PAS 2035 – The Details

Statutory national targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in response to the threat of climate change imply that very significant improvements need to be made in the energy efficiency of the UK’s building stock, including nearly all its 27 million domestic buildings.

Whatever the scale of retrofit, a technically sound and usually cost-effective approach is the one known as “fabric first”, which should always be considered when a retrofit plan is formulated. This approach prioritises improvements in five stages.

  • Bring the building fabric into good repair, by dealing with defects that inhibit energy efficiency and compromise improvement measures. Deal with water penetration and damp, structural defects (cracks, etc.) and poor pointing of masonry.
  • Implement “low hanging fruit” measures that are low-cost and easy to install, e.g. energy efficient lighting, basic heating controls, better control settings.
  • Improve the building fabric by means of insulation and air-tightness measures, and by minimising thermal bridging, in order to reduce heat losses and reduce the demand for heat and the required capacity of the heating system.
  • Satisfy the remaining heat demand as efficiently as possible using efficient heating technology and responsive controls.
  • Use LZC “renewable” energy technologies to reduce emissions further and “top-up” the performance of the dwelling to the target level.

For the UK to achieve its ambitious emission reduction targets the domestic model of energy efficiency retrofit that has previously existed must change to a more ‘Whole House Retrofit’ approach.

For the past years industry leaders have been assessing previous standards of compliance and energy assessment and the implementation of PAS 2035:2019 is a result of this review.

A new focus was required and it is widely acknowledged that this new working standard is a huge leap forward in helping the UK meet these most ambitious targets.

PAS 2035 is different – it splits out responsibilities that have often either been overlooked or have not previously been considered as a specialist requirement.

The result is the creation of the following key roles within the process:

  • Retrofit Advisor
  • Retrofit Assessor
  • Retrofit Coordinator
  • Retrofit Designer
  • Retrofit Evaluator