ECO HOUSE REFURBISHMENT: GREENING YOUR HOUSE
UPGRADING/RETROFITTING A HOUSE TO GOOD
ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS
This project involved upgrading an ordinary semi-detached house to good environmental standards.
The aim was to provide a practical example of what is possible at a reasonable cost rather than turn the house into a high tech zero carbon building such as you see on programmes such as Grand Designs.
The main energy saving works to the house were:
(please click the pics for more details)
Upgrading attic room insulation - approx £3000
Cavity wall insulation - £199
Double glazed french doors - £1400
Thermostatic radiator valves - £300
Upgrading heating controls and thermostat - approx £100
Insulation of ground floor (thick fibreboard underlay) - approx £190
Low energy light bulbs - approx £60
Infilling air vents in walls - approx £150
Log burning stove installed in fireplace - £1200
 Energy saving meter - approx £40
In total the refurbishment costs were about £16000 of which about £5,500 were extra over works to improve energy performance of the house (not including the back doors which I would probably have had to replace anyway).
Effect of energy saving works
I believe as a result that I have reduced the potential carbon emissions from the house by about 35%, possibly more (see below). This is based on the before and after Energy Performance Certificate rating, a rough measure of energy use and carbon emissions (and a legal requirement now on selling or letting a house) .
Energy Performance before works:
Energy use 260kWh/m2 per year
Carbon dioxide emissions 4.9 tonnes per year
Energy Performance after works
Energy use 193 kWh/m2 per year
Carbon dioxide emissions 3.2 tonnes per year
Further environmental improvements to the house
These are some further things I have done that are environmental improvements to the house, though not necessarily energy saving. These may well contribute to further carbon emission reductions.
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Eco paints |
More pleasant to work with than ordinary paints and less harmful chemicals lingering in house |
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New pure wool carpets |
Less harmful chemicals given off and from a renewable source |
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Rainwater butt |
Small water saving and better water for plants |
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Water meter fitted |
User becomes aware of use, hopefully being more careful |
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Preparing raised bed for growing food |
Opportunity for householder to grow own vegetables |
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Green Johanna composter and compost bin |
Recycling of garden waste and food waste reducing need for collection and hence transport and disposal in eg landfill (methane production) |
And finally some items that were recycled or unchanged to reduce environmental impact:
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Carpet underlay |
I managed to get some top class Cloud 9 underlay from freecycle which did the ground floor, and more |
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Oak for fire surround |
An off-cut we had hanging around at home |
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Refurbishing existing cupboards |
Instead of buying new wood or ply, we managed to refurbish the existing cupboards in the bedroom with just new wooden hanging rails |
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Re-used curtains |
Some of the curtains in the house were OK but others have been replaced with charity shop aquisitions |
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Kept kitchen cabinets |
Rather than strip and redo the kitchen, the existing wooden door and fronts have been kept and repaired as necessary. The worktop too has been kept (although not in absolute perfect condition it is perfectly adequate) |
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Kitchen sink |
Needed a new sink anyway but got one off freecycle which cleaned up well |
Works that could be done to improve efficiency even further
The new Energy Performance Certificate showed the house had moved from band D to band C (the higher the band, the higher the energy performance of the house). Only three recommendations were made in the report of further improvements that could be made to bring the house to an even higher level (band B). These were all expensive items that I could not justify spending the money on:
The boiler is not old and is working perfectly, and with regard to solar installations, I would not be eligible for government grants which might make them feasible. The other thing that would increase the energy efficiency of the house is upgrading the older pvc double glazed windows, but that is also very expensive and not worth considering unless there were a major problem with the existing ones.
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