Household retrofit guidance for private properties - Planning your retrofit project

Before starting any retrofitting work on your home, it’s important to prioritise regular maintenance of your property.

Keeping your home well maintained improves comfort and energy efficiency. Regular maintenance tasks, such as repairing or replacing windows, provide a solid foundation before you start your project.

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Fabric first approach

This approach focuses on improving the structure of your home, such as insulation or windows, before adding energy-saving technology such as low-carbon heating or solar panels.

Improving insulation reduces energy demand, making energy-saving systems work more efficiently and saving on overall costs.

Whole house planning

When making changes to your home, think of the entire house as a system. Many upgrades work together, so you should plan for them all at once to avoid any problems or extra costs.

By planning in advance, you can avoid undoing work that has already been completed. You can also save money and ensure work is done in the right order. Speak to a retrofit coordinator or designer to get help with this planning.

Energy hierarchy

The energy hierarchy is a way to think about making our use of energy more sustainable. It outlines 3 key stages:

• Energy conservation 
  Reducing the amount of energy we are using in our homes, primarily through behavioural changes. For example, not leaving appliances on standby and putting on warmer clothing before turning on the heating are small actions which all add up to save energy and money.
   
• Improved efficiency 
  Improving the efficiency of the built fabric of your home (insulated walls, improved air tightness, more efficient windows) and the appliances being used (LED lighting, energy-efficient white goods, running a gas boiler at a lower temperature).
   
• Meeting any remaining energy demand with renewables and low carbon heating
  Once the energy demand in your home has been reduced as much as possible, consider installing low carbon heating (such as air source heat pumps) and renewables (such as solar panels). 

Priority levels for retrofitting

When you are planning your project, take into account the following retrofit priority levels, listed in order of importance:

1. Understand the building
   This includes its context and impact, such as situation, location, history, condition, lifespan, budget, constraints and energy use.
    
2. Remove unnecessary energy
   This includes defects, damp, draughts, and inefficient use of space.
    
3. Reduce the impact of avoidable energy 
   This includes LED lights, efficient use of space, zoning, intelligent controls, and low-flow sanitary fittings.
    
4.  Improve the building's performance 
   This includes the performance of existing building fabric and services, such as insulation, air tightness, solar shading, window and door upgrades.
    
5. Introduce low-carbon energy technologies
   This includes appropriate low carbon energy technologies, such as solar hot water panels, solar panels, district heating and cooling network, and heat pump, biomass.

Planning permission

If your home is a listed building or is located in a conservation area, you may need permission before you start the retrofit work.

In Croydon’s conservation areas, you will need permission for external work, such as:

• insulating your home
• adding new windows 
• implementing solar panels on your roof
• installing air source heat pumps

Listed buildings

Listed buildings require listed building consent for any internal or external changes. 

Some retrofit projects fall under national permitted development rights, allowing certain works without a planning application. 

However, these rights do not apply to:

• flats
• maisonettes
• listed buildings
• some conservation areas

Make sure you get all the necessary permissions, such as:

• planning permission
• building regulations approval

For more information, contact our Development Management team at development.management@croydon.gov.uk.