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The 20 house files
Energy performance is organised the way a home is improved: by stage of the backbone, from current performance and assessment through rating, deficiency, measure and retrofit to regulation, evidence and improved performance. Each file is one cluster of guides, completed whole.
File 01 Home energy performance foundations How a home uses energy, where it is lost, and how to judge an improvement honestly before spending anything. 20 guides File 02 Energy Performance Certificates What an EPC is, what its rating does and does not prove, and how to read one without over-reading it. 16 guides File 03 Home energy audits What an audit adds beyond a certificate, what an auditor checks, and how to turn a report into a plan. 25 guides File 04 Reading your energy rating The rating in detail: demand, costs, carbon, potential, and the limits of a single letter. 14 guides File 05 Insulation and fabric first Fabric first: the walls, roof and floor that decide most of a home heat loss, and how to improve them safely. 19 guides File 06 Heating and heat pumps Heating as a system: heat source, distribution, controls and hot water, and where a heat pump fits. 22 guides File 07 Solar panels and storage Generating at home: panels, inverters, storage, self-consumption and what the roof and the wiring must support. 15 guides File 08 Windows, doors and ventilation Openings and air: glazing, draughts, and the ventilation an airtight home still needs. 18 guides File 09 Whole-house retrofit planning Retrofit as a sequence, not a shopping list: order, phasing, moisture, disruption and evidence. 21 guides File 10 Renovation passports A staged roadmap for a building: what a passport records, how stages link, and what it cannot promise. 13 guides File 11 Building energy modelling Models that estimate performance: inputs, assumptions, software, and the gap between model and meter. 24 guides File 12 The EPBD framework in the EU The EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, recast in 2024, and what it asks of member states and buildings. 17 guides File 13 Minimum energy performance standards Minimum standards: who they apply to, how timelines work, and what counts as evidence of compliance. 20 guides File 14 The UK EPC system The UK system on its own terms: registers, nations, letting rules, assessors and corrections. 15 guides File 15 Assessors, certificates and evidence The people and paperwork behind a rating: assessors, accreditation, visits, errors and records to keep. 23 guides File 16 Installers and professionals Choosing and briefing the right professional, comparing quotes, and keeping independence between assessor and installer. 16 guides File 17 Costs, payback and finance Money in plain terms: quotes, illustrative ranges, payback arithmetic, finance and grants in general, with no promises. 19 guides File 18 Energy performance by home type The same measure behaves differently in a terrace, a flat, a bungalow or a solid-wall older home. 22 guides File 19 Landlords, buyers, sellers and tenants Energy performance at the moments a home changes hands or changes tenant, and what each party should check. 14 guides File 20 Checks, mistakes and maintenance Keeping performance after the work: annual checks, post-retrofit checks, drift, and the mistakes that undo gains. 18 guides