We completed a retrofit assessment with Gentoo recently and I am pleased to say the results are amazing.
Who would have thought you could control the moisture levels in a bathroom with no windows and make sure other rooms weren’t affected by damp and mould. Well it is possible and the numbers we collected tell you how.
This retrofit was complex and well thought out from the start. It involved some innovative thinking about sources of heat and moisture management in a building built in the 1960s. We were asked a simple question:
“How well is this retrofit working, will it negatively impact other rooms, and what is the forecast for its effectiveness across the year”
Thinking about it, it wasn’t so simple. Most methods would have measured the temperature and humidity and perhaps examined the specs for the fans and heating, and left it like that. Gentoo chose us as we could measure the lived-experience ventilation rates, the risks to the fabric of the building, what times and types of day would be an issue, and provide the measures of comfort and cost for the resident.
We are rarely speechless when we see the results of our data and equations. Unfortunately, we have become a little too used to seeing poor conditions. This retrofit has been a revelation and will help us and Gentoo build a model of what good looks like. Hopefully it will make sure social housing decarbonisation funds can be spent in the right areas and deliver on the promise of the design.
If you want to find out more about what we did and how we did it, please contact us info@awaretag.com.