Mohammadpourkarbasi, Haniyeh 
ORCID: 0000-0002-5397-295X, Riddle, Ben, Liu, Chenfei and Sharples, Steve ORCID: 0000-0002-6309-9672
(2023)
Life Cycle Carbon Assessment of Decarbonising UK’s Hard-to-Treat Homes: A Comparative Study of Conventional Retrofit vs EnerPHit, Heat Pump First vs Fabric First and Ecological vs Petrochemical Retrofit Approaches.
Energy and Buildings, 296.
p. 113353.
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Abstract
In order to achieve its 2050 net-zero emissions goal, the UK government must significantly improve the energy performance of millions of hard-to-treat homes through retrofitting. However, questions over the embodied carbon emissions of retrofit projects arise, specifically deep retrofits, when the embodied carbon emissions of the retrofit are compared to a shallow retrofit or demolition. This study evaluates the carbon footprints of various retrofit interventions by comparing the impact of a deep retrofit based on the Passivhaus retrofit standard (EnerPHit) to a shallow or conventional retrofit following UK building regulations. The research also assesses the whole-life carbon impact of a ‘heat-pump first’ compared to a ‘fabric-first’ approach using natural insulation materials versus standard petrochemical-derived insulation. Finally, the study presents the carbon avoidance achieved through retrofitting compared to the carbon emissions from demolition and building new homes. The findings reveal that retrofitting buildings can reduce operational carbon emissions by 59% to 94%. Conventional retrofit scenarios generate 37% fewer energy savings than the EnerPHit standard with petrochemical materials but only result in 1% less embodied carbon. Low carbon technologies, such as photovoltaic panels or heat pumps, increase the embodied carbon by 38% to 117% but did significantly decrease operational carbon emissions by 71% (photovoltaics) and 61% (heat pumps). Using natural materials in both deep and shallow retrofits can reduce total embodied carbon by 7% to 14%. The study also found that the embodied carbon of the brick and timber, saved as a result of the refurbishment, is much greater than the product stage embodied carbon of deep or shallow retrofits.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Life cycle carbon assessment, Deep retrofit, EnerPHit standard, Zero carbon, Biogenic carbon storage, Natural insulation materials, Heat pump |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of the Arts |
| Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Jul 2023 10:25 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Sep 2023 01:53 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.enbuild.2023.113353 |
| Related URLs: | |
| URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3171765 |
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