Infrared surveys for retrofit: triage, validation, and accountability, with Lucy Lyons (Kestrix)

Lucy Lyons of Kestrix joins us this week to talk about their use of drones, infrared imaging, and AI to quicken the pace of retrofit surveying. Specifically, with regard to a case study detailing their work with Peabody housing association.

Kestrix is a software company that works with landlords to assess their building stock in terms of which homes need help and whether the retrofit works that have been carried out are performing. 

They use their sophisticated broad-brush surveys and image analysis is is designed to help asset owners get the greatest value out of stretched budgets and capacity, investing time wisely and proving value for money.

Notes from the show

• Lucy Lyons on LinkedIn
• Kestrix on LinkedIn 
• The Kestrix website 
• The Kestrix & Peabody case study that we refer to
• National Audit Office report of retrofit performance: Energy efficiency installations under ECO
• NHMF award 'Best Warm Home Initiative' 2026
• New Study Suggests Using AI Made Doctors Less Skilled at Spotting Cancer

**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

We don't actually earn anything from this podcast, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.

• Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)
• Jeff and Dan about Zero Ambitions Partners (the consultancy) for help with positioning and communications strategy, customer/user research and engagement strategy, carbon calculations and EPDs – we're up to all sorts
• Subscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)
• Check Lloyd Alter's Substack: Carbon Upfront
• Join ACAN
• Join the AECB 
• Join the IGBC
• Check out Her Retrofit Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women

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

What is Zero Ambitions Podcast?

Zero Ambitions is a consultancy and weekly podcast about sustainability and the built environment.

We find interesting and experienced guests who know what they're talking about, usually to discuss how we navigate the complexity of decarbonisation and sustainability in the built environment and its many related sectors.

Hosted by Jeff Colley and Dan Hyde, publishers of Passive House Plus magazine (UK and Ireland), the podcast has now grow into a consultancy, Zero Ambitions Partners.

The consultancy specialises in defensible sustainability communications. We create the strategy that makes built environment leaders stand out, enabling them to occupy positions that are distinct and defensible.

As with the podcast itself, we help organisations to communicate about what they do and the value that they offer. Usually, this means strategies to change a conversation from price to value and how to futureproof an offer with evidence that makes its claims watertight.

If you're a leader, or want to become one, we help you to make sense of where you stand in your sector, how to improve your positioning, how to communicate this to the market you operate in, and how to highlight the difference between you and your peer group.

If you can engage your value chain by speaking about what matters to them, you can educate your key stakeholders and turn them into evangelists for your cause.

Book a ‘ZAP Defensibility Audit’, but brace yourself
- Uncover value and opportunities that you may 
not have recognised
- Find out if your sustainability claims are defensible
- Find out if your claims are too meek
- Change the conversation from price to value