need to know
The importance of retrofitting older buildings
The government has set out to improve the energy performance of all new homes with a set of rules known as the Future Homes Standard to ensure properties are highly energy efficient and use low carbon heating by 2025. But there’s a danger in pursuing these rigorous standards that our existing housing stock gets left behind.
Updates to Building Regulations as of June 2022 require all new build homes to produce at least 31% fewer carbon emissions. They must also meet new minimum efficiency standards for walls, windows and doors, as well as feature measures to prevent overheating. These requirements will likely see the emergence of more and more new homes built to standards such as Passivhaus. This is a set of design criteria that follow a fabric-first approach to make an ultra-energy-efficient building that requires little space heating or cooling, in turn, reducing their overall energy consumption, and therefore, energy bills.