Last edited 03 Jan 2025

Space heating demand

LETI Climate emergency retrofit guide, How existing homes can be adapted to meet UK climate targets, published by LETI in October 2021, defines space heating demand (SHD): The amount of energy per m2, over the course of an average year, which is needed to maintain a comfortable internal temperature. This is directly related to the thermal performance of the building and is therefore a good proxy for fabric efficiency.’

Heritage Building Retrofit Toolkit, published by the City of London Corporation in March 2024, defines space heating demand as: ‘A metric used to describing the amount of heat required to heat a building, maintaining the inside environment to a particular heating profile for a given set of weather conditions. Usually expressed in kWh/m^2/yr.’

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