Energy efficiency and renewable materials
Energy efficiency and renewable materials
To achieve 2050 green housing objectives, a Government adviser warns that UK requires 12,500 retrofits weekly.A big three million pound research project is going to focus on the task of refurbishing 12,500 homes weekly for the next 40 years. This is for the purpose of determining whether Britain’s cold and draughty houses could be improved by large scale produced building technologies. The research project will focus on the best way to start a nationwide green business program and is being supported by Energy Technology Institute (ETI) and consortium of businesses (e.g. building consultancy BRE, EDF energy firm, Peabody-Energy and property firm etc).
Based on Government figures, most of the UK’s 26 million homes will be still in use in 2050 which means that there is a need for large scale home energy efficiency improvement on the housing stock. If this is done then there is a possibility that the country can achieve its goal of curtailing carbon emissions by 80% by mid century.
The chief construction adviser at the Dept for Business, Innovation & Skills, Paul Morrel said the challenge of retrofitting 26 million homes for energy efficiency could easily be intimidating, because that would mean 12,500 homes weekly. He added the project is large scale and is being attempted for the first time. The projects hopes to address that challenge by conducting research on whether large scale production/customization on new building technologies could be used to reduce the costs of retrofitting and energy efficiency improvements, which could attract homeowners.
A spokesman from ETI said the objective is to determine whether the mass customization of vehicles that occurred in the auto industry could be applicable to the building industry. Practically the two year research project will develop a modeling system, where building firms can try ‘what if’ situations for different UK house types. This will help them determine on the best way to improve a building’s energy efficiency.
The spokesman further explained, that the project team will analyze what approach could work, particularly areas common to all homes where mass production is feasible. Common areas like window, roof, and house fittings. CEO of ETI, Dr David Clarke said also the project would analyze on the need for evolving by the building industry supply, to meet the required mass roll out of energy efficiency retrofitting. Green makeovers are becoming an important part of the push for energy efficiency in the UK this year.
