Personal story:

We are the second owners of the house and moved here in 1970. Where it’s been sensible and affordable over the years we’ve done things to make the house more energy efficient and comfortable. I started out as an electrical engineer and the fact that I can understand the technical side and do some of the things myself has been helpful. Nothing we’ve done is remarkable, we’ve just gone on and done it instead of talking about it.

Motivations:

Both my wife and I come from from a rural area and I like to think I’ve got self sufficiency in our genes. I like the idea of doing sensible things that reduce our footprint whilst we’re on this earth.

Key changes made:

• Double glazing throughout, some UPVC and some wood
• Cavity wall foam insulation throughout.
• Loft insulated to joist height (150mm) and boarded out above main house. Some glass fibre and some Celotex.
• TRVs fitted on radiators
• Radiators fitted with reflective foil throughout. Some have been changed to modern high output models
• High efficiency oil boiler. The boiler was originally coal. Our first oil boiler served us for over 30 years and then we changed to a very high efficiency oil boiler about four years ago
• Evacuated tube thermal solar system: 3m² output = 2,000 kWh (Riomay 100 mm) installed about eight years ago with £500 grant
• Large thermal store
• 3.7kWp PV system fitted on the roof at the back of the house in July 2011: (Sharp) Year 1 output = 3.53kWH means we are net exporters of electricity. Our roof orientation is about as near to optimal as you can get. The output results are 6% above the manufacturer’s rated specification. Total installed cost was £11,930 and payback should be 6-7 years
• Energy efficient appliances
• Front porch. Added 20 years ago, this acts as an ‘airlock’, significantly cutting draughts and heat loss
• An existing wood burning fire based on a Baxi design that takes the air needed for combustion from under the floor, making it much more efficient

Measures installed in detail:

• Double glazing throughout
• Cavity wall insulation
• Loft insulated to joist height and boarded out
• TRVs fitted to radiators
• Radiators fitted with reflective foil throughout
• High efficiency oil boiler
• Evacuated tube thermal solar system
• Large thermal store
• 3.7kWp PV system
• Energy efficient appliances
• Front porch

Benefits of work carried out:

It’s difficult to be precise about the savings we’ve made because we’ve been making improvements over a long period of time. The cavity wall insulation was one of the first measures and it had a dramatic effect on comfort and energy consumption. Most years we are self sufficient in hot water from May to September thanks to the solar thermal system.

Favourite feature:

The most recent measure we’ve installed, the solar PV. It’s very simple and very satisfying. The kit allows you to interrogate the system to see what’s going on so you can see the electricity that’s being generated, how it’s saving CO2 and so on. You go very quickly from being a consumer of energy to being a net exporter.

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