Personal story:

I moved into 81 Western Road from another Edwardian terraced house in Wolverton in February 2015.  .  I was very keen to have a bigger kitchen and was looking at having an extension done.  However, my old house had never been altered and had been lovingly restored by previous owners.  It felt wrong to start knocking the house about and yet at the same time it was frustrating too.  I wanted to have internal wall insulation done (both houses are in the Wolverton Conservation Area) but didn’t want to damage any original features.  I was also keen to have a wood burning stove but didn’t want to remove the beautifully restored fireplaces.  I dreamed of having solar PV but the aspect wasn’t right and I didn’t have the funds.  I had some work carried out (loft insulation, floor insulation, secondary glazing and a replacement gas condensing boiler) but wasn’t able to go as far as I wanted to go.

Buying a house that had already lost many of its original features and a north-south orientation gave me much greater freedom to make the changes I wanted. With the help of a grant from a DECC funded Green Deal Communities project I was able to have internal wall insulation installed.  And by freeing up equity I was able at long last to have Solar PV and a wood burning stove installed.

Motivations:

I am personally motivated by a desire to reduce my carbon footprint and to do my bit to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic climate change.  Saving money on my energy bills is an added bonus although it will be a very long time before I recoup my initial outlay.  I also enjoy the feeling of self-sufficiency that producing my own electricity and hot water (from the solar PV) and heat (from the log burning stove) has given me.

Professionally, I work at National Energy Foundation (NEF), a not for profit organisation that works to improve the use of energy in buildings.  Over my time at NEF I have worked on many projects promoting energy efficiency and the use renewable energy.  I have learned much in that time and wanted to be able to put into practice everything I was talking and writing about.

Property background:

The house is a three-bedroomed Edwardian mid-terraced property built about 1907.  It is in the Wolverton Conservation Area and still has the original front door and windows.  The windows at the back of the house had been double glazed in 2012 before I bought the house.  The wall between the lounge and dining room had been knocked through before I bought it and the kitchen enlarged by removing the wall and chimney breast between the original kitchen and breakfast room.

The house would originally have been heated using open fires.  The original fires downstairs had all been removed.  The front room had an old wall mounted gas fire.  The fireplaces upstairs had been boarded over.

Heating and hot water came from a gas boiler.  There is an airing cupboard with a 117 litre cylinder in the bathroom upstairs.

Key changes made:

Removal of the chimney breast at first floor level in the back bedroom.

Full details of measures installed

• Changed the gas boiler from a Glow worm Ultimate 40FF to a condensing Ideal Logic+ Heat 24
• Had internal wall insulation fitted to 75% of the external walls
• Had floor insulation fitted to about 80% of the ground floor (half the kitchen and the shower room/utility have a solid floor and would be very difficult to do)
• Had a 4kW solar PV system installed – two thirds east facing, one third south facing
• Had an Apollo Gem installed to heat hot water in the cylinder rather than exporting it to the grid
• Increased the loft insulation from 100mm (and in some cases none) to 250mm
• Installed CFL/LED lighting throughout
• Had a Nest Learning Thermostat installed
• Flavel Arundel Multi-Fuel 4.9kW stove (to replace the old gas mounted one)
• Energy efficiency

Measures installed in detail:

• Condensing boiler
• Double glazing
• Floor insulation
• Internal wall insulation
• Loft insulation
• Low energy appliances
• Low energy lighting
• Photovoltaic panels
• Wood Burning Stove

Benefits of work carried out:

The house feels warmer and less draughty than my old house and my energy bills are lower despite it being slightly bigger.  I don’t think I will feel the real benefits until we have a colder winter.  The internal wall insulation was only carried out in May 2015 and the winter of 2015/2016 was particularly mild.  I’m also very much looking forward to using my wood burning stove next winter.  Having only been fully installed since December 2015 it hasn’t had a lot of use yet.

The solar PV is working well although I don’t think the electricity production is going to be high as was predicted when I bought it.

Favourite feature:

The solar PV is my favourite feature so far, although I know energy efficiency and insulation always need to come first.  I’m obsessed with checking my Gem Solo II monitor each day and seeing how much electricity has been produced.  Taking a bath in water that has been heated by solar electricity is a wonderful treat.

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