Insulation Accreditation Authority (IAA) Conference 2022
Insulation Accreditation Authority (IAA) Conference 2022
Last Thursday I was lucky enough to take advantage of an invitation from Nigel Donoghue to attend the Insulation Accreditation Authority (IAA) annual conference. The conference was incredibly informative with the stage taken by an unassailable line up of guest speakers, all of whom gave an impression of the challenges the UK has to met if has any chance of making good on its global commitments to climate change and decarbonisation.
So rather than a long and boring review of speakers that would never do them justice, here is my take home...
There is a lot of work to do. There are a lot of homeowners and landlords that need to be convinced to spend money. There is going to be a lot of public money thrown at the problem and the UK need a lot of new people involved, at all levels, to deliver it. There are some really clever people applying their minds to the issue.
Committed to energy efficiency objectives
Politics is never far from any conversation. There are also huge technical, logistical and capacity issues to overcome. Whilst there is a plan, sort of, it is likely to change before it gets implemented. There are opportunities and there are many pitfalls! The brilliant series of speakers that came and went from the stage were unanimous in their commitment to the objectives of improving the lives of people through energy efficiency.
But here remains a question that I keep being driven back to: "Do any of us really know what we are doing to our homes in the long-term?"
Managing and mitigating risks
Right now I/we have yet to see a retrofit job that has lowered the long-term opportunity for some form of moisture issue. Retrofit almost always increases the complexity of the structure it's applied to and so increases the modes and opportunities for failure. Are we managing and mitigating that risk as much as the 20+ million future recipients of retrofit deserve?
I really enjoyed the conference and would recommend it to anyone out there who craves an insight into an internationally important debate, that will shape how all will relate to homes and buildings in the very near future.
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