Motivations:

Initially to reduce my personal carbon footprint and because I feel  owning a house carries a duty of improving it for people who will live in it in the future. But after a while I realised that doing this myself means I can support and inspire other people to try similar things, and this has also become a motivator.

Property background:

When I moved in, beyond partial very poor quality double glazing, nothing noticeable had been done to the house, which was cold.

Key changes made:

External wall insulation; internal wall insulation; underfloor and loft insulation; new efficient boiler; thermostatic radiator valves; low energy light bulbs; photo voltaic panels.

Measures:

Full details of measures installed:

• 100mm of phenolic board as external insulation – it was a cold solid walled house.
• TLX silver on inside of bedroom and kitchen outer walls and underfloor downstairs.
• 200mm of rockwool on top of the old 750mm fibreglass loft insulation, and when the bay window was reroofed I had it insulated with Kingspan insulation.
• Triple glazing on 4 windows and secondary glazing made of Perspex and reclaimed timber on 2 others.
• New condensing gas Baxi boiler with TRVs and a portable Honeywell thermostat.
• Extractor fan in the bathroom.
• 225kWp photovoltaic solar panels on the roof.
• Rain water collection to outside recycled plastic waterbutts from the main roof, bike racks made of reclaimed timber bolted to front drive.

Measures installed in detail:

• Condensing boiler with TRVs
• Draught proofing
• External wall insulation
• Floor insulation
• Internal wall insulation
• Low energy lighting
• Low energy appliances
• Loft insulation
• Roof insulation
• Solar PV
• Triple and secondary glazing
• Water saving devices

Benefits of work carried out:

The house feels much warmer even when heated to the same air temperature as before the work was done. It’s also much drier, and as a result what was a mould problem is no longer apparent. The photovoltaics generate considerably more energy than the house uses in a year, and I only spend about £300 per year on gas and electricity combined.

Favourite feature:

EWI – warmer, drier and I no longer live with a substantial mould problem. It even made the house more attractive.

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