ABSTRACT

This chapter pays attention to the retrofit and renovation of existing housing. The need to urgently attend to retrofitting housing is well established. Modelling shows it can be done cost-effectively, in most cases, by ubiquitous and reliable technologies such as installing insulation, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, double-glazing and more efficient appliances. Retrofit is heterogeneous, geographically, demographically and typologically. Initiatives that engage at a social level are indicated by significant recall amongst householders, where programmes become part of social life. The Green Deal, lending money for energy saving home improvements, was promoted as a means of financial saving and was problematic from the outset, not least because it narrowed the field of benefits in the eyes of potential participants. Households are drivers of home improvement activity, yet largely missing from the policy making picture. Errors can reveal unintended, yet important, new insights.