Raising the Roof on Whole House Retrofit

Raising the Roof on Whole House Retrofit, Gilbert Road, Cambridge

Sat 25 Oct 2025, – Sat 22 Nov 2025, Various

Meet your host, Paul

I live with my wife Joan in our detached 1930s home. While it is just us as permanent residents, our children and grandchildren visit often. As a retired sustainable development consultant, the environment has remained a strong inspiration throughout the project.

‘We wanted to reduce our carbon footprint at home, and I was motivated by the technical challenge to see how low we could reduce the CO2 emissions form a property of this construction’ says Paul.

Since completing the work eight months ago the performance has been as anticipated. The changes, especially the mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, have massively reduced energy consumption and increased levels of thermal comfort throughout the house and draughts have effectively been eliminated.

We are very pleased with the home energy improvements we have made and for the time being see no more works being planned and look forward to sharing our experience.

Key features of this home

External wall insulation: 160mm BAUMIT EPS sealed for airtightness
Roof insulation: 150mm KINGSPAN rigid foam & Pro Clima Dasatop airtight vapour control membrane
Ubbink Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery system
Vaillant Aerotherm Plus 12kW air-source heat pump
10 Panasonic 400 W solar PV panels
2 Myenergi EV chargers

Our host’s top tips

Insulate & eliminate draughts before you look at heat pumps.
Ventilation: the better you control draughts, the more you will need ventilation (& heat recovery) to control humidity.
Get professional advice independent of suppliers & contractors.

Download PDF case study with details and links.

Book now:

Sat 25th Oct 11 am, 1 pm & 3 pm

Sat 22nd Nov 11 am, 1 pm & 3 pm

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