A UK practitioner view of domestic energy performance measurement

There is a growing body of evidence concerning the energy efficiency performance of domestic buildings in the UK, driven by policy-based agendas, such as the need for zero carbon dioxide homes by 2016 for new build homes, and the prior Green Deal and energy company obligation for sustainable refurbishment. While there have been a number of studies funded and results presented in this area, little work has been done to understand the drivers, practices and issues of data collection and analysis. There are a number of major building performance evaluation (BPE) studies in the UK, yet behind many of these research projects are practical issues of data loss, experimental error, data analysis variances and resident issues that are common when studies move from the actual to the living lab. In this paper the issues of domestic energy are addressed by leading BPE practitioners in the UK. They identify issues of client demands, technical failure, costs and implementation. This work provides insights of both academic and industry-based practitioners and considers, not only the practicalities of building performance studies, but also issues for these types of studies in the future.