Personal story:

Having living in London for many years (Gemma all her life) and in a draughty Victorian house, we wanted to build a low energy house and also move out of London.
We had made some low level attempts to improve the London house – reducing draughts round windows and floors but the pull to move out tempered the ambition because the cost was too high for a short term benefit.

Initially we were looking to carry out a self build but, after lengthy searches for land, decided that a bungalow would be the best option to achieve the dream.
We chose Norfolk for a number of reasons – the sea, relatively close to London as we have friends and family there still, food, good access to outdoor activities like walking and running.

Property background:

1960 Detached Bungalow (115m2 incl extension~10m x 11m)
2016 extension (35m2)

Key changes made:

• New – Triple glazed – U=0.83 Green Building Store Performance range windows
• New installed draught-proofing
• Cavity filled walls
• External wall insulation – 140mm EPC U=0.12
• 270mm sheep’s wool – U=0.13 loft insulation
• Floor dug out and 200mm Jabfloor laid down with concrete slab over the top. U=0.13
• Whole house MVHR installed. Airflow (Vallox) 96SE with summer bypass                               PHPP calcs carried out:- 13W/m2
  – 22 kWh/(m3a)Actual air tightness measured as:
  – ACH = 0.91
  – Permeability @ 50Pa = 0.737 m3/h/m2″
• Lowest power (9kW and will operate down to 3kW) condensing boiler installed–  Worcester Bosch Greenstar 9i system boiler
• 2 x 1.5kW radiators in living room and dining room. 1 x 365W dual fuel towel rail in bathroom
• W-B Greenstore 250 litre TC (Twin Coil) Indirect Unvented Hot Water Cylinder
• All chimneys removed
• Worcester Bosch Solar-Lifestyle (about 4.4 to 5.0 m2) solar thermal
• Mainly LED lighting throughout
• Fridge / Freezer, TV, Washing Machine – A rated
• Planned 1380 litre rain water reservoir for gardening use only

Measures installed in detail:

• Cavity Wall Insulation
• Condensing Boiler
• Draught-proofing – 0.91 ACH (0.74 m3/h/m2)
• External Wall Insulation (U-old=0.17W/m2K; new 0.12)
• Floor Insulation (U=0.12W/m2K)
• Loft Insulation (U=0.13W/m2K)
• Low Energy Appliances
• Low Energy Lighting
• Solar Hot Water Thermal Panels
• Triple Glazed Windows (U=0.85W/m2K)
• Whole house Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery
• PV Solar installed 2018
• Space heating demand (theory) – 22kWh/m2/year
• Heat load (theory) – 13W/m2
• 2 x 1559W radiators for whole house

Benefits of work carried out:

One of the best side benefits is air quality within the house. The lack of draughts and MVHR means the air is always changed and filtered and make for a very pleasant living environment.

Favourite feature:

Solar hot water – Boiler is switched off from March to October every year!

Project update:

PV Solar Installed Dec 2018 as part of Norfolk council initiative to get the last Feed in Tariff

Updated on 21/12/2018

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