The University of Salford has been studying the best ways of retrofitting houses to make them more energy efficient, and a new funding stream from the Garfield Weston Foundation will now accelerate the research.

The funding will enable the Energy House Labs project to build one of the two homes, planned as a basis for a major retrofit centre, in its unique Energy House 2.0 climatic chamber. It is the largest gift Salford has received from Garfield Weston to date and will help to support the founding of a brand-new Centre for Retrofit based at Energy House Labs.

The UK has some of the oldest housing stock in Europe, with 65 per cent of homes built before 1990. To have maximum impact the team want to create more traditional housing types in the second chamber, to research ways that these older homes could be made more energy efficient.

Energy House 2.0 was opened in 2023 with two huge chambers capable of recreating 95 per cent of the world’s weather, with temperatures ranging from -23C to 51C along with solar gain, wind, rain, snow and ice. In Chamber 1 there are two new build homes constructed using modern building materials and methods, with partners Bellway, Barratt Redrow and Saint-Gobain. Testing during the last two years has revealed insights into how to make new build homes even more energy efficient as we head to net-zero.

Professor Will Swan, director of Energy House Labs, said: “The Government will be investing more than £13bn in retrofit over the coming years. It is essential we get this right if we are to address issues such as net-zero and fuel poverty. We feel the development of a Centre for Retrofit at Salford builds on our track record of giving real data to householders, industry, policymakers as to what works.”

Garfield Weston Foundation is a family founded grant-maker that gives money to support a wide range of charities across the UK. In total they donated just under £130m in their last financial year.

---