Personal story:

Andy is an engineer by training and has experience of most of the building trades through building renovation work. He has worked overseas for many years, mainly in remote locations where managing energy has been a vital component of broader work. Returning to our own house, which was cold and draughty, prompted us to do all we could to minimise heat losses and make the place more comfortable. Technology combines with behaviour changes to create a low-impact home.

Motivations:

We have worked much of our lives in Africa and are well aware of the inequities in the world and very conscious of the wastage here in the West. “Living simply that others may simply live” is an adage from many years ago but one that holds a pertinent truth. As Christians, we are aware that we have been given responsibility for God’s creation and need to use the resources that he has given us in responsible ways. We therefore aim to use no more than we need and waste as little as possible. By carrying out this work, we have halved the amount of gas that we used three times and eventually have disconnected the house from gas. By using less, more is available for others … including the generations that follow.

Property background:

Council-built end-of-terrace house, 1964. Suspended wooden floors, cavity walls and gable roof. No significant defects but plenty of split floorboards letting in draughts from well-ventilated void below ground floor.

Key changes made:

The heat recovery ventilation is perhaps the most key component of the refurbishment as it has enabled so much in terms of thorough draught-proofing, non-opening windows and balancing the temperature throughout the house.

Detailing, particularly around the windows and floors is key to ensuring a good overall result as small gaps can leak inordinate amounts of heat and cause uncomfortable draughts.

Managing electricity generation and consumption has been a more recent focus with the half-hourly tariff allowing us to schedule electricity use to those times when electricity is cheaper and lower carbon. Having a good energy monitor is key to this.

Measures installed in detail:

• triple glazing
• heat recovery ventilation unit
• log-burning stove
• solar thermal and tall hot water tank
• solar PV
• Myenergi Eddi diverter to make best use of generated electricity
• Myenergi Zappi car charger to use PV generation and schedule charging at times of low carbon intensity
• BMW i3 (96Ah) battery electric car
• Open Energy Monitor whole-house electricity monitor
• underfloor insulation (120mm foam)
• cavity insulation (twice!)
• draft porch
• Sunamp UniQ 12 heat battery (phase change storage) to capture surplus PV generation and make use of low-carbon electricity
• Smart meter (SMETS2) and Agile (half-hourly) tariff with Octopus Energy
• draft proofing!

Benefits of work carried out:

As well as cutting our fuel bills, the house is more comfortable and useable. The heat recovery ventilation ensures that the air quality is always good and condensation on the windows is rare and transient rather than being common and persistent. We rarely spill PV generation onto the grid, we avoid straining the electricity grid during the evening peak and we help to soak up surplus generation on the grid overnight.

Favourite feature:

Despite not giving us many ‘points’, the heat recovery ventilation is such a key part to the whole heating of the house that it is certainly my favourite part but I also like to see the figures on the electricity monitor that shows us how much the PV is generating.
… and in the winter, it’s so nice to sit in front of the log-burning stove.

Project update:

New this year: triple-glazed window and doors, Sunamp heat battery, Eddi diverter, removal of gas boiler, disconnection from gas network, induction hob and switching to the Octopus Energy Agile half-hourly tariff.

We have not held any scheduled events recently but if you are interested in finding out about any aspects of the work that we have carried out on the house, do get in touch.

Updated on 12/11/2020

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