Predicting Energy Savings of the UK Housing Stock under a Step-by-Step Energy Retrofit Scenario towards Net-Zero

Abstract

The UK has one of the least energy-efficient housing stocks in Europe. By 2030, the emissions from UK homes need to fall by at least 24% from 1990 levels to meet the UK’s ambitious goal, which is reaching net-zero emissions. The originality of this paper is to apply the building typology approach to predict energy savings of the UK housing stock under a step-by-step energy retrofit scenario, targeting the Passive House Standard for refurbishments of existing buildings, namely the EnerPHit “Quality-Approved Energy Retrofit with Passive House Components.” The typologies consist of twenty reference buildings, representative of five construction ages and four building sizes. The energy balance of the UK residential buildings was created and validated against statistical data. A building stock retrofit plan specifying the order in which to apply energy efficiency measures was elaborated, and energy savings were calculated. The predicted total energy demand for the UK residential building stock for the year 2022 is 37.7 MTOE, and the carbon emissions estimation is 65.33 MtCO2e. The energy-saving potential is 87%, and carbon reductions are about 76%, considering all the steps of renovation applied. It has been demonstrated that the step that provides the biggest savings across the housing stock is the one that involves replacing windows, draught-proofing, and installing mechanical ventilation with heat recovery.

Increasing heat pump adoption: analysing multiple perspectives on preparing homes for heat pumps in the UK

“…Of the UK's 24 million homes, studies show approximately 50% have an Energy Performance Certificate ("EPC") rating of D 2 and 21% have a rating of E or worse [7]. Despite the energy efficiency of homes improving between 2001 and 2020, according to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (2021), the rate of energy efficiency improvements to homes has to increase seven-fold for the UK's housing stock to be EPC Band C or above by 2035 [40] -a vital task if energy use in homes is to be reduced and net zero achieved. This lack of progress is a concern because as Horne et al 41], Morrissey and Horne [42], Moore [43], Fuerst et al [35] reflect, the UK has one of the oldest housing stocks in Europe.…”

Evaluation of the Quality of the Housing Environment Using Multi-Criteria Analysis That Includes Energy Efficiency: A Review

“…Housing environments in which solutions that aim to reduce energy consumption are not included in the design and construction stage will be detrimental to the living conditions of residents [11]. Retrofitting buildings in order to improve energy efficiency, and the use of alternative renewable energy resources, will: (i) allow the cost of heating to be reduced; (ii) allow the cost of cooling to be reduced; (iii) allow thermal comfort in buildings to be improved [12]; and (iv) benefit the national energy saving demand strategy [12][13][14]. The authors of a research study on the motivations and barriers that investors face before improving the energy efficiency of retrofitted buildings identify factors that influence this, such as low direct benefits and long payback periods [15], postponing the decision to undertake construction work [16], and high initial investment costs [17].…”

Decarbonising suburbia: Homeowners’ perspectives on home retrofits and travel mode shift in Perth, Scotland

“…The UK has the oldest and (thus) one of the least energyefficient housing stocks in Europe (Bennadji et al, 2022;Paddington et al, 2020), a key causal factor of UK homes being responsible for 16% of UK GHGs (UKGBC, 2022). Researchers have examined the impact of UK policies, such as the Green Deal, on retrofitting.…”