Low carbon residential retrofit

Project details

Full project title: Low carbon residential retrofit: considering the resident as well as the carbon project

Duration: 1 November 2024-present

Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Project lead: Dr Freya Wise (Principal Investigator)

Partner: Lake District National Park Authority

Project summary

Energy used in and to construct buildings accounts for around 37% of global carbon emissions. In the UK and Europe, there is little new construction so we must focus on reducing carbon emissions from existing buildings through retrofit. This requires a massive acceleration and upscaling of retrofit across the building stock but must also ensure that retrofitting activities account for embodied carbon and minimise performance gaps so that they lead to real whole life carbon savings. These activities must also be acceptable to homeowners if they are to be enacted, and must work appropriately with varied user behaviours, requiring a holistic approach to carbon reduction.

This project takes an interdisciplinary approach considering technical aspects of energy and whole life retrofit performance in residential buildings and the views, values and behaviours of the people who live in them. It expands previous PhD research by Dr Wise in three areas:

1. considering the impact of future climate scenarios on the performance of different retrofit measures for heritage buildings through building simulations
2. exploring the lifecycle financial costs of different retrofit measures
3. comparing residents comfort perceptions in modern sustainable buildings and heritage homes. It also includes large components of research dissemination and impact activities, such working on area specific retrofit guidance for traditional buildings in the Lake District National Park, sharing findings with different audiences and engaging with policymakers and other stakeholders.