectors.

探花直播total cost of retrofits over the course of the programme is expected to be 拢1billion. 探花直播project team calculate, however, that the energy-savings that result will be worth 拢1.5billion. 探花直播environmental payoff will be even greater, 鈥� the city鈥檚 carbon footprint, currently 830,000 tons of CO2 a year is expected to decrease at a rate of about 1% a year, eventually falling to about 500,000 tons of CO2 per annum as a result of the retrofit programme.

Since 2012, organisations from across Cambridge have been drawing up plans which will enable the project鈥檚 leaders to stimulate demand for retrofits, and then bring that together with financial support and delivery services. 探花直播process has involved local planners, building firms, property managers, housing associations, lawyers, engineers, architects and researchers, as well as national government offices and English Heritage.

探花直播project will be handled by a Programme Management Unit, which breaks down into three sub-groups. A 鈥淧roject Support and Aggregation鈥� arm, run by the energy solutions firm, Day One Energy, will oversee the practical business of delivering and financing retrofits. 探花直播online consultation service, Consense, will lead the process of mobilising businesses and residents. Finally, supporting research and monitoring will be undertaken by the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research and its academic partners.

Overseeing this will be a group of 30 public and private sector partners, chaired by the former leader of Cambridge City Council, Sian Reid. This group will be responsible for monitoring the Unit鈥檚 performance and ensuring that it is acting in the best interests of the community.

Professor Douglas Crawford-Brown, Director of the Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research, said:聽鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge challenge, but if we are going to achieve the ambitious carbon reduction targets that the UK has set, then we are going to have to learn how to run projects of this scale.鈥�

鈥淐rucially, our plan is to ensure that the business of retrofitting Cambridge鈥檚 buildings is demand-driven. Other attempts at initiatives like this have tended to work on the assumption that if a programme to make large-scale changes like this is created, people will use it. Our view is that you don鈥檛 start supplying until you鈥檝e got the demand. Our first objective is to get big estate-holders involved.鈥�

Residents, companies and public organisations alike can add their details to the website. Using this, retrofits will be co-ordinated by the Programme Management Unit to keep the costs as low as possible, and to ensure that local businesses and innovators form the project鈥檚 principal supply chain.

探花直播initial focus will be on the non-residential sector 鈥� the estates of the City and County Councils, property firms, schools, universities and the 探花直播 of Cambridge Colleges. These organisations are considered prime targets for retrofits because of the cost-saving benefits. 鈥淥ur approach is that we鈥檙e not here to save your soul and we don鈥檛 care why you鈥檙e doing it, so long as you鈥檙e doing what needs to be done,鈥� Crawford-Brown added.

Over time, the project will focus increasingly on the residential sector, working alongside local councils and other organisations to help reduce energy costs in homes.

探花直播Programme Management Unit will also offer all participants optional support through which they can negotiate the cost of retrofitting their properties. For example, in some cases, the Unit will take out an initial, low-cost loan to pay for the retrofit up front, then gradually pay this back by taking a cut of the profit made through energy-savings over time.

Several inaugural 鈥渂eacon鈥� projects are now being prepared by the project team, with a view to giving the scheme some initial momentum. They will include at least one college building, one commercial building, a local authority office and a 探花直播 of Cambridge building.

Sian Reid, chair of the project鈥檚 oversight group, said: 鈥淚t is wonderful to see that many Cambridge organisations have already signed up to Cambridge Retrofit. Getting people involved early, and then constantly broadcasting the successes that are happening in Cambridge, is crucial to the success of Cambridge Retrofit. There is a real opportunity here to create nationwide awareness of how retrofits can work for building owners, occupiers and communities. To do that, we have to make Cambridge a living example of best practice.鈥�

Julian Huppert, MP for Cambridge, said: 鈥淐ambridge Retrofit has the exciting possibility of allowing everyone in Cambridge to benefit from more energy-efficient buildings, saving money and helping to protect the environment. I am pleased that so many people and organisations are coming together to make this happen.鈥�

For more information about this story, please contact: Tom Kirk, Office of Communications, 探花直播 of Cambridge. Tel: +44 (0)1223 332300; Email: thomas.kirk@admin.cam.ac.uk

A new network of public and private sector organisations aims to carry out retrofits across Cambridge, bringing down carbon emissions, cutting energy costs, and helping to make it the first city to meet the UK Climate Change Act carbon reduction target of 80% by 2050.

"We鈥檙e not here to save your soul and we don鈥檛 care why you鈥檙e doing it, so long as you鈥檙e doing what needs to be done"

Douglas Crawford-Brown

Cambridge Retrofit

探花直播wide range of building types in Cambridge, ranging from modern structures to medieval college buildings, make it a natural community in which to test the feasibility of city-wide retrofits to cut carbon emissions.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

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探花直播prebound effect

bjb42 — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:01:06 +0000

Many European households are consuming less energy than predicted, especially in supposedly energy-inefficient homes, a new study has found.

探花直播research identified a recurring gulf between the quantity of energy predicted by governments for different types of housing and the amount homeowners actually use.

Researchers also found that the discrepancy was greatest among the least energy-efficient homes, where householders appear to be consuming far less than national energy usage standards predict.

This phenomenon is branded the 鈥減rebound effect鈥� in the study, which is published in the new issue of the journal Building Research and Information. ( 探花直播term refers to the earlier identification of a 鈥渞ebound effect鈥�, in which people who have already had energy-saving initiatives such as thermal retrofits implemented in their home then use more energy, reducing the amount of energy actually saved).

Conversely, the 鈥減rebound effect鈥� suggests that politicians and policy-makers who want to see more such initiatives in a wider range of homes may be over-estimating the benefits, and the rate of pay-back, because their judgements about how much energy those homes consume are already exaggerated.

Dr Minna Sunikka-Blank, from the Department of Architecture at the 探花直播 of Cambridge, who co-authored the study, said: 鈥淚n general, the worse a home is thermally, the more the occupants tend to control the amount of heating they use. For financial reasons, they also have to. This challenges the prevailing view that large cuts in energy consumption can be achieved by focusing purely on technical solutions, such as retrofitting homes. In some cases, doing so may bring only half the expected savings, perhaps less.鈥�

探花直播study focused on data from Germany, although it then found similar patterns in several other European countries including the United Kingdom. Germany has a rigorous thermal retrofitting programme which has been seen as a leading model for other European states.

At the heart of this model is the use of the Energiekennwert, or energy performance rating (EPR), which is a figure used by German policy-makers to predict the energy consumption of a given type of dwelling based on the thermal quality of the building, the heating system and the location. This is used to predict not only the amount of energy consumed, but the amount that might be saved with improved insulation, for example, as the result of a thermal retrofit.

Sunikka-Blank and her colleague, Dr Ray Galvin, used EPR and energy use data for 3,400 dwellings in Germany, to model the difference between predicted energy consumption and the amount of energy actually being consumed. Most of the measured figures came from meters in people鈥檚 homes. In addition, the research drew on background data about the physical character and energy consumption of a further 1 million properties.

探花直播model revealed clear discrepancies between calculated and measured energy consumption. Even when comparing homes that fell into the same predicted energy bracket, cases were found where one house used six times as much energy as another.

Critically, however, the study revealed a gulf between the predicted energy consumption for heating and the amount actually measured. 探花直播average EPR for a German dwelling was about 225 kilowatt hours per square metre, per year (kWh/m虏a). Real energy consumption for heating averaged at around 150 kWh/m虏a; a discrepancy of 30%.

When the discrepancies were plotted on a graph, they showed that overall, the higher the EPR (and therefore the lower the energy-efficiency of a house), the lower the relative measured energy consumption turned out to be. For example, the real average energy consumption of a home with an EPR of 300 kWh/m虏a was about 40% below the calculated value, whereas that of a home with an EPR of 150 kWh/m虏a was only 17% lower.

In practice, this means that many homes which are predicted to be highly inefficient in terms of the amount of energy they consume, are often consuming nowhere near as much energy in practice.

Comparison with further data, assembled by other researchers in different studies, revealed that similar patterns can be seen with homes in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

In the UK, energy efficiency is predicted using a measured called the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP), on a scale of 1-100, where 100 is the most efficient. Again, homes with a low SAP have been found to consume far less energy relative to their rating than those with a high SAP. As with the German example, the higher the predicted energy consumption, the lower the actual relative energy consumption seems to be.

探花直播study suggests that measures such as the German EPR may be based on flawed assumptions about important factors such as energy loss through ventilation, or standard indoor temperature. There may also be a discrepancy between the ways in which buildings are designed and how they are built in practice.

Fundamentally, however, the study indicates that predictive measures are failing to take into account the ways in which people actually heat their homes in practice. 鈥淚t seems that many German households tend to keep their homes cooler, or heat fewer rooms in their home, or have their heating on for less time - or various combinations of these - than is assumed in their EPR calculations,鈥� Sunikka-Blank said.

鈥淎s retrofits cannot save energy that is not actually being consumed, this has implications for the economic viability of thermal retrofits.鈥�

探花直播study adds that further research is needed to explain the prebound effect, but hints that one reason may be budget-consciousness among families living in energy inefficient homes. This appeared to be borne out by interviews the researchers conducted with German householders.

探花直播full paper will be downloadable for free for a limited time from the journal website, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2012.690952

Many homes with poor energy efficiency are actually consuming far less energy than predicted, new research has found. 探花直播study has implications for national energy-saving policies and the economic viability of thermal retrofit programmes.

This challenges the prevailing view that large cuts in energy consumption can be achieved by focusing purely on technical solutions, such as retrofitting homes. In some cases, doing so may bring only half the expected savings, perhaps less.

Minna Sunikka-Blank

Wikimedia Commons.

Thermal image of two people standing outside a building. 探花直播study found that in many European countries, including the UK, predicted energy usage in homes bears little resemblance to the amount used in practice.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes