This document discusses the history and future of building retrofit policy and standards in the UK. It outlines several past retrofit programs, including Retrofit for the Future, The Green Deal, and Energy Company Obligation, which faced issues like high costs and lack of consumer incentives. Current efforts include the Publicly Available Specification 2030 installer standard, Retrofit Academy training, and the Each Home Counts review. The document calls for a framework of retrofit standards to improve building performance while avoiding unintended consequences. Finally, it notes that retrofitting all UK buildings to zero carbon by 2050 will require retrofitting over 750,000 homes per year.

1. Retrofit in the UK
Learning Lessons and Driving Policy
Dr Peter Rickaby
Director, Rickaby Thompson Associates Ltd
Member, Each Home Counts Implementation Board
Chair, BSI Retrofit Standards Task Group

2. UK Retrofit Milestones
• Retrofit for the Future
• TSB | IUK £17m social housing retrofit programme
• 86 monitored projects: deep retrofit to 17 kgCO2/m2/yr
• The Green Deal
• PAYS retrofit funding programme
• Failed due to lack of consumer incentive and high cost
• Energy Company Obligation (ECO)
• Ongoing incremental retrofit funded by energy suppliers
• Dogged by poor standards and some technical disasters!
• Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance research
• Protecting heritage buildings during retrofit
• Moisture management, online Guidance Wheel
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3. UK Retrofit Milestones
• Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2030
• Installer specification for retrofit
• First edition (2012) “unfit for purpose”
• New edition (2017) draws on NSAI SR 54
• CoRE | Retrofit Academy
• Retrofit Coordinator training (200 graduates)
• RE:NEW
• EIB funded London retrofit support programme
• Retrofit risk management tools
• Each Home Counts (Bonfield) review
• Review completed 2016
• Industry-led implementation 2017-2020
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4. STBA Guidance Wheel
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5. RE:NEW Retrofit Risk Management
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START
TRIAGE
MATRIX
DETAILED
ASSESSMENT
IN-HOUSE
EXPERTISE?
high risk
PROCESS
TOOLS
WATCH
POINTS
FACT
SHEETS
REFERENCES
STBA
GUIDANCE
WHEEL
low risk
yes
RISK
WORKSHOPS
DETAIL
AUDITS
MONITORING
AND
EVALUATION
RETROFIT
COORDINATOR
SUPPORT
OPTIONS
no

6. PAS 2030: 2017
What’s new?
• Requirement for designs
• Scope of designs defined in the PAS
• Installer may not proceed without a compliant design
• Focus on corners, junctions, edges and interfaces
• Construction details required
• Thermal bridges must be minimised
• Measures Interaction Matrix
• Ventilation
• No insulation without ventilation!
• Existing ventilation must be upgraded if air-tightness is
improved by insulation or there is evidence of poor IAQ
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7. Measures Interaction Matrix
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8. Rickaby Thompson Associates Ltd 8
Twenty-seven recommendations
• Consumer protection
• Advice and guidance
• Quality and standards
• Skills and Training
• Compliance and Enforcement
• Insulation and building fabric
• Smart meters
• Home energy technologies

9. Each Home Counts: Implementation
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Whole-House
Assessment
Design
Installation
Commissioning
Handover
Retrofit Code
of Conduct
(behaviour)
Retrofit Code
of Practice
(technical standards)
Quality Mark
(mandatory for publicly
funded retrofit)
Guidance
Training
Data
Warehouse
(records of all retrofit)
QA Scheme -
Enforcement
Monitoring and
Evaluation
Standards Advice, skills, training Retrofit Process Quality Assurance
Feedback
Information
and Advice Hub
Retrofit
Consumer
Charter

10. BSI Retrofit Standards Task Group
• Develop a framework of retrofit standards
• Improve functionality and durability of buildings
• Improve the comfort and well-being of occupants
• Improve energy efficiency
• Reduce environmental impact
• Protect and enhance architectural heritage
• Minimise the ‘performance gap’
• Avoid unintended consequences of retrofit
• Focus
• Technical characteristics of retrofit
• Processes that are used to plan and carry out retrofit
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11. Scope
• Assessment of buildings for retrofit
• Improving insulation and air tightness
• Improving building fabric performance and resilience
• Establishing safe dynamic moisture equilibria in buildings
• Providing or upgrading ventilation and ensuring good IAQ
• Minimising overheating risk and cooling demand
• Providing efficient and responsive services (heating, DHW, lighting)
• Providing locally generated renewable heat and power
• Providing on-site energy storage
• Installing ‘smart’ metering and monitoring to promote efficiency
• Commissioning and handover of retrofit measures
• Advising occupants on efficient and appropriate use of retrofitted buildings
• Monitoring and evaluation of retrofit, and feed-back
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12. Principles
Focus
• Standards should focus on materials, workmanship and
processes rather than installer competence
• Compliance of work should be certifiable
Accessibility
• Standards should be accessible to the whole industry,
including small installers and their customers
• Publication should be online and inexpensive (or free)
Guidance
• Standards should be combined with guidance
• See for example Irish NSAI SR54: 2014
• Clickable online expert commentary
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13. BSI Code of Practice for Retrofit of Buildings
Possibly partially modelled on Irish retrofit CoP NSAI SR 54: 2014
Existing BSI Standards
New BSI Standards
(including assessment,
design, moisture and
ventilation)
Other Standards
MCS, BBA, etc.
BSI PAS 2030: 2017
Each Home Counts
(Bonfield Review)
BSI Retrofit Standards
Task Group
VISION and RESEARCH
(gap analysis, etc.)
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Where Next?
All of the UK Government’s national
green-house gas emissions models
show that to meet our national
emissions reduction targets the carbon
dioxide emissions associated with
energy use in buildings need to be
reduced to zero by 2050

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All UK Buildings Zero Carbon by 2050?
27 million homes
2 million non-domestic buildings
25 million domestic retrofits in 32 years
= 781,250 homes per year
(3-4 times the size of the UK new-build programme)
= 1.5 retrofits per minute
25 million homes @ £25,000 (average)
= £625 billion programme over 32 years
(But no sign of Government policy yet)

16. Retrofit in the UK
Learning Lessons and Driving Policy
Dr Peter Rickaby
peter.rickaby@rickabythompson.com
www.rickabythompson.com