Our episode is about heating and cooling buildings – quite timely as we enter the colder winter months. According to the Climate Change Committee, 29 million homes need to be upgraded to low carbon systems by 2050. This is not an easy task. According to Parliament, UK houses are one of the oldest and worst insulated in all of Europe and data from the CCC says that heat decarbonisation in each home will cost £10,000 on average per household – posing a major challenge to reach targets. In addition, UK policy does not currently reflect the standards to which houses need to be built to reduce our carbon emissions or build resilience in housing stock for a changing climate. However, designing buildings which can adapt to lifestyles and the climate will be essential for future generational resilience to climate change within the UK and beyond. So, what can the UK do about this? We have our guest Claire Brown from the University of Manchester.

Claire’s research work focuses on addressing issues around heating and cooling demand in social housing in the UK. She is looking at how new-build social housing could be a potential way to reduce demand on the power grid through better design and exploring further opportunities for self-generation. She is also exploring how commercially viable solutions might exist to allow social housing to be built with high energy performance built-in. She previously worked in the construction industry as a Sustainability Manager, the public sector as an Energy manager and as a Senior Consultant.

Music: Ben Sound