Fabric fifth: rethinking the hierarchy of retrofit, with Nigel Banks (Octopus Energy)

Zero Ambitions Podcast

This week we're joined by Nigel Banks, Technical Director - Zero Bills & Low Carbon Homes at Octopus Energy.

Nigel joined us to discuss his recent article: Fabric Fifth, a slightly polemical riposte to fabric-first dogma, and an interesting philosophy for retrofit. As it turned out, it’s an apposite follow-up to last week's episode with Fionn Stevenson.

Fabric Fifth - Nigel Banks

1. ASHPs ASAP
2. Get Smart
3. Measure & get comfy
4. Solar & Storage
5. Fabric Fifth

We also touch on Octopus's zero-bills proposition, but we'll do a full episode about that soon.

Notes from the show

• Nigel on LinkedIn
• The Fabric Fifth article itself
• An article about Chris Warboys' SAP conversion tool
• The academic paper Jeff mentions: UK Passivhaus and the energy performance gap
• Nigel in the pages of Passive House Plus

**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**
We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.

• Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page
• Jeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - [e-mail]; Everything is User Experience
• Subscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)
• Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon Upfront
• Join ACAN
• Join the AECB
• Join the IGBC
• Check out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)

**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**