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.
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
In 2021 I extended the kitchen to allow a view of the back garden by having a wall knocked out between the kitchen and a small downstairs shower room. This provided the opportunity to have the last remaining bits of external wall downstairs internally insulated. Previously, this would have been very difficult due to the kitchen sink, shower and toilet being fixed to the outside wall.
The only part of the house now that haven’t been internally insulated is in the bathroom upstairs. This is very small, having been carved out of an upstairs bedroom and I can’t afford to lose the space. As the length of the outside wall is only about 2m I am to live with this by ensuring that the room has plenty of ventilation to reduce the risk of condensation and mould growth on the external wall.
- Changed the gas boiler from a Glow worm Ultimate 40FF to a condensing Ideal Logic+ Heat 24
- Had internal wall insulation fitted to approximately 90% 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)
- A new, draughtproof, back door
- An induction (rather than a gas) hob – installed at the end of 2021
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.
The solar PV is working well and producing around 3000kWh of electricity over the course of a year, which matches my demand for electricity over the year. My electricity bills are about half of what they would have been without the solar PV. This results in a significant saving now that electricity costs are so high. The 3000kWh generated is less than the MSC software modelled for my 4kWp PV array (which was in the region of 3,600kWh or PV Sol in the region of 3,200kWh) but I was dubious about these higher figures due to the orientation and the potential for some shading from my chimneys and am still very pleased with the results.
Getting into the habit of using my washing machine and dishwasher during the day, while a good amount of solar energy is being produced, has also helped me make savings.
I really enjoy turning off my gas boiler from about May to September each year, as it’s not needed for heating the house or my hot water. During these months all my hot water needs are met by powering the immersion heater from electricity generated from my solar PV panel.
Favourite features:
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.
