PH+ revisited: Let's get decarbonisation done, with Toby Cambray (UCL, Greengauge Building Energy Consultants)

Lauding an alternative viewpoint to always aiming for the loftiest standards, in this PH+ Revisited Lloyd is championing Toby Cambray's Insulate Britain-inspired article, from February 2022: Let's get decarbonisation done.

It's an article about taking a differently-considered approach to domestic decarbonisation strategy and one that Lloyd has referenced frequently because of its refreshingly pragmatic look at prioritising our action. Should we favour deep, whole-house retrofits as per traditional Passivhaus dogma, or should we push for the installation of heat pumps and do just enough retrofit to make it all work?

You can read what Lloyd has written about 'heatpumpification' in response to Toby's article on Treehugger but this feels like sufficient summary for here:

"He breaks my spellchecker by verbing heat pumps, writing that while you could just install heat pumps, "this does not however mean that it’s a good idea to put a heat pump in a building with poor fabric efficiency. Although there are cases where other constraints mean we have little choice, ultimately we need to both (mostly) Insulate Britain and (mostly) Heatpumpify Britain." Heatpumpify and heatpumpification have been added to my dictionary".

Retrofit is a part of the climate discourse that can often feel dominated by a puritan attitude towards fabric-first approaches and the heresy that Toby presents feels like a  practical philosophy that balances high-performance building with an awareness of embodied carbon.

We also make sure that Richard Lowes gets his credit for authoring this new verb: to "heatpumpify" a home or building.

And, when we get around to learning iMovie, there might be a little bit of video on our Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page, so give us a follow there if you can.

Notes from the show

• Let's get decarbonisation done, from Passive House Plus (February 2022)
• Toby Cambray on LinkedIn
• Greengauge Building Energy Consultants
• Lloyd's Treehugger piece in response to Toby's article

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