The 40% house

The 40% house

Research Theme 2 - Decarbonising Modern Societies
Project ID - T2.23

Primary contact: Dr Brenda Boardman

The following information is currently available:

Technical summary

This project seeks to identify the main policy implications of the Royal Commission for Environmental Pollution (RCEP) recommendation that a 60% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the domestic sector should be achieved by 2050.

The RCEP have identified a challenging target, affecting all household energy use if the average is going to be a "40% house". Rapid progress is particularly important in the domestic sector as this is one of the more reliable sources of reductions.The study will consider both reduced demand and household-level new and renewable energy supply technologies. The assessment will be in terms of total energy consumption and power demand levels.

The first task is to establish likely levels of consumption, as a result of trends in household numbers, equipment ownership, effects of climate change (on heating and cooling) and known policies. The potential for reductions will incorporate changed levels of building and demolition in the housing stock, decision trees on technology choices to avoid incompatibility, new Building Regulation standards, more efficient appliances and so forth. Consumer attitudes to and choices from lower carbon options will be investigated through focus groups, together with the impact of in-house energy supply (pv micro-chp, etc) . The main policy avenues will be identified partly through backcasting from the RCEP scenarios, as well as forecasting from the housing and domestic energy and carbon stock model.

The project takes a broad, but thorough overview in order to identify the main issues for immediate action and more detailed analysis. The main output will be faster progress towards the 40% house.