22 - Materials for energy efficiency and thermal comfort in domestic buildings

Abstract

There are more than 22 million dwellings in the EU27 and approximately 8 million dwellings in USA and Canada that were built before 1919. A large proportion of these are likely to be of uninsulated solid wall construction. The UK has between 5.5 and 7.3 million solid wall dwellings. They are potentially responsible for almost 50% of the total CO2 emissions attributable to the UK housing stock with heat loss through the solid wall the primary cause of these emissions. Architectural vernacular barriers to the adoption of external wall insulation have perhaps been overstated as less than 25% of solid wall dwellings are in conservation zones in the UK. Technologies and systems based on conventional insulation materials have been available in the marketplace for the past three decades. The carbon payback for these systems is less than 2years but the economic payback computed using whole life cycle costing metrics is decades in length. Alternative legislative and policy approaches are needed to stimulate this marketplace as the achievement of national emission targets are unlikely if this technology is excluded as a consequence of perceived economic or socio-cultural barriers.