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First Steps - Energy Efficiency
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INSTALLATION OF OUR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY TYPES OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY FOR YOUR HOUSE SELLING YOUR ENERGY AND CLAIMING ROCs
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This subject isn't particularly sexy whichever way you dress it up, though Hugo and his colleagues at Good Energy have had a pretty good go! Of course it makes no sense at all in installing alternative energy means if your house is not energy efficient. Each house is different in this respect and it is probably best to follow this link to find out more. However these are the steps we have taken so far to ensure it is worthwhile investing in the energy generation technology.
Insulation Our house is a typical Victorian Semi and therefore has solid walls we couldn't install cavity wall insulation. Loft There was some loft insulation in the very narrow loft space. This has now been upgraded and extended through the whole length of the roof when the roof tiles were replaced before the Photovoltaic Panels are installed. The new guidance before eligibility for a PV grant is to have at least 270mm of insulation in our loft space. We now have over 300mm in the loft space and the maximum we can allow between the rafters. It has made quite a difference Floors Our house has lots of gaps in the skirting boards. I've spent quite awhile plugging up all the gaps to reduce the drafts. We have also fitted heavy duty felt underlay in all the downstairs rooms. This underlay was bought from ebay at half the retail price. We think it's a good investment.
Windows As can be seen, we have sash windows, which apart from their aesthetic qualities did let in quite a draft! We were reluctant to replace them with UPVC . Instead we purchased safety glass, cut to measure, from the local glazer. A plastic strip is placed around the glass and the glass sections are then screwed in around the frames. This cost just over £320 to effectively double glaze the whole house. In the summer some of the glass sections can be taken down and stored (behind wardrobes and sofas is a good place for this.) The glazing has made a huge difference to the heat retention of our house!
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LINK TO OTHER ENERGY SAVING MEASURES Draft Excluders The external doors have had draft excluder fitted and the letterbox has a homemade foam draft excluder made from a piece of felt underlay and hardboard. This piece of primitive technology has been designed to pop out when post is delivered!
The chimneys that are not in use have been fully insulated. Energy Efficient Machines Luckily all of our domestic appliances where already A rated. We are looking to buy an upright freezer to store out food grown on the allotment. Instead of looking solely at the energy rating we now are looking at the kwh per year, every kilowatt seems now to be precious. There are companies which sell only AA rated machines; they are worth supporting. We looked at buying SavaPlugs which can be connected to fridges and freezers and save electricity by regulating the power to the machine. Unfortunately our both Miele and Bosch appliances are incompatible with a SavaPlug. For more details visit www.savawatt.com and visit the products page to find if your machine is compatible. Light Bulbs We had a few low energy light bulbs in the house mainly picked up from memorable trips to IKEA! We realised we had to convert the whole house to low energy ones. Luckily we were able to take advantage of offers made by our electricity supplier. One deal was 4 bulbs for £4. Another deal with the same company was 4 bulbs for free. We bought a few more from the DIY shop had now have a full complement throughout the house. If the price of these bulbs seems excessive look around, there are deals. Heating and Hot Water Because two of the bedrooms are in the loft we have no water tank, therefore we have a Gas Combi Boiler which provides instantaneous hot water and heating when required. We have recently had a wood burner installed and did look into the possibility of having a back boiler connected to the radiators and existing hot water system. This was possible to do but we would have had to install two tanks, one a hot water cylinder the other an expansion tank. Not only was this expensive but we simply do not have room for the tanks. The wood burner is used solely for room heating in the winter and you can stick a kettle on it for some hot water as well!
We have placed reflective sheets behind the radiators to help reflect heat back into the room they cost about £20 for the whole house.
We do now keep the thermostat turned down 16 degrees, it doesn't seem that bad once you get used to it and wear an extra layer. We have now installed controls to each of the radiators in the main rooms.
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