Scaling up efforts to retrofit energy-efficiency measures into the built environment

Kurzfassung

A London-based innovative architect with a long-standing interest in retrofitting energy-efficiency measures is looking for partners to join in a consortium on scaling up retrofit-efforts. The project aims to deliver a generalised method to optimise retrofit options for a delivery site, based on the local environment and regulation. Partners sought include architects, developers and academics with expertise in retrofit and/or large-scale acceptance of new technologies.

Details

Architects do not yet understand the ideal approach for mass-retrofit in a given geographical area. Mass-retrofit will need to take account of a variety of parameters and motives if it is to live up to the perceived expectation that it will deliver a programme where the cost per dwelling is much lower than for a piecemeal approach. At this time, the tools for understanding the interrelation between these parameters and motives are not at-hand and hence little progress is being made on this front.
Even with the advent of funding streams such as the Green Deal becoming available, coordinated approaches across an area are very difficult to justify. Some initiatives are ramping up but they are resolutely focussed on Solar PV until they have worked out how to deliver the other key measures. This project seeks to unlock the ability to steer mass-retrofit such that the most appropriate measures are applied in the most appropriate manner for given area, taking account of all the unique architectural and behavioural that exist in each property.

A public and private sector team will be sought to identify a geographical area in which a mixture of house types, incomes and tenures exists, to:

* Create a detailed database of the attributes of the properties in the area.
* Model the range of measures that are possible, their benefits against the cost of implementation.
* Carry out the above against a variety of possible delivery models seeking feedback from those that will be involved with delivery.
* Involve private sector funders to work back through the above analyses to understand the ideal retrofit costs that will attract private finance.
* Trial the idealised approaches in a range of public and private sector houses across a range of incomes and barriers to implementation.
* Use the houses as demonstrations to build future interest in the locality.

Technical Specifications / Specific technical requirements:
Partners sought include:
* developers of new technologies for energy-efficiency measures that can be retrofitted into the built environment;
* innovative architects with an interest in retrofitting such energy-efficiency measures;
* project developers with distinct and defined sites where the project can take place;
* academic researchers with expertise on retrofitting technologies, user behaviour with new technologies or economic and social drivers for large-scale acceptance of new technologies.