STBA to test Whole House retrofitting

Three year project for social housing in Wales

The Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance (STBA) has announced a three-year project to test out the Whole House approach to retrofit, pioneered by the STBA and endorsed by Each Home Counts. This is being carried out under the Government’s Building Thermal Efficiency Innovation.

Based on 30-40 properties owned by social housing provider Melin Homes in South Wales, the STBA will commence with detailed surveys of each house - including context and condition - before generating a bespoke programme of measures with detailed designs. These will address health and heritage in addition to energy use. The properties will be monitored for 12 months post retrofit, to check that the measures are working as intended and to ensure adequate indoor air quality.

Surveyor training will be developed alongside survey templates and training for installers. Following further testing with the National Trust and RetrofitWorks, the process and supporting methodology will be released as a toolkit for industry use across the UK.