We love our house and intend to stay here forever. It’s the perfect size for our growing family, we live in a lovely area and have great neighbours… But my word it is cold and draughty!
The original house was built at some point in the 1960s and has all the features you would expect from a house of that age, including big windows and hung tiles on the front exterior. About 30 years ago (late 1980s) someone added a new extension, literally doubling the size of the house. The newer half of the house is noticeably warmer than the original as building regulations made stipulations around insulation levels.
When we moved into this house the previous home owner had done a lot of work, it was a beautiful house with a nice kitchen and bathrooms. However our main concern is how energy efficient the property is. In the UK housing accounts for approximately 18% of UK carbon emissions. This figure has dropped over the last 10 years due to decarbonisation of the energy grid; coal fired plants being replaced with mainly off shore wind farms, along with biofuels and nuclear making up a great percentage of the mix.
Only 29% of houses have a SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure) score of C, the SAP score of the property is a measure of its energy efficiency and takes into account things like double glazing, age and efficiency of heating systems, levels of insulation and lighting type. Every house must have a valid SAP score certificate if it is to be rented or sold, these certificates last for 10 years. A recent report has noted that in order for the UK to meet its pledge of net zero by 2050 then all houses will need to meet this level. Our current house was SAP score D when we moved in, not too bad right? NO. It is freezing, there are draughts everywhere, the windows are leaky and over 25 years old. Half the house had a decent level of loft insulation, the boiler was pretty new and there were energy efficient light bulbs so this bumped up the SAP score.
You can check your SAP score for free and it will even list the improvements needed to raise the score and the approximate costs and paybacks. The report will direct you to possible sources of grant funding, work out what your expected breakdown of energy use is and what potential savings in kWh of energy you could expect. I recommend you take a look.
So we decided to embark on an eco-renovation of the house, to save CO2 and make the house more comfortable. The first thing we did was install a wood burner. I know this is a contentious issue and some environmentalists feel that we should move away from wood burners but for us, it was about more than the heat. It gives such a lovely atmosphere and in the winter we have one warm room, which in turn reduces the heating in the other rooms. In keeping with my eco credentials I managed to buy a virtually new stove 2nd hand.
The next step was to look at our double glazing. The previous owners had installed new windows on the back of the property which are in reasonable condition but on a windy night the wind whistles through the gaps in the older window frames, we have mould growing at the edges and the panes have got condensation between them. Far from ideal! We have received a quote to get the 10 older windows replaced, from a local company who buy their glass from Exeter and the frames are made in Torquay, so all nicely local, and will get this work completed in the next couple of months.
Our house is mainly run on electricity, we have an induction hob, electric shower, electric oven and of course electric lighting. We have a fairly new gas boiler which runs our central heating and hot water from the taps. We are fairly frugal when it comes to using our heating, I am a big believer in putting another layer on before you put the heating; if you can bend your arm, you don’t have enough layers on! We all have slippers, gillets that we wear indoors and have ultra warm pjs.
We decided to invest in Solar Photovoltaic (PV). This was a big cost, at just over £7500 for 14 solar panels and 5 kWh battery storage. The pay back period should be 10 years and over its expected lifetime of 25 years it should save us £26,000 in bought in electricity costs and generate £2352 in income from selling the excess energy we make and cant use. The 5 kWh battery storage system increases our use of self generated energy from 60% to 75%. Per year we are likely to save 1.32 tonnes of carbon and a whopping 30 tonnes over 25 years.
We used local firm, 4 Seasons Heating and Cooling; they were great and I can personally recommend them. In January, they carried out an initial site survey, and the work was scheduled for 6 weeks later. The team on site were efficient and hard working. They explained how everything worked, and even got us set up on an app so we could monitor what we were using. Bring on the sunshine!
The next phase of our eco-renovation is to sufficiently insulate the house. We plan to do this ourselves. Half the roof is boarded out, so this will be a big job in itself – let alone the fact that our attic is full of stuff! About 25% of heat loss occurs via the roof and as insulation should last 40 years, this is something that will payback many times over. It’s likely to save in the region of £150 per year in heating costs, save 610kg of CO2 for a cost of £300. What’s not to like! The recommended level of mineral wool insulation is 270mm. Do you know how much loft insulation you have? If not, go on, get that ladder out!
Another step to take is to draught proof. Along with loft insulation this is the most cost effective measure you can take. When we replaced our dishwasher we noticed some massive holes around the water pipes, so a first step to draught proofing is to fill those and get the front door adjusted as the wind whistles in through that.
We are getting a quote to replace the concrete hung tiles on the front of the house. This will involve replacing the old and likely degraded insulation which is 60 years old with Celotex, a rigid sheet type of insulation. On the external feature, we will add weather boarding, which not only will have update the look of our house but importantly provide an additional layer of insulation. Again like the rest of the eco-renovation projects, this wont be cheap! In total we are likely to spend around £25,000 on the renovations to our house – a massive amount of money and something we have been saving for, for a long time. This may seem like a lot of money – and it is! To put it in perspective, it is a sum similar to what people would spend on a nice new kitchen – but in this case, the comfort and ambience of our home will be greatly enhanced by things we will feel, rather than see. These eco-renovation projects are not something we would consider if we weren’t going to stay in this house for a long time. The UK energy infrastructure is creaking with costs likely to increase, so part of these projects is looking at ways to reduce our dependence on the centralised energy network. The costs of these works has come down in recent years and, as more people choose to do this, the costs are predicted to fall further making it more accessible for everyone.
Written by Catherine Causley, on behalf of Transition Exmouth
