Achieving whole life energy efficiency

Every day we are faced with a different news story about energy targets, government policies, funding and new legislation, which includes: The Energy Act;¹ the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme;² Building Regulations, Part L;³ and the Energy Related Products Directive (ErP).⁴ Ultimately these initiatives are all working towards common goals, which are to lower energy consumption, to reduce carbon emissions and to encourage the use of high efficiency or renewable technologies.

The UK Government signed up to the 2008 Climate Change Act,⁵ making a commitment to cut Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent (from 1990 baseline) by 2050. The first carbon budget (2008-2012) was met and by 2014 emissions were 520 MtCO2e, 36 per cent below 1990 levels. Emissions over the five years of the fourth carbon budget (2023-2027) are capped at 1,950 MtCO2e, equivalent to an average 52 per cent below 1990 levels. To date, energy efficiency has been the big contributor to improvements in buildings and transport, as well as a shift towards lowering carbon fuels in electricity generation. However, the UK is struggling to meet the fourth carbon budget. So, although these trends will continue to be important, alone they will not be enough to reach the 2050 target.

To meet the next carbon budget, progress needs to be made in some more challenging areas to further reduce carbon emissions and stay on track. In order to help the UK achieve these targets and reduce carbon emissions, informed decisions need to be made. With commercial sector buildings being responsible for 10 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, we need to take stock of what heating and hot water equipment is currently being used in buildings across the UK and look at ways in which this can be improved.