Episode 2 is a technical one, all about energy efficiency. Just as I started writing this I learned that the Government has decided to scrap its proposals to tie in compulsory energy efficiency measures to home improvements through Green Deal finance. The plan had been that if you extend your house - increasing the space that needs heating and/or cooling, you would have to install measures so that your net energy consumption was at least no bigger.
The energy efficiency imperative in old housing stock is unbelievably enormous. It accounts for almost half of the UK's carbon emissions, and because so much existing stock will still be with us in 50 or more years' time, it puts the whole national carbon reduction strategy into the realms of farce, unless powerful measures for retrofitting are introduced. Sure, it's not fair to force people to stump up for this out of their own pockets, and the Green Deal is one way to spare their pain, by using their energy bills in effect as a loan scheme to cover upfront costs. But surely, compelling people to take action on their energy consumption when undertaking home improvements they'd decided to do - and pay for - anyway, need not be controversial. It just needs to be well-managed.
But no - the weedy Government has backed down again. However, one thing you can be sure of is that people with big, old, draughty, single-glazed houses with minimal insulation and ancient heating systems will be getting on the energy-saving case themselves and, I suspect, in their droves. The simple push for this is rising energy costs: big old houses are just getting too expensive to heat - and gradually it will make them unaffordable to live in. So people like me, whether or not they care about sustainability, really have little choice now but to start doing it for themselves.
A friend quoted to me a few months ago a mantra that there are 3 steps to doing this properly: insulate [the house]; a-rate [the appliances]; generate [your own energy]. In that order. That's why it's been a bit frustrating that there was a clamour last year for solar PV generation on roofs, whilst it's still weirdly possible to buy new appliances that aren't at least A-rated, and schemes to get serious about insulation are not getting much attention. There are some good insulation schemes, but these mainly apply to cavity walls - which pre 1930s houses don't have - and lofts - which you may also not have if you instead have an attic room or loft conversion. So older houses fall into the category of "hard-to-treat" and get left behind by the incentive schemes. My insulation needs to go inside my rooms, swallowing architectural features like lava pouring through quaint villages at the foot of a volcano.
But there is a big plus-side to this! I'm refurbishing anyway, and because I'm not eligible for an incentive scheme I can work out how to do it in a way that I think is architecturally appropriate, I can test out different methodologies and I don't have to let in a stampede of quick-fit installers who've just moved over from fitting hatchet-job replacement windows to cash in on the latest incentive scheme. I should also be able to measure the energy improvements in terms of their effectiveness and cost.
For my house, I have a kind of energy-saving shopping list, and it's really designed to make the house as liveable as possible. These are the main measures I want to install.
Insulate:
convert all windows from single-glazing to low-E double-glazing;
internally insulate all internal walls and roof;
insulate the ground floors (one suspended timber floor and three cellars);
thermally separate the cellar to give a cold room (to reduce refrigeration energy) and a hot room (to provide a drying room and reduce laundry energy);
provide some acoustic insulation against the party wall to improve privacy.
A-rate:
fit a new central heating system with condensing boiler feeding underfloor heating to all floors;
ensure all appliances are as energy-efficient as possible;
(hopefully) install a water meter and smart-metering of gas and electricity;
design room layouts, materials etc to optimise control and comfort at lower ambient temperatures;
use a high-efficiency woodfuel stove for supplementary heat on ground floor.
Generate:
install mechanical heat recovery ventilation from warm, wet rooms;
consider solar water heating.
I'll go into more detail on some or all of these measures as the project progresses. Tune in next time...
AW.
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