Shall We Demolish 25million homes and replace them?

Shall we demolish all 25million homes in the UK and rebuild new energy efficient replacements??

Thought not, so we’re going to have to upgrade what we’ve got!

All our existing houses need to get onto the “Energy-Positive Ladder.” This is a series of moves to gradually and incrementally upgrade a house from the current energy consuming home to a futuristic home which produces more energy than used.

The steps for us all to follow in order of importance:

1. Insulate, Insulate, Insulate!

2. Block all drafts and get an MVHR system (Heat recovery)

3. With reduced heating demand, get an Electric heating system (Air Source Heat Pump etc)

4. PV panels and Battery storage, initially charging your electric car, then house.

There are lots of issues stopping us advance the Retrofit of our housing. These range from high up issues with national policy right down to the local skills, products and knowledge. Energy shortages and taxes on dirty energy are likely to be recurring issues in the next decade, so we will need to prepare our houses.

The major issues holding us back at the moment:

1. There is VAT payable on Refurbishment work but not New build (absolute madness that the government does not yet want to incentivise this move?) See the link which is a campaign to change this: https://lnkd.in/eQjJnVxV

2. More technical detail needs to be widely available for everyone online (It is currently gate-kept by some companies).

3. PAS2035 has great information, but it costs £2000 to access.

4. Only a few contractors have the skills (Leading to the added cost of getting an architect that does).

5. There is a huge demand on Retrofit at the moment, so items are taking months to arrive.

6. Homeowners are unaware of the benefits

Any other issues that were missed?

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