The 'cold truth' - UK homes and offices lost GBP1.2 billion of extra heat this winter - 21 January 2010
Cost and project management consultancy, Faithful+Gould, has estimated that the UK’s two million offices and 26 million homes leaked an additional GBP1.2 billion worth of heat over the past two weeks compared to a normal winter.
Ellie Horwitch-Smith, an energy management expert with Faithful+Gould, part of the Atkins engineering design group, said: “As outside temperatures fall, the cold truth is that already inefficient buildings perform increasingly badly as heating systems struggle to maintain the indoor temperatures demanded of them. Heat is simply lost at a greater rate if the temperature drops. While the GBP1.2 billion worth of additional lost heat may be a shocking figure it is a very conservative estimate.”
The Faithful+Gould team was made up of experts in carbon management and energy engineering. They looked at the amount of extra energy required to maintain a typical home at 20 degrees celcius as the outside temperature dropped over the worst two weeks of the winter so far. The team assumed an average outside temperature of minus two degrees celcius for this period.
It was found that the residents of an average poorly-insulated three bed semi-detached house would have spent an extra GBP37 keeping their house warm over the fortnight. If all UK homes used the same amount of additional energy as the average, this would mean a total additional spend of GBP962 million. A heat efficient house would also have seen higher bills but that extra cost would have been reduced to around GBP23. Therefore, the UK as a nation of home-owners could have saved around GBP364 million by bringing dwellings up to better performance standards.
The calculation for the UK’s two million offices assumed a higher outside temperature of five degrees celcius as most offices are in built up areas and benefit from a ‘heat island’ effect. A two degree celcius exceptional drop in temperature would have used an extra GBP284 million of energy to keep inside temperatures at 20 degrees celcius over the same two weeks, based on an average 1500 sq metres office building. However the team also estimated that a particularly poorly insulated office could have cost an extra GBP149 to heat over that same period.
According to Ellie Horwitch-Smith: "The answer may be to retrofit insulation, or even think more carefully about the characteristics of a building at the design stage, but whatever home-owners or businesses do investing in heat-proofing can rapidly cut their energy costs.
"There is a particular opportunity in the commercial sector this year with the introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency scheme in April. This will force owners or occupiers of large buildings or portfolios to improve energy performance or incur greater compliance costs. “
Some companies are turning to technology to help, with systems such as ArT (Atkins Remote Technology) that monitors energy use across estates. Assessments show that clients have cut spending by up a third and the system has paid for itself in two years.
The work by Faithful+Gould underlines the urgency of making the UK’s domestic and commercial stock more heat-efficient and comes in the week after the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) unveiled its Act on CO2 – Insulate Your Home campaign.
Faithful+Gould’s carbon management team advises major housing associations, local authorities and private property owners on making their buildings more energy efficient. It also provides independent energy performance certification (EPCs) and Display Energy Certificates (DECs) for the commercial sector and works with the Carbon Trust helping businesses become more energy efficient.
Atkins is a leading signatory of the 10:10 campaign which is aimed at getting businesses, public bodies and individuals to cut their carbon footprint by 10 percent this year.
Media Contact:
Andy Winstanley
Atkins, Head of media relations
+44 (0)1372 752018 / +44 (0)7803 259643
andy.winstanley@atkinsglobal.com
Notes to editors:
Faithful+Gould is a member of the Atkins Group of companies. It is one of the world’s largest project and cost management consultancies. Faithful+Gould employs over 2,000 staff with a turnover in excess of GBP160 million and has an expanding office base worldwide. Visit www.fgould.com for more information.
Recent Faithful+Gould / Atkins projects include:
- Nokia Flagship Store Sustainability Strategy
- Working with the Carbon Trust to re-launch their design advice service
- Lead consultant for a West Midlands Regional Assembly report on Low Carbon Housing – developing a baseline for refurbishment in the West Midlands
- Acting as strategic advisors to the UK Government’s Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) on the cost of sustainability in schools
- Major infrastructure works, such as the design and programme management of the civil works for the Dubai Metro red and green lines;
- High profile transport planning and urban design – our innovative scheme to deliver a diagonal crossing at London’s Oxford Circus has helped tackle the problem of pedestrian crowding;
- Key rail projects – providing architectural and engineering design services on London’s Crossrail, Europe’s biggest civil engineering project, and designing stations, tunnelling and track systems on Gautrain, South Africa’s first high speed line.
Atkins was named among the 20 Best Big Companies to Work For 2009 by The Sunday Times; The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2009; and The Times Top 50 Companies Where Women Want to Work 2009. The company was construction and civil engineering sector winner for the fourth consecutive year in the Target National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2009.
Atkins is the official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.