BESA and TICA has expressed the need to insulate hundreds of miles of pipework in commercial and industrial buildings to give an immediate boost to the UK’s net zero ambitions and dramatically cut running costs.
The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) and the Thermal Insulation Contractors’ Association (TICA) described uninsulated or poorly insulated pipework as the “lowest of low hanging fruit” among the potential building retrofit measures that could drive energy and carbon savings.
The two trade bodies also supported a proposal from the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) for £64bn of government investment over the next 10 years in a retrofit programme for homes, offices and public spaces.
UKGBC research showed that this level of funding would create around 140,000 skilled jobs, avoid the need for £60bn in electricity grid upgrade costs, and save the NHS £22bn by improving the health and wellbeing of building occupants.
David Frise, CEO of BESA, said: “The new government has welcome plans for improving the performance of the UK’s built environment but there are some big holes in its strategy.
“A concerted effort to address some of the most basic retrofit actions such as insulating the hundreds of miles of uninsulated or badly insulated pipework in our commercial and industrial buildings would deliver a massive and rapid return on investment.”
TICA also noted that the launch of a new technical standard for insulation energy efficiency: BS EN 17956:2024 ‘Energy efficiency classes for technical insulation systems. Calculation method and applications’ could also make a huge difference.
The standard, which was introduced in June, provides a uniform basis for insulating pipework systems with a focus on efficient use of resources. It is based on a classification method that uses the recognised A-G energy rating model.
Chris Ridge, technical director of TICA, said: “Trying to get either government or industry to recognise the gaping hole that exists in our national net zero strategy deployment, due to uninsulated or badly insulated pipework, is a major challenge.
“Anything that makes the specification of energy saving thermal insulation easier to understand and enact for clients is most welcome. The UK thermal insulation market will need to go through a period of adaptation before the benefits of the standard can be deployed at a national scale, but the conversations with policy makers must start now.”
BESA added that it was keen “to work more closely with our partners at TICA to ensure pipework insulation forms a central part of a wider initiative for retrofitting thousands of buildings around the country to reduce operating costs and meet our net zero goals.”
