BRE IP16/05 PDF

This paper describes five scenarios for energy consumption and carbon emissions from the domestic sector up to 2050. In addition to traditional energy efficiency measures, it looks at changes to heating systems to introduce low carbon technologies, the use of solar panels and photovoltaics, and increased low carbon electricity generation from the national grid.

The costs and savings of each scenario relative to the reference scenario are examined. Overall cumulative costs range between £10 billion and £55 billion. In all scenarios the cumulative savings outweigh the costs by about 2012 indicating that, considered as an entire package, each of the scenarios would be cost-effective for society as a whole.

The results are derived from a wider BRE study, 'Reducing carbon emissions from the UK housing stock' (BR 480).