Understanding the process of domestic retrofit is important for learning and innovation. This is particularly the case for low carbon retrofits such as those undertaken under the UK's Retrofit for the Future (RftF) programme, with its aim to achieve an overall 80% carbon reduction by 2050. Current post-occupancy evaluation (POE) research has both theoretical and methodological limitations with implications for technical and behavioural research in the built environment. Drawing on relevant ideas and concepts from social practice theory and science and technology studies, principally prefiguration (constraints/enablement), black-boxing, heating and cooling practices, this paper demonstrates how the relationship between buildings and people could be reconceptualized as mutually constitutive and co-evolving through a process of 'interactive adaptation'. The concept of 'interactive adaptation' is explored through a novel approach to integrating physical and social data collected from a sample of dwellings selected from the RftF programme. Analysis yields insights into the influences and pathways of interactive adaptation resulting from retrofit technology and practices. The implications of these insights for policy-makers, the research community and practitioners are discussed: end-use energy demand policy needs to be informed by a socio-technical approach.

The assumed U-values of solid walls represent a significant source of uncertainty when estimating the energy performance of dwellings. The typical U-value for UK solid walls used for stock-level energy demand estimates and energy certification is 2.1 Wm 22 K 21 . A re-analysis (based on 40 brick solid walls and 18 stone walls) using a lumped thermal mass and inverse parameter estimation technique gives a mean value of 1.3 + + + + + 0.4 Wm 22 K 21 for both solid wall types. Among the many implications for policy, this suggests that standard UK solid-wall U-values may be inappropriate for energy certification or for evaluating the investment economics of solid-wall insulation. For stocklevel energy modelling, changing the assumed U-value for solid walls reduces the estimated mean annual space heating demand by 16%, and causes a proportion of the stock to change Energy Performance Certification (EPC) band. The analysis shows that the diversity of energy use in domestic buildings may be as much influenced by heterogeneity in the physical characteristics of individual building components as it is by variation in occupant behaviour. Policy assessment and guidance material needs to acknowledge and account for this variation in physical building characteristics through regular grounding in empirical field data.

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