Do you have an older home? Looking to improve its energy usage, or just looking to maintain it? It may be time for additions, adjustments, repairs, or renovations, especially if you would like to ensure your home or rental property does not waste energy as it ages.
But how can you know what work your property will need? It’s likely you’ll need to have a retrofit assessment done in your dwelling to know what type of home improvement projects to pursue.
Continue reading to learn more about retrofitting, decide whether it’s right for you, and schedule an assessment for your own property so that you may plan a retrofitting that will improve its energy efficiency and your quality of life for years to come.
What are Residential Retrofits?
Residential Retrofits are projects that aim to improve a property’s energy efficiency overall condition or longevity. They can include renovations such as improving ventilation, heating systems, or other technologies used in the home.
To retrofit your house or apartment, you’ll need a Retrofit Assessment carried out by professional and certified Retrofit Assessors, who can also help you determine how to make a property more energy efficient. This assessment will show you how energy is used in your home, and how you can best improve it for future use.
Retrofit Assessments in Your Area
A retrofit assessment for your home includes several key procedures that focus on different aspects of a dwelling’s energy usage. Several days after the assessment, you will be presented with a comprehensive report that has information on the results of the following tests:
- An Occupancy Assessment: An evaluation of energy bills collected over the previous year to determine how much energy the property consumes for basic utilities, such as heating and lighting.
- An Energy Assessment: The assessors will examine how energy efficient your property is based on the quality of its insulation, light and heating systems, and other appliances.
- A Condition Survey: While not a full structural survey, this kind of assessment will identify a property’s major structural issues that should be addressed by a residential retrofit, if there are any.
The results of these Retrofit Assessments will be given to a Retrofit Coordinator, if complying with the PAS2035 framework, to develop a plan to improve the home’s energy usage over the coming 20-30 years. Such results also can help you to determine your own plan of action for the property depending on your own needs.
Retrofit Assessments can take several hours, so be sure to keep as much of the day you’ve planned for the appointment as free as possible. To ensure the visit to your property goes as smoothly as possible, be sure to ask your assessors in advance if there are any utility bills or other property-related documents that they would like to inspect so that you can have them ready.
About the PAS2035 framework
The PAS 2035 Framework, established in 2019, is meant to help the UK lower its overall energy usage levels while also ensuring individuals are not needlessly wasting energy in their personal homes and properties. This new retrofitting framework is meant to ensure the residential assessments provide recommendations to property and homeowners that can apply to the entire property, otherwise known as the ‘whole building’ approach. This is why the current retrofitting assessment includes occupancy, energy, and condition-based components alike.
To incentivize people to retrofit their homes in the coming decades according to the new framework, the government is offering a number of grants so that such renovations may be completed with the little-to-no cost for the property owner. The framework is now being applied to new retrofitting assessments and projects: if your project follows these new PAS2035 guidelines, you may be eligible to apply for a government grant!
Read more about the framework from The British Standards Institution, and speak with assessors in your area to determine whether following the framework while renovating your home is best for you. Because the framework is new, it is recommended, but not required, for privately owned homes and properties. It is mandatory, however, for all publicly funded projects that include or require retrofitting.
Retrofit Assessments Costs
Assessment costs can vary due to location and the state and size of your own property, so it’s worth asking a professional for a quote beforehand. To do so, you can find quotes and more information about pricing for professional retrofit assessments on myconstructor.co.uk, where you can contact professional retrofit assessors directly. This way, it’s easy to compare prices and hire a professional team right for you and your home.
When you pay for Retrofit Assessments, you pay for an expert’s education, training, and time.
Ultimately, this means you can expect to pay between £100 to £200 for a mid-range property assessment. If you’re looking to hire a Retrofit Coordinator to continue the residential retrofitting process, moreover, be sure to anticipate costs related to their expertise and time as well.
Can Retrofit Assessments Energy Reports Serve as an Energy Performance Certificate?
While a Retrofit Assessment’s Energy Report can serve to help you better understand how to make your property more energy-efficient, it is not a sufficient replacement for an Energy Performance Certificate or EPC Certificate.
If you plan to buy, sell, or rent out your property, you will still need to go through the process of obtaining an EPC Certificate according to UK law. Check the Domestic EPC Register to see if your property still has a valid one.
Find a Certified Professional to Carry Out Retrofit Assessments in Your Home Today!
Residential retrofitting is an investment in your living space that takes time, money, and professional know-how. It’s important, therefore, to hire a professional team of retrofit assessors that you can trust to ensure the work goes as smoothly as possible. The good news is that booking hours and payment methods for retrofit assessments are often flexible and that there are many ways you can go about retrofitting your home at a reasonable cost.
Be sure to read professional reviews of assessors in your area and ask family, friends, and colleagues for their own recommendations before hiring a team to complete either the assessment or the retrofitting work you need to be done. Websites like My Constructor have contacts with hundreds of professionals around the United Kingdom who can carry out retrofit assessments on your property at a great price! On My Constructor’s website, you can read or leave detailed reviews of professionals in your city or town: this way, you can rest assured you are hiring someone you can trust, for any job.
Retrofitting may sound intimidating, but the work can be made easy and exciting with the help from the right people. Don’t wait: call a professional and receive a quote at a great price today!
