Backsolving the residential puzzle

Existing housing stock offers big efficiency wins but also presents the hardest challenges

Discussion around energy efficiency tends to centre on large-scale production of energy for end-users. The demand side is often overlooked in the energy transition discussion, with energy efficiency gains from buildings particularly ignored. Within the sector, residential dwellings have big potential gains, but present challenges that have proved difficult to address. “There is no way around it—energy efficiency is boring. You are talking about things you cannot see,” says a veteran energy efficiency expert. But that does not make it unimportant or economically meaningless. “The last bit of energy you are not using is the most expensive energy you would been using at that time”, he adds. Acc