The staged retrofit of a solid wall property under
controlled conditions

Swan, W; Fitton, R; Gorse, C; Farmer, D; Benjaber, MAA

Abstract

Retrofit of hard to treat properties has been highlighted as a policy challenge to reduced energy consumption in
the UK. This study undertook an experimental staged retrofit of a pre-1919 UK solid wall property under
controlled conditions. The property is housed within an environmental chamber, where the conditions were held
at a constant 5ºC during the test to reflect UK average winter temperature, with all other boundary conditions
removed. The retrofit was undertaken using commercially available products and at each stage a number of tests
were conducted to evaluate the performance, with the results for the coheating tests and in situ U values being
reported here. The results show that the deep retrofit undertaken led to a 63% reduction of heat loss from the building, with the technical feasibility of staged retrofit clearly demonstrated from a heating energy efficiency
perspective. The calculation of cost savings suggests that a whole house deep retrofit may not be financially
feasible if supported only by energy savings. The use of controlled conditions did allow each stage to be
measured and compared in a way that has not been achieved in the field, allowing for effective comparison of
each stage previously only fully explored in models. There are limitations of the methodology driven by the lack
of boundary conditions, specifically around air movement and longer term performance issues, which are best
addressed in the field.

Citation

controlled conditions. Energy and Buildings, 156, 250-257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.09.033

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 13, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Sep 28, 2017
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 2, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 28, 2018
• Journal: Energy and Buildings
• Print ISSN: 0378-7788
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Volume: 156
• Pages: 250-257
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.09.033
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.09.033
• Related Public URLs: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy-and-buildings
• Additional Information: Projects : Saint Gobain Refurbishment;NA