The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) and the Thermal Insulation Contractors’ Association (TICA) described uninsulated or poorly insulated pipework as the “lowest of low hanging fruit” among the potential building retrofit measures that could drive energy and carbon savings.

The two trade bodies also supported a proposal from the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) for £64 billion of government investment over the next 10 years in a retrofit programme for homes, offices and public spaces.

UKGBC research showed that this level of funding would create around 140,000 skilled jobs, avoid the need for £60 billion in electricity grid upgrade costs, and save the NHS £22 billion by improving the health and wellbeing of building occupants.

David Frise, Chief Executive Officer at BESA, said: “The new government has welcomed plans for improving the performance of the UK’s built environment but there are some big holes in its strategy. A concerted effort to address some of the most basic retrofit actions such as insulating the hundreds of miles of uninsulated or badly insulated pipework in our commercial and industrial buildings would deliver a massive and rapid return on investment.”

Research carried out by the European Industrial Insulation Foundation (EiiF) found that the UK could save the equivalent of the energy use of 863,000 homes or 1.7 million cars simply by insulating the existing pipework in industrial facilities. This would also lead to an annual saving of almost 3.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions.

According to TICA, the launch of a new technical standard for insulation energy efficiency: BS EN 17956:2024 ‘Energy efficiency classes for technical insulation systems. Calculation method and applications’ could also make a huge difference.

The standard, which was introduced in June, provides a uniform basis for insulating pipework systems with a focus on efficient use of resources. It is based on a classification method that uses the recognised A-G energy rating model. The EiiF has already aligned its TIPCHECK (Technical Insulation Performance Check) system with the new standard, which has helped thousands of European clients reduce their carbon and energy costs. 

Chris Ridge, Technical Director at TICA, said: “Trying to get either government or industry to recognise the gaping hole that exists in our national net-zero strategy deployment, due to uninsulated or badly insulated pipework, is a major challenge.

“Anything that makes the specification of energy-saving thermal insulation easier to understand and enact for clients is most welcome. The UK thermal insulation market will need to go through a period of adaptation before the benefits of the standard can be deployed at a national scale, but the conversations with policy makers must start now.”

Chris added that TICA was preparing the industry to take its place as a “key enabler of  commercial and industrial decarbonisation” with its national training centre in Darlington that trains apprentices in the fundamentals of thermal imaging to help them understand the importance of pipe insulation as a means of reducing energy losses.