Retrofitting UK homes: 'Road test' of latest technology revealed

Construction experts at LJMU will brief industry and city leaders on a pioneering project to help make Britain’s homes greener, warmer and cheaper to run.
Testing work has begun at the School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment on what is thought to be the UK’s first one-stop shop for people looking to retrofit their homes
The university is working with construction products and solution provider wienerberger uk, which aims to provide evidence on how to upgrade thousands of homes.
The science behind the ground-breaking project will be presented to housing companies and associations and city-region officials at a forum in the city in the coming months.
wienerberger’s Head of Commercial Propositions Manuela Fazzan said: ‘’Over half of UK homes have an Environmental Performance Certificate rating of ‘D’ or lower, often requiring significant upgrades in insulation, heating, and energy efficiency.
“Yet most people find the task of retrofitting bewildering, so we have launched ‘Renatus’ – a series of packages offering holistic approaches to future-proofing your home.”
The top-range Renatus retrofit would bring a home to a top A performance, approximate to net zero.
LJMU is testing the Renatus packages in its ‘living lab’ test homes at the Byrom Street campus.
In a joint presentation to staff and students this week, wienerberger and the LJMU research team led by Dr Hu Du, senior lecturer in Building Services and Architectural Engineering, outlined the two-year project which will underpin the packages.
Retrofit packages include new roofs, membranes, piping, heating systems, solar panels, heat pumps and insulation.
LJMU’s laboratories allow the testing of retrofits on model homes from the 1920s, 1970s and 2010s.
Manuela added: “We want a data-driven approach to design so to be able to verify the impact of retrofit components using the latest research techniques is crucial to our success.”
Hu Du and his team will use sensors and modelling technologies to obtain data on temperature, humidity, light, noise, air pollutants and composition, energy usage and heat transmission through surfaces (UValue).
wienerberger UK & Ireland is dedicated to empowering the construction industry to create a sustainable future for generations to come. Delivering a comprehensive portfolio of innovative solutions for walls, roofs, heating, and water management, by uniting FloPlast, Pipelife, Maincor, Building Product Design, and wienerberger Ltd under one banner.
Professor Mike Riley, Director of the School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment at LJMU said: “The start of this project signals an exciting new, long-term partnership between wienerberger and LJMU
“With the current challenges facing an ageing UK housing stock, coupled with national targets for achieving improved energy efficiency, the construction industry needs to refocus its efforts on retrofit solutions which allow cost-effective improvements in energy performance and living standards.”
Dr Du added: “Once the retrofit is complete, they can be the R&D asset for understanding how new technologies and products perform in the real-life environment, such as reliability and durability and how people integrating with these technologies.”
Main image: LJMU's Test Houses: a 'Living Lab' for the Construction industry.
Homepage image: Shows variance in thermal image between homes built with construction technology of different eras.