Welcome to Module 3 of the Energy Tutorial
Reducing heat losses and improving the energy efficiency of the building fabric is often considered the most important approach for improving energy use in buildings. The building fabric is the components and materials that the building itself is made of, such as the walls, floors, roof, windows and doors. This module will introduce energy performance in buildings and how we can reduce heat loss from the building fabric. It will give you lots of ideas for reducing heat loss, as well as insights into different factors to consider when implementing energy saving measures.
Below you will find a number of factsheets, activities and videos that will introduce you to energy performance in buildings. Spend Week 3 of your volunteering going through these materials for one hour. Don’t worry if you don’t have time to look at them all, but do try to look at a mixture of factsheets, activities and videos. If you’ve volunteered as an Energy Envoy before, go through materials you didn’t look at last time or remind yourself of information you might have forgotten.
Make notes in your Activity Log or Learning Journal to record key points as you go.
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Factsheets
Energy performance in buildings
Loft, cavity wall and solid wall insulation
Activities
Videos
The videos below explain how to reduce heat lost through walls, roofs, floors, windows and doors. There’s also a fun video that explains U-values. A U-value measures the rate at which heat escapes through a material (such as a wall or window), so the lower the U-value, the better. A U-value of zero means that no heat is escaping. It is expressed as Watts per square metre (W/m2).