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ID: 180125

Homeowner low carbon retrofits: Implications for future UK policy / Bobrova, Yekatherina

Bobrova, Yekatherina	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

The promotion of low-carbon home retrofit among UK homeowners is widely recognised as an important strategy to reduce operational energy use in dwellings and mitigate climate change. The related predominant UK policy approach is to address various market failures and develop the market for low-carbon retrofit and innovation. The current low uptake rate of low-carbon home retrofit suggests that a complementary policy approach is necessary to increase it and support households in their change towards low-carbon living. This paper uses an innovation framework to analyse retrofit as an innovation-decision process of several stages. Low-carbon technology is conceptualised at three nested levels: product, design option and technological system. A multiple-case study approach is used to analyse eight home retrofit cases from the SuperHomes network, that achieved significant carbon emission reductions through retrofit activities. Case analysis shows that: (i) homeowners collect information for each technology level through different communication channels, which are not interchangeable; (ii) homeowners develop a certain capacity to transform their environmental concerns into substantial retrofit activities; (iii) the positive retrofit experience of homeowners is crucial to develop such capacity and to convince others to retrofit their homes. These findings have important implications for energy policy on retrofit uptake in UK to support household transition to low-carbon living.

Key Words

System ; Innovation ; Home Retrofit ; Low-Carbon ; Decision Process ; Socio-Technical

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ID: 183052

Process perspective on homeowner energy retrofits: a qualitative metasynthesis / Bobrova, Yekatherina

Bobrova, Yekatherina	Journal Article
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EU policy recognises the importance of encouraging low-carbon retrofit among homeowners to reduce operational energy use in dwellings and mitigate climate change. Building research and policy has traditionally focused on the identification of retrofit drivers and barriers, to strengthen the former and reduce the later. However valuable the static juxtaposition of drivers and barriers may be, it cannot capture their temporal dynamics during a retrofit process. Recent research emphasises repeatedly that retrofits should be understood as dynamic processes that unfold over extended periods of time. This paper presents a metasynthesis of qualitative case studies on energy retrofit in single-family owner-occupied dwellings. A process perspective is used to capture the dynamics between socio-technical aspects of the built environment that shape retrofit depth and energy use post-retrofit. Metasynthesis results show that: (i) prior homeowner knowledge about energy retrofit plays a significant role on the depth of a technological solution achieved during the retrofit; (ii) the actual energy use post-retrofit depends on the extent of owners’ involvement in the development of their retrofit design solutions. These findings have important implications for EU energy policy uptake in support of the household transition to low-carbon living.

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