improving the existing building fabric and energy efficiency of terraced houses.

context: In the Energy White Paper (February, 2003) the government committed the UK to a 60% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. However it’s also thought that in 2050 70% of the houses being lived in have already been built today. Radical steps need to be taken to drastically improve or replace existing houses, particularly the harder to treat, most inefficient older houses.

This project takes a series of existing Adamsdown terraced houses and aims to improve the building fabric to current (2006) building regulation standards.

The project focuses on cost effective, available solutions. Namely,

1. Insulation and air tight-ness measures.
• Improving the walls to a reasonable U value, most often through internal insulation, adding insulation to roofs at ceiling level.
• Ensuring that houses have effective draught-proofing, particularly to rear doors and loft hatches.
• Replacement windows, using the lowest (best) U value available from a double glazed unit.
2. Replacing boilers and adding simple renewable technology such as solar water heating panels
3. Low energy light-bulbs, smart metering and encouragement to take note of electricity consumption.

The aim is to be able to take a typical Adamsdown terrace from a Band E to a Band C, genrally equitable with a CSH level 3. Furthermore that it is possible to comfortably live in an Adamsdown terrace at a recorded consumption <70 kWH / m² per annum. This is a quarter of average UK energy use.

Progress of the projects will be published. Research continues to find match funding to support the projects and extend its possibility