Developing a practical retrofit early-stage survey tool to inform the decision-making process for existing homes

Improving the energy efficiency of homes will contribute towards Welsh Governments ambitions for a better future for Wales, responding to net zero targets and tackling fuel poverty (Welsh Government, 2020), supporting the ‘Well-being of Future Generations Act' (2015), as well as assisting global ambitions to achieve net zero targets by 2050 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015).

A practical retrofit early-stage survey tool - PRESS 1 - has been developed for the domestic sector following a review of existing survey tools. The tool has been developed and then tested and improved in practice. Development of the tool involved engagement with the social housing sector to evaluate ease of use of the tool, relevance of the data collected, the data collection process and alignment with other data collection methods.

The practical retrofit early-stage survey developed - PRESS1 - enables the collection of relevant information that can be used to help determine appropriate retrofit measures and their effectiveness in the drive towards a zero-carbon future, improving energy efficiency and reducing fuel bills. It has been designed to be used by non-experts to speed up the data collection process whilst enabling accurate data to be collected.