Anyone interested in #retrofit should watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTyXi4VOKxY
So much knowledge and no nonsense. Covers: infiltration vs ventilation. Breathability != air tightness. Air permeability vs ACH. Old houses don’t necessarily have poor air tightness (wet plaster vs dot&dab).
Spent most of the day looking at photos which suggest retrofit designers have little idea of the practicalities of installing internal wall insulation into social housing properties…
- Fitted wall to wall wardrobes
- Ornate coving and cornicing
- Wallpaper
- Skirting boards with beading that perfectly match wooden floorboards
- Radiators on external walls
The idea that tenants will let you strip away all of this and put it back together on a shoestring is for the birds.
@marjolica A lot of the problem is also that few installers understand that much of the county's housing stock deals with moisture differently to new builds. Historic England has good advice on retrofiting older buildings.
#Retrofit #EnergyEfficiency #Insulation
I’m all for getting private landlords to increase the the EPC rating of their properties to a ‘C’…that’s where we were supposed to be by 2025, but the #Tories never legislated for it.
Despite the puff of their press release, this is just another #Labour consultation with an ambition to achieve it by 2030.
Less talk, more action needed.
Currently exploring opportunities within the field of domestic #retrofit and #sustainability within #Norfolk and #Suffolk. Would consider remote working as well.
If you are aware of potential project coordinator/administrator roles coming up in these fields please let me know.
Have experience from local council, housing association, private installer and activist perspective.
Particular area of interest and knowledge: retrofit in social housing and low income households.
Please boost!
Public Housing - Everybody’s Business rallies on Thursday 6th, 13th, 20th & 27th February from midday - 1:00pm on the steps of Parliament House.
Followed by lunch at: Paramount Food Hall - 101 Little Bourke St, Melbourne
Loco Home Retrofit is hiring for 3 roles in or near Glasgow: Marketing and community engagement, Technical leadership (retrofit), Innovation Programme Manager. These are senior roles and this is a good company to work for (I am on the board HR committee and the employee handbook is good). Astonishingly competently run. It has real values that it is really accountable to and is a coop owned by its workers and customers. https://locohome.coop/vacancies/ #Job #ClimateCrisis #Retrofit #Glasgow #LocoHome
Really pleased with @Chris_Carus explanation of all the interesting and innovative things that Loco Home Retrofit is doing on this podcast: https://zeroambitions.transistor.fm/170 (warning some fruity language from the hosts, Chris is professional though). Also we are hiring. #ClimateCrisis #HomeRetrofit #Retrofit #Glasgow
But working in #retrofit in social housing, I have one massive bugbear about how those in power judge those whose homes are damp.
Postwar social housing was meanly and poorly built in cities. If you live in a cramped flat, with no outdoor space or very little on low income, how are you expected to dry your clothes outdoors?
Dehumidifiers are great if you can afford one. Going to the laundrette is fine if you have time and one nearby - they are few and far between even in my city.
I spend about a third of my day typically talking about #ventilation. It’s the least sexy part of #retrofit, but it’s vital if you increase insulation.
I got into this industry because I care about carbon emissions, lowering fuel bills…but also I hate what mould and damp does to people’s homes and lungs.
Condensation sounds less scary than black mould…but that’s what this article is really about preventing!
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jan/28/how-to-reduce-condensation-in-your-home
Ain’t gonna be an architect but I do have an #mvhr plan. Boxing in ducts in the corner of front/rear and party walls seem to be my easiest option.
I believe we need a civil service, but what Bingham says about BEIS rings very true in my experience of it from a completely different field of #retrofit, for which it also had responsibility.
How do we get the civil service we actually need?
This is an important question because it really matters at times of crisis…and climate breakdown is just as bigger crisis as #Covid, if not more so.
Pico Pal Puts RP2350 Into Game Boy Color Shell - While modern gaming systems deliver ever more realistic experiences, there’s still... - https://hackaday.com/2025/01/03/pico-pal-puts-rp2350-into-game-boy-color-shell/ #microcontrollers #handheldshacks #nintendohacks #gameboycolor #retrofit #rp2350 #gbc
Pico Pal Puts RP2350 Into Game Boy Color Shell https://hackaday.com/2025/01/03/pico-pal-puts-rp2350-into-game-boy-color-shell/ #Microcontrollers #handheldshacks #NintendoHacks #gameboycolor #retrofit #rp2350 #GBC
Alexandra Rd Estate, #Camden #retrofit dilemma:
- Brutalist architecture
- Social housing
- Communal heating
- How to maintain?
Residents want to maintain integrity of original design. The homes are Grade II listed, iconic, used in numerous films. Also they don’t suffer from damp/mould and have flat rate billing.
But the council thinks the heating is costly and difficult to maintain.
Holiday Jukebox Gets ESP32, Home Assistant Support https://hackaday.com/2024/12/24/holiday-jukebox-gets-esp32-home-assistant-support/ #Microcontrollers #homeautomation #home-assistant #HolidayHacks #homehacks #retrofit #ESP32
Holiday Jukebox Gets ESP32, Home Assistant Support - If we’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that the only thing hardware hacker... - https://hackaday.com/2024/12/24/holiday-jukebox-gets-esp32-home-assistant-support/ #microcontrollers #homeautomation #home-assistant #holidayhacks #homehacks #retrofit #esp32
Trying to calculate a rough ACH (Air Changes per Hour) of my leaky house using my #Aranet4
Using the formula from: https://docs.openenergymonitor.org/heatpumps/measuring_ach_with_co2.html
11pm to 8am: `−1×ln((600−420)÷(2500−420))÷9 = 0.27`
1am to 8am: `−1×ln((600−420)÷(1500−420))÷7 = 0.26`
Has anyone done similar?
But if they have had bothered to get this far into the article they would have seen a graph that makes it clear to the public, mainstream media how much the #retrofit industry was cut to its knees by #Tory decision to ‘cut the green crap’
Loft and cavity wall insulations fell off a cliff between 2012 and 2013. Without the government putting in funding for these measures the industry withered away. We are having to start over…and #Labour are sadly all just talk. The reality is more of the same.
