Tenement Buildings Go Green

Scientists using thermal imaging equipment have been sent on a mission to turn Scotland’s traditional but hard-to-heat tenement buildings green.
As the Scottish Government scrambles to meet their ambitious target of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent by 2020, finding a way to make the high ceilinged buildings more energy efficient has become a burning issue.
Researchers from Edinburgh Napier University will work with Historic Scotland to analyse the energy efficiency of tenement buildings in Glasgow, Rothesay, and Edinburgh as well as buildings in Culross and Milton of Buchanan.
The data on the thermal performance of these buildings will be used to develop new guidance and measures to make these buildings more energy efficient.
Around 50 per cent of all CO2 emissions come from existing building stock.
A leading community action group has welcomed news of the £20,000 thermal imaging research project as it’s a technology they’ve used in the past to get things done.
“A householder came to us to say that heating their new home was costing a fortune,” said Jackie McKenna, Chief Executive of the North Edinburgh Trust, whose Future Families initiative has been finding out what people can realistically do to cut energy use in the home.
“By using the thermal imaging camera we were able to take photographs which supported the homeowner’s suspicions that poor building quality was compromising the energy efficiency of their property.
“It gave the homeowner the added clout necessary to get the house builder to take him seriously and agree to address the faults. So it’s great that through this project many more people may be able to find out where the heat leaks are in their buildings.”
However, the North Edinburgh Trust has called on the government to now rethink the scrapping of grants which would enable people in traditional buildings to make their homes more energy efficient right now.
Their Future Families initiative, which has been running for over a year, has identified that the scrapping of grants which enable people to replace old boilers and insulate their homes causes particular hardship for many households who have bought their home under the ‘right to buy’ scheme.
“People we worked with missed out on the council’s programme of improvements such as boiler replacement and double glazing and they are now finding themselves with properties which are very hard to heat,” said Ms McKenna.
“the occupiers of these homes are retired and no longer have the income necessary to fund the expensive repairs and necessary upgrades to their heating systems.
“The government are moving in the right direction but we’d ask that they look a bit more closely at how they can assist people faced with this particular issue.”

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