Energy efficiency and historic buildings

Advice on the measures that you can take to improve the energy efficiency and sustainability of a historic building.

The Essex Design Guide (EDG) and Historic England have put together a number of guides on how to retrofit historic buildings to improve their sustainability. These provide advice on both small and large changes you can make to reduce the carbon footprint of many historic buildings.

Why improve energy efficiency

Improving the energy efficiency of a historic building can lead to:

reduced carbon emissions and fuel bills
improved comfort levels
complying with statutory requirements such as Part L of the Building Regulations or the Private Rented Sector Regulations

General guidance

The Planning Portal has general advice on how you can save energy in your home.

The Essex Design Guide

The EDG Climate Change and the Historic Environment guidance focuses on how improvements can be made to historic buildings to reduce their carbon impact whilst retaining the integrity of these historic structures.

The guide includes:

an overview of the historic buildings typically found in Essex
guidance on energy efficiency and historic buildings
advice on the planning decision process
ways of working towards reducing the carbon footprint of different historic buildings
case studies of completed work found within Essex

Historic England guides

Historic England has put together some overarching guidance on How to Improve Energy Efficiency. This sets out their 'whole building approach' which considers:

context
construction
condition
historic significance
an understanding of all the factors that affect energy use, and
how to devise an energy efficiency strategy for any building

Historic England also have a number of free to download publications.