It is estimated that solid wall traditional buildings are some 6 million and make up 23% of the UK housing stock. Appropriate improvements to the energy performance of these will form an important element to increasing energy efficiency and sustainability.

Currently much refurbishment practice is predicted on modeled assumptions of building performance. However, how appropriate are these assumptions with regard to older, solid wall properties that make up much of our historic building stock?

Using measured data gathered from a variety of historic building refurbishment projects, this seminar will look at performance both before and after refurbishment. We will utilize information drawn from real, not modeled, performance as a means to judge both the risks and opportunities associated with retrofitting older buildings to improve their energy efficiency.
Speaker: Dr Caroline Rye works as a researcher and consultant specialising in building performance and older buildings. Alongside Cameron Scott she leads ArchiMetrics Ltd a small company established to improve our understanding of performance through the measurement of real buildings. As well as undertaking practical monitoring projects she is the author of a number of research reports including the Responsible Retrofit report for the STBA on behalf of DECC. She is lead researcher on the SPAB's Energy Efficiency research project, Technical Director of the STBA and is part of the Complex Built Environment Systems group (CBES) at University College London.