We are a family of 3, and have lived in our house for nearly 20 years. Our motivation for retrofitting the house was primarily as a response to the climate crisis, and we also wanted to make the house more comfortable to live in.
The process towards undertaking a complete retrofit of the house was gradual – it began with our desire to improve the insulation of the loft conversion (which was almost non-existent), but we soon decided that it made sense to do the whole house, and as part of this, to completely electrify the house.
An important part of our approach has been to try and choose the most sustainable and ethical options when deciding on manufacturers and materials for the retrofit, in recognition of the negative social and environmental impacts found in many supply chains.
We decided to retrofit our house in response to the climate crisis – so we wanted to reduce the carbon emissions from our energy usage, and also to use sustainable building materials and technology to support best practice more broadly in the industry.
We began by visiting some Open Ecohomes, and then talked to a few builders to discuss options. We also engaged a retrofit consultant to advise on sequencing as well as options for materials.Our aim was to both reduce our carbon emissions from heating, and also to make the house more comfortable (so warmer and less drafty in winter, and cooler in summer).
Re-roofing our loft conversion – the badly installed cold roof was replaced with a new warm roof.
Installing internal cladding to all external walls, and re-cladding the walls of the loft conversion – for most of the walls, woodfibre insulation was installed. Where space was at a premium celotex board (for part of the loft conversion walls) and aerogel board (for the wall in our front living room) was used. For the bathroom walls, cork insulating board is to be used.
Installing insulation under our floorboards – rockwool insulation was installed under the suspended floor.
Installation of 8 Eurener 475W solar panels and 4.5kW ‘Eleven’ sodium battery.
The system has been working very well. During spring and summer, the solar PV has been more than meeting our electricity needs. Using a flexible tariff in combination with the battery has enabled us to significantly reduce our electricity bill. The heatpump is about to be installed, and once it is in place we are likely to install a second battery.
A heatpump is due to be installed over the summer, to replace the existing gas boiler. We chose Steibel Eltron, because they are ranked better for their sustainable and transparent supply chains, as well as their models being amongst the quietest. As part of this work, we have decided to replace our radiators with fan radiators, so that we can have light cooling.
| Energy Consumption | Electricity (kWh) | Gas (kWh) | Wood (m3) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before | 2200 | 7400 | 0 | |
| After | 0 |
Energy Consumption
Electricity
Gas
Wood
Total
Before
–
After
–
