March 07, 2023

EPCs are just a ritual (pt. 1): fundamental flaws in how we assess energy performance and how we got here, with Adrian Leaman and Bill Bordass (UsableBuildings.co.uk)

55 minutes

This week we've got a two-parter for you with returning guests, Bill Bordass and Adrian Leaman.

At first, we thought we'd do an episode in response to that Times article that was doing the rounds last week, and we did. It just didn't turn out as we expected.

At the last minute, we asked Bill Bordass and Adrian Leaman if they'd like to join us. Jeff had remembered just how deeply those guys had been involved in the subject of energy performance assessment, so we asked them, they were free, and we were delighted.

Bill and Adrian were really generous with their time, hence us having enough for two episodes this week. The first part (this one) was mainly spent looking into the past while Bill regaled us with a tale of what might have been, how EPCs came to be what they are, and where it all went wrong. Part two is more focused on how we might do better in the future.

It has a particular UK focus but the themes are universal. There are lots of lessons that we can learn from the tension between modeling and estimation, and the reality of how buildings perform in use.

We start the episode proper about seven or eight minutes in, so you can jump ahead, but you may miss Adrian's story about his energy efficiency tour behind the Iron Curtain and Albanian refugee defectors.

Notes from the episode

The Usable Buildings website
The article that sparked the episode - EPCs are a national scandal, from The Times
CIBSE TM 22
Buildings the Key to Energy Conservation (1979)
The chart that Jeff starts talking about from The Energy Performance Survey of Irish Housing
Energy Performance of Non-Domestic Buildings: Closing the Credibility Gap

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By Jeff and Dan

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