Planning energy interventions in buildings and tackling fuel poverty : Can two birds be fed with one scone?

Energy retrofitting and renovations are an inseparable part of decarbonisation strategies in the building sector. These measures are often tied up with several social factors that can potentially impact the wellbeing of households and the community if the end-user requirements are not carefully considered. Fuel poverty is one of these social factors that is an essential consideration for designing effective, just, and user-centred interventions, but it is often overlooked in engineering processes. Therefore, this article seeks to re-connect the notion of fuel poverty to practice by bringing it forward from the post-intervention assessments to the design and decision-making stages. To do so, a new indicator, Potential Fuel Poverty Index (PFPI), is developed to obtain the likelihood of fuel poverty that future interventions can pose to the households. The PFPI presents a more targeted analysis of fuel poverty by reflecting the socio-spatial characterisation of the households. Using the PFPI, fuel poverty can be observed as a design/decision factor at the early stages of sketching interventions, in conjunction with other economic, environmental, and technical factors. Finally, the utility of the developed method is demonstrated using a real case study in the UK, assessing the impact of heat decarbonisation through heat pumps on fuel poverty.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Towards a just heat transition in the building sector: A study on social indicators of sustainability

Heating in UK buildings is dominated by fossil fuels as the main energy source, representing over 80% of the household energy consumption and 79% of the carbon emissions. Therefore, heat decarbonisation in this sector should be accelerated in order to achieve the 2050 net zero carbon targets. However, there is still a great deal of uncertainty regarding the social impacts of heat decarbonisation strategies on households and the communities. The multiplicity of social criteria and inconsistency of their measuring methods complicate the assessment of social sustainability in the energy systems, leading to less incorporation of the social factors in design and decision-making processes. Therefore, identifying a set of indicators that represent the social performance of energy systems is an essential for conducting a holistic sustainability assessment. In this research, a methodological process is established primarily aimed to identify, select, and prioritise a representative set of indicators that can reflect the social sustainability of the heating transition in the building industry. The research accounts for a qualitative survey and judgments of experts to determine the indicators and their importance weights thus reducing the subjectivity and uncertainties of the process. The result is a social sustainability assessment framework that will enable decision-makers to evaluate the transition pathways, select the best alternatives, and monitor their performance, by analysing social indicators in conjunction with other sustainability parameters.publishedVersionPeer reviewe