Login (DCU Staff Only)
Login (DCU Staff Only)

DORAS | DCU Research Repository

Explore open access research and scholarly works from DCU

Advanced Search

Home energy retrofit: Reviewing its depth, scale of delivery, and sustainability

Saffari, Mohammad orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-3583-6484 and Beagon, Paul (2022) Home energy retrofit: Reviewing its depth, scale of delivery, and sustainability. Energy and Buildings, 269 . ISSN 1872-6178

Abstract
Home energy retrofit has been a publicly-funded policy in many countries since the 1990s. Government motivations have spanned from combating energy poverty to climate action and sustainability. Given the ambition of public policy, this paper reviews the targets, spatial scales and metrics used to deliver and evaluate home energy retrofit. Large-scale retrofit projects do differ: by spatial area, by retrofit depth and in evaluation metrics (if used). This review surveys first, the quantities of homes and inhabitants in intermediate spatial scales used to plan retrofit programmes. Second, the optimal spatial scale and retrofit depth to deliver largescale home retrofit. Third, the quantitative metrics to evaluate retrofits, and future trends in occupantbased metrics. Neighbourhood is found to be the optimal spatial scale for home energy retrofit. Deep retrofit is described as 60% energy savings that, in synergy with energy supply decarbonisation, promises to deliver 80% or higher emission reductions. Recent evidence shows a shifting primacy from fabric-first retrofit to decarbonisation of heat generation and occupant health and well-being.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Home energy retrofit; Residential energy use; Urban spatial scale Home energy upgrade; Neighbourhoods; Districts; Sustainability
Subjects:Engineering > Environmental engineering
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Engineering and Computing
DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Engineering and Computing > School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
Publisher:Elsevier BV
Official URL:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/...
Copyright Information:Authors
ID Code:32480
Deposited On:31 Mar 2026 14:48 by Vidatum Academic . Last Modified 31 Mar 2026 14:48
Documents

Full text available as:

[thumbnail of home_retrofit_paul.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
1MB
Metrics

Altmetric Badge

Dimensions Badge

Downloads

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Archive Staff Only: edit this record