1970s Home Updated for Modern Living, Market Lane, Linton

Sat 15 Nov 2025, – Sat 29 Nov 2025, Various

Meet your hosts, Tim and Janice

We bought our house about 3½ years ago. It was chosen for location and garden size, but we knew it needed a lot of work. We had done a major extension and remodelling on our previous house so had a good idea of what could be done and the costs. Most of the work was to make the house more pleasant to live in and more suitable for our needs. Since the heating system needed replacement, we decided to go for a heat pump for ecological reasons.  We installed solar panels for similar ‘eco’ reasons and also because of the very clear long term cost saving. 

Tim says “we knew we needed to replace the worn out gas boiler and radiators and realised it was worth taking a lot of care in designing a system for an air source heat pump. Radiators are sized according to the MCS survey, some are surprisingly small….Both the heat pump and solar PV have exceeded expectations.”  

We have a more contemporary and comfortable house and have reduced energy utility costs by at least 90%. The house is brighter, warmer and more practical. The Solar PV app provides very useful information for monitoring energy usage and helps in developing strategies to make the most of time-of-day tariffs etc. It needs some thought to manage the systems for cost effectiveness but all we really have to do is change the battery charge and discharge schedules with the seasons.  

Key features of this home 

• 100 mm of external insulation added to 1st floor  
• Replaced old poor quality PVC double glazed windows with larger triple-glazed ones  
• Installed 16 panel  solar PV array on SSW facing roof  
• Added SolaX 10 kWh battery and hybrid inverter  
• Installed Vaillant aroTHERM plus 7 kW air source heat pump with standard controls  
• Low energy lighting  
• A pleasant, constant, ambient temperature is now maintained in the house. Rainwater harvesting work in progress 

Our hosts’ top tips  

• Improve insulation as much as possible  
• Take care setting house and water temperatures e.g. don’t overheat house   
• Solar PV – Go as big as you can and it is most effective if you can use a lot of it yourself   
• Learn how to manage the systems for greatest efficiency 

Download PDF case study with details and links.

Book now:

Sat 15th Nov 11 am, 1 pm & 3 pm     

Sat 29th Nov 11 am, 1 pm & 3 pm

 

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