Considerations
- Older Properties 1900's
- No cavity walls.
- Minimal insulation
- Mid 1920's
- Cavity walls common
- Loft insulation improving.
- Late 1900's
- Cavity wall insulation common
- Insulated floor common
- Further improvements to loft insulation
- Double glazing common.
REDUCE
Older properties are likely to benefit most from improvements in insulation but not all are suitable for quick remedial actions. The most common actions are reducing heat loss by adding insulation to lofts and walls.
Older properties from the early 1900's often lacked cavity walls thus wall insulation is more difficult in such cases. Lining the walls with insulating materials is feasible but time consuming and disruptive.
Energy efficient equipment can be retrofitted to most properties but is likely to be considered only when existing heating plant needs replacing. However, there are some simple measure that can be adopted easily.
Fuel switching to less polluting energy sources has dominated UK government thinking and resulted in the collapse of the UK coal industry in favour of gas and oil. We have now reached a point where the true challenge of fuel switching is to low carbon or carbon neutral energy sources. Unfortunately these represent a tiny percentage of available energy supplies at the present time so claims to offer a switch to greener energy supplies for the majority of consumers, are mostly hype.
However, in the future, as more greener energy technologies are deployed, true fuel switching may become a reality. Lobbying for change is an essential part of this trend. Carbon offsetting is a stop-gap and unlikely to be a long term solution because it is facilitating a business as usual mentality that runs counter to the challenge of sustainability and is also encouraging tree planting developments in regions that are unlikely to sustain these developments in the face of global climate change.
REUSE AND RECYCLE
Heat recovery is a much underused in residential buildings but is increasingly standard in industrial buildings and new office spaces. Retrofitting such technology is expensive and as a precursor, requires that the building has already been insulated to a high standard to reduce unnecessary heat losses.
The use of ground source heat pumps is gaining in popularity since for every unit of energy the heat pump consumes, approximately three more units of energy are extracted from the ground.
When electricity is generated from fossil fuels, a significant proportion of the chemical energy is converted into heat rather than electricity. Conventional electricity generation in the UK simply releases this heat into the environment, wasting large proportions of fossil fuel energy (about 60% for coal fired stations and 50% for gas fired stations). Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generation aims to convert fossil fuel energy into heat and electricity, but needs an application for the heat. Some CHP units are small enough to fit into individual buildings, but for maximum efficiency a large CHP unit is required. A district heating system transports centrally generated heat to buildings via water or steam carried in underground pipes.
District heating is unusual in the UK, but common in many European countries, especially Denmark. There is much uncertainty about the viability of district heating in the UK, and this in part is due to uncertainty about whether buildings will choose to connect to the system. So find out more about District Heating, and if you think it sounds like a good idea, write to your local council telling them you would be interested in a scheme. | 
