Low Energy Retrofit Research Articles

A persona-based approach to domestic energy retrofit

In order to improve the efficiency of the housing stock successfully, the offered technical solutions also need to meet occupants' needs and match their aspirations. Owner-occupiers present particular challenges: conflicting demands on their use of time and financial resources and their role as decision-makers for their own domestic renovation. A persona-driven study (based on user-centred design) was undertaken to explore the varying behaviours, attitudes and motivations towards home improvement for owner-occupiers who live in ‘hard to treat’ solid-walled dwellings. Five evidence-based personas are constructed that reflect archetypes, based on the outcomes of a qualitative study involving 33 owner-occupier householders in the East Midlands region of the UK. The adoption of a persona-based approach in response to the socio-technical challenges of energy renovation is important for understanding the specific drivers and appropriate range of policy responses for each persona. The persona development process is described and the success of the approach is evaluated in relation to the needs of policy developers, energy providers and product developers. Tailoring strategies to suit different personas will considerably enhance the diffusion of policy goals for low-energy retrofit and also allow business and technology developers to target an appropriate user.

Inspiring low-energy retrofits: the influence of ‘open home’ events

‘Eco open home’ events showcase environmentally sustainable home renovations and retrofits. The role of these events is explored for imparting motivation and accelerating behavioural change to the event visitors for undertaking their own low-energy retrofits. Drawing on a wide range of visitor survey datasets, these community-led and locally situated events are analyzed from a social learning perspective, focusing on the visitor experiences, and the role that open home events have as situated learning, embracing the power of storytelling. Using a ‘Many Sets of Data’ approach, data are examined from three years of Australia's largest eco open home event, and visitor survey and interview reports from seven different UK eco open home events, highlighting visitor characteristics and experiences, and post-visit levels of technology adoption and behaviour change. The research finds a consistent positive experience for attendees, most of whom are homeowners already engaged on their journey of eco-home renovation. The high degree of satisfaction from attending eco open home events, combined with the high rates of perceived learning, and the track record of post-event renovation action demonstrate that these events encourage and support engaged attendees to undertake low-energy renovations.

An Assessment of Low Energy Design Practices in Housing Retrofit Projects

The UK housing sector accounts for approximately 30% of total energy demand and accounts for 27% of carbon emissions. The uptake of low energy retrofit (LER) within the existing housing stock is piecemeal and currently not sufficient to achieve the 80% carbon reduction legally binding commitment by 2050 in the UK. Literature reveals that improving thermal insulation is the most preferred LER design approach in housing projects. Furthermore, there are no legislative requirements to drive architects to design in low energy housing retrofit strategies in their current projects. Therefore, this research engaged architects specializing in housing refurbishment through a questionnaire survey to investigate LER design challenges and enablers. Results indicate that high capital costs for micro- generation technologies; disparity in VAT between new build and refurbishment; and the complexity of the UK existing housing stock are the most considerable LER housing design challenges. On the other hand; a tax rebate for LER driven projects; removal of the VAT difference between new build and refurbishment; increased research to produce affordable low energy technologies; and increased government low carbon programs were identified as the key incentives to drive the LER housing agenda.

Natural conditioning for the national archive building. Studies for a low energy retrofit

The Argentine national archives, to be rehoused in a specially refurbished building, require strict air quality conditions to protect this valuable collection of documents. This paper presents the environmental requirements and the design concepts that were incorporated in the architectural project. The double skin with super insulation and high inertia achieves a notable reduction in the installed air-conditioning capacity and projected energy consumption as well as providing a high degree of natural protection in the case of a failure of the conventional energy supply. The paper emphasizes the importance of building design for low energy architecture.

Residential energy and demand patterns as related to weather and conservation measures

Electrical energy consumption and the peak electrical demand were measured at two similar public housing sites in Selma, North Carolina. One site, designated as Preston Street (PST), had low cost energy retrofit measures combined with education of the occupants on energy efficient life styles. The other site, Canady Courts (CC), was originally planned as a control site. Both sites are single-storey wood-frame with brick-veneer construction. The sites consisted of a combination of efficiency and 1,2,3, and 4-bedroom units. PST consisted of 30 units with a total floor area of 22,000 ft2 and CC had 26 units with a total floor area of 18,800 ft2. Originally CC was intended to be used to quantify the impact of the energy conservation project undertaken at PST. This approach proved inadequate, and consequently an alternate methodology was employed. This method used the measured historical energy at both CC and PST to develop a database that could be used to predict the energy use that would be expected to occur at either site. If there are no changes at the site, then the predicted and measured energy use should agree. When conservation measures are instituted, the difference between predicted and measured energy use is the energy saving (or increase) due to the conservation measures. The report gives a description of the methodology that was used to analyse the historical data and the results and accuracy that were obtained. In addition, the problems with using one site as a control, as originally planned, are described. The Section on results gives a comparison of the predicted and measured energy use at both CC and PST for the calendar year 1985. The last part of the report deals with the investigation of the demand profiles and demand at PST. This analysis indicates the nature of the demand profiles at PST and thus the types of conservation measures that are likely to be the most effective in reducing demand.