File 01: Home energy performance foundations
How a home uses energy, where it is lost, and how to judge an improvement honestly before spending anything.
The file guide
Working guides on this file
Home energy performance foundations A Home Energy Baseline Worksheet A practical worksheet for recording a home's starting point: what to write down, in what order, and how to keep it usable for future comparisons. Home energy performance foundations An Energy Performance Glossary A plain-language glossary of energy performance terms, each explained in context, for readers who meet jargon on certificates, audits and quotes. Home energy performance foundations Comfort, Health and Energy How warmth, draughts, damp and air quality affect comfort and health in general terms, and why energy work should be judged on lived conditions as well as ratings. Home energy performance foundations Energy Performance in Plain Terms A jargon-free translation of the words used on certificates, quotes and audit reports, so terms like demand, efficiency and primary energy stop sounding like different subjects. Home energy performance foundations Energy, Carbon and Cost: Three Different Scores Why a home can score well on energy, carbon or cost while scoring poorly on another, and how to read all three without confusing them. Home energy performance foundations Fabric First, Explained What fabric first means, why reducing heat loss usually comes before replacing heating plant, and where the principle reaches its limits. Home energy performance foundations Heating Degree Days, Explained What heating degree days measure, how professionals use them to compare heating periods fairly, and how a householder can use the idea without doing the calculation. Home energy performance foundations Home Energy Use by Room How heating, hot water, lighting and appliance energy split across rooms in general terms, and how room patterns help target comfort and efficiency work. Home energy performance foundations How Homes Lose Heat Where heat actually escapes from a typical home, how each route behaves in cold and windy weather, and why the biggest loss is not always the obvious one. Home energy performance foundations How to Read an Energy Bill for Performance How to use a bill as performance evidence: kilowatt-hours, tariffs, readings and periods, without mistaking a bill for a rating. Home energy performance foundations Performance and Property Value, in General How energy performance can relate to property value in general terms, what evidence exists, and why a rating alone should not be used to price a home. Home energy performance foundations Performance Over a Home's Lifetime How a home's energy performance changes over decades, from construction and extensions to system replacements, and how to plan work that ages well. Home energy performance foundations Reading Your Home Like an Assessor How an assessor observes a home, what evidence they record room by room, and how a householder can carry out the same structured walk-through before any visit. Home energy performance foundations Seasonal Variation in Energy Use Why the same home uses far more energy in winter than summer, how shoulder seasons and heatwaves complicate the picture, and how to read monthly patterns fairly. Home energy performance foundations Setting a Performance Baseline How to record a home's starting point, using certificates, meter readings and simple observations, so later improvements can be judged fairly. Home energy performance foundations Standby and Phantom Loads What standby and phantom loads are, how large they typically are in general terms, and which habits and controls actually reduce them without fuss. Home energy performance foundations What Improved Performance Actually Means Beyond a better letter on a certificate, what counts as genuine improvement in comfort, bills, carbon and resilience, and how to tell real change from paper change. Home energy performance foundations When to Reassess Performance The moments that should prompt a fresh look at a home's performance: work completed, extensions, system changes, household changes, and time passing. Home energy performance foundations Whole-House Thinking vs a Single Measure Why one popular measure, fitted on its own, often disappoints, and how a whole-house sequence links fabric, heating, ventilation and controls into work that holds together.