Retrofitting—the process of upgrading an existing building to improve how they feel and improving energy performance.

When we talk about home retrofit, we mean fitting new energy efficiency measures and technology into your home, such as additional insulation, underfloor heating or a heat pump. This is to achieve better energy efficiency – which means lower bills, more comfort and less reliance on fossil-fuels. 

Often when homeowners think about improvements, they focus on aesthetic upgrades or achieving more space. Retrofitting is about making the space you already have more comfortable, healthy and efficient.

Why Retrofit?

By adding features like loft insulation, triple-glazed windows, or air source heat pumps, you can transform how your home functions. By making these chan

• Lower Costs: Significant savings on monthly energy bills.
• Enhanced Comfort: A warmer, more consistent indoor temperature.
• Climate Action: A smaller carbon footprint, which is essential for tackling the climate emergency. We have a video on Youtube that explains more.

Ultimately, retrofitting is about making your home work harder for both your wallet and the planet.

To get the best efficiency from your condensing boiler, turn the flow temperature down to around 50-60 degrees. To learn how to do this and how it helps your boiler work, watch our webinar on boiler efficiency.

If your home is in disrepair, this will undermine any energy efficiency improvements you make. Regular checks can help you identify what repairs are needed early. Prioritising repair and maintenance avoids big, unexpected costs down the road and means you get the best out of your existing fabric. 

It’s recommended you get a professional survey once every five years, and you can also perform a DIY survey with the help of this tool from the charity Under One Roof.

Home-owners will often get advice directly from installers and contractors and can sometimes end up with inappropriate measures for their home. At worst, this can mean getting scammed. For example, a dishonest installer might tell you there are government grants available to reclaim the money you spend on their products and services.

The wrong measures for your home can lead to further problems, for example internal wall insulation creating damp. This can lead to spiralling costs and leave your home in a worse condition.

In order to achieve good retrofit results, it’s important to be aware of conflicting interests and seek independent advice (for example, from Loco Home). You also want to use trusted contractors and installers where possible.

5 Ways Loco Home Retrofit Can Help with Your Renovation Project

For effective insulation you need a continuous envelope with no gaps (thermal bridges), good thicknesses (or u-values) and appropriate materials for your home.

If you have a loft, it is worth checking how thick your loft insulation is. You want at least 300mm and no gaps where the rafters are. 

For your windows, there are other options to getting brand new windows. You might consider getting faulty window panes with condensation repaired or replaced, using window insulation film or secondary glazing. Secondary glazing is an especially good option for heritage windows which cannot be upgraded.

To inspect your wall insulation, you can purchase a cheap borescope which connects to your phone, and drill a small hole in the area of the wall you want to inspect (and repair later with a wall patch). Alternatively, your local tool library might have a thermal imaging camera which can give you some indication of where insulation is damaged or missing, or you can pay for professional thermal imaging services.

If you have a masonry cavity wall, a pattern of drill holes on the outside will indicate that the cavity has been insulated. 

We recommend taking our independent advice before installing any form of wall insulation. Email [email protected] to learn more about our services.

Ventilation is important for air quality and moisture control, as it replaces humid, stale air with fresh air. When you improve airtightness, you need to make sure there is still adequate ventilation or you risk poor quality air and mould. 

You want to maintain relative humidity between around 40% and 65%. Too dry is uncomfortable. and too humid raises the risks of condensation, mould and pests such as silverfish.

Ideally you want the right ventilation in the right areas at the right time: controlled ventilation. One of the best ways to achieve this is with a Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery system (MVHR) which manages humidity and recovers heat, giving you the best of both worlds: warm, fresh air without heat loss.

A basic way to ventilate an airtight home is simply to open windows on opposing sides of your home and create cross ventilation, once or twice a day. You can use a humidity moniter (hydrometer) to check when you need to do this, with special attention to kitchens and bathrooms.

However to avoid the inconvenience of manually controlling ventilation, a good option is to have simple quiet, low speed, continuous extraction fans in bathrooms and kitchens which will ventilate the whole house by drawing fresh air through the home from trickle vents in living spaces. 

It’s sensible to consider retrofit measures before you decorate or renovate. This enables you to co-ordinate work, for example improving your insulation while upgrading the kitchen. If you have a retrofit plan in place before making other changes to your home, it can minimise excess costs and disruption.

The best way to make informed choices for your home is to get a home assessment. A retrofit assessor will calculate your energy needs, recommend appropriate home improvements, help you plan for a heat pump installation later down the line and help you choose the right heat pump for your home.

If you get a home assessment with Loco Home, we’ll ensure that you’ll find the right funding your you, including advice when navigating Home Energy Scotland funding, then finding the right suppliers and installers is a challenge. Don’t do it alone. Get independant, expert advice and join a community of people making their homes warmer.

Glasgow times: Loco Home helps Glaswegians avoid green energy scams