Request for Proposals - Optimising Thermal Efficiency of Existing Housing

13th October 2009

Optimising Thermal Efficiency of Existing Housing

Request for Proposals opens 13th October 2009

Deadline for notification of intention to submit a Proposal – 5pm 19th October 2009

Deadline for submitting a Proposal - 16:00 on 17th November 2009

Reducing the emissions from new and existing buildings is one of the key challenges for industry and Government in meeting urgent climate change targets. The total UK building stock consumes approximately 30% of the UK energy and this in turn accounts for 45% of the CO2 emissions generated. The main use for energy in the domestic sector is for space heating and hot water. This accounts for 82% (BRE 2006) of the domestic energy consumption, with the remainder being used for lighting, appliances and cooking.

The building stock falls generally into two overall categories:

Domestic Dwellings - This will rise to 32 million dwellings by 2050 from 26 million today. 21 million current dwellings will exist in 2050 and will require refurbishment.

Industrial - Includes commercial and retail buildings, the majority built before 1950. Given the nature of the current CO2 abatement policy which dictates an 80% reduction by 2050, the UK building stock is viewed as a key opportunity to help achieve this target. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has recommended that all existing houses should benefit from a whole house refurbishment by 2030.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is working on a strategic overview of the buildings sector and is currently developing a programme of activities for the next three years. This work will be in conjunction with key public sector bodies which include the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), CCC, Energy and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and the Carbon Trust, ensuring that the ETI contribution to the built environment will be complimentary and effective.

This project is to tackle the fundamental issues associated with the volume refurbishment of the existing housing stock and aims to:

• To increase the rate at which major energy efficiency conversions can be done at a whole house level, including hard-to-treat properties, at volume.


• To improve the quality and effectiveness of the intervention at reducing CO2


• To reduce the costs of the solutions and interventions and improve customer perceived value


• To avoid dependence on highly specialised skills to deploy the solutions because it is unlikely these can be realised in the timescales required


• To minimise the impact of the interventions on residents.

The largely desk-based project will achieve this through development of whole house models of refurbishment solutions which take account of both energy demand and supply side factors that impact the energy efficiency of a house. In conjunction with this, the project will also examine: the retrofit processes for those models, an assessment of the impact on building material supply chain, and an assessment of the impact on and views of householders. The project will also develop a national trends model to enable large scale planning for volume retrofit regionally and nationally.

The ETI is seeking proposals, each of which must address the complete scope of work, from either single organisations, consortium lead co-ordinators or prime contractors with sub contractors to supplement their capabilities.

This call is now closed. If you want to be kept up to date with future Requests for Proposals please subscribe to the ETI's RSS Feed on the ETI website homepage.