Twilight Talks

The Green Register's early evening talks supported by Ecomerchant: together promoting ethical, healthy sustainable building materials

On the second Monday of each month The Green Register brings you our Twilight Talks - a relaxed and informal string of events on sustainable building matters to complement our regular training topics.

Each one-hour event is FREE of charge and features short talks from one or more speakers. With Q&A and discussion sessions throughout, everyone is invited to be part of the conversation. We hold Twilight talks at 5-6pm, in the sweet spot between work and dinner – so join us to nourish the mind before replenishing the body!

Is ‘fabric first’ the best strategy for heat pumps?

Join the debate as we hear divergent viewpoints on whether fabric improvements in buildings are necessary prior to heat pump installation. This could be a lively event!

Some argue that a fabric-first approach in retrofit ahead of fitting a heat pump is no longer a priority in UK houses due to recent significant changes. Shifts in global energy security, improved heat pump performance and reduction of carbon intensity in UK electricity production are all contributory reasons to reconsider our approach. But does this stack up and what does it mean for householder comfort and costs?

Countering this claim, advocates of fabric-first in retrofit before technology assert that improving insulation and airtightness is best practice; these upgrades ensure a higher-performing building that enables more accurate heat pump sizing, greater comfort and lower running costs. But is this really the case, and how far should we go in improving fabric ahead of heat pump installation?

About the Speakers

Steph Willis

As a Data Scientist at Sero, Steph's work is focused on decarbonising homes through smarter monitoring and modelling of retrofits. She builds tools that calculate the costs and impacts of heat pumps, PV, batteries, and envelope upgrades. At Sero, that work is focussed on making better decisions for individual homes. In previous roles that work informed building decarbonisation policy for states and cities across North America.

A mechanical engineer by training, Steph previously designed and monitored heat pump systems for residential and commercial buildings, giving her a good sense of the complexities of making heating electrification happen on the ground.
 

Julia Bennett

Julia is co-director of The Green Register and a low carbon Architect with over 30 years of experience in residential developments, community and charity projects, schools and special schools, master-planning, and heritage, conservation and listed buildings in both new-build and retrofit projects.

She trained as a Passivhaus Designer 10 years ago and works with Passivhaus and AECB Building and Retrofit Standards, using Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) and building physics principles to model each project  to give clients informed comfort, energy and carbon options for their project decisions.

Twilight Talks are supported by Ecomerchant.