Making homes greener and warmer with Charlie Baker

In episode five of the Meet the Mancunian podcast, host Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe speaks with Charlie Baker, founder of Your Home Better, about making existing homes greener, warmer and healthier through retrofit. Charlie shares how becoming aparent and a belief in creating a future shaped his purpose,and explains why improving current housing can avoid major construction emissions.  He outlines retrofit measures such as insulating floors, walls and roofs, upgrading ventilation and windows, adding solar PV and using heat pumps to reach zero-carbon operation, while tackling mould, damp and fuel poverty. Charlie discusses impact through award-winning home tours, challenges of recruiting diverse construction workforce, myths about cost and heat pumps, and future plans including low-cost finance, neighbourhood-scale solar and a mobile retrofit demonstrator for schools. Did you know:  ·     Retrofit refers to any improvement work on an existing building to improve its energy efficiency, making them easier to heat, able to retain that heat for longer, and replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy.·     Many UK homes are not purpose-built, heat leaks out of windows, doors and uninsulated walls, making the heating system work harder and costing more.·     The greenest building is one that already exists Key resource: Your Home Better Time stamps of key moments in the podcast episode &transcript:(01:00) Meet Charlie Baker(03:45) Why retrofit matters(10:26) Impact and challenges(15:17) Scaling the mission(19:30) Passive cooling lessons(21:22) Retrofit myths busted(25:14) Manchester values (28:51) Heroes wisdom  🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or www.meetthemancunian.co.uk#Manchester #SocialImpact #Podcast #Retrofit #WarmHomes #sustainability