Renovating a 150year old house and making it as energy efficienct as possible.

[Hexbramble]

It runs on LPG at the moment - big tank in the back garden and that won't be changing anytime soon. The whole road is without mains gas. It currently has a newish combi boiler, pvc double glazing, radiators in every room and an old gas fire in a lounge. The other chimney has long since been blocked up but we plan on extending to the side so the chimney would have to go anyway.

I want to make this house larger, bring some character back to it and hopefully make it run more efficiently in terms of cost.

Help and advice greatly appreciated.

You need to look at the insulation - what is it like, and where can you add some? That is the single most cost effective thing you can do for energy efficiency.

When you are extending out to the side, make sure the new area has really good insulation, but also that you extend in a way that makes the most of the natural heat that you get from the sun (large windows towards the south, small ones to the north). Avoid having main living areas that are north facing.

I love a log burner, can really make the house warm and cozy and massively reduce your gas usage. Can look lovely in a period house too.

Thanks Liara. Log burner is on the list - just don't know which one.

I'll make a note of the windows too!
And insulation - thanks.

Good luck! Over time if you can, adding solar panels to reduce the heating and hot water bill is pretty cool and can be fairly cost effective. It doesn't have to replace the LPG, just adds a boost so all the heating doesn't have to be from the gas.

Even if you wouldn't do it up front, you might want to look into it in case there are some things which are easy to put in when building the extension but very hard afterwards (e.g. pipe connecting roof to boiler room!)

Thanks Liara.
I like the idea of underfloor heating, and also putting in an aga. Are there energy efficient ways of running these?
Also, are triple glazed windows a good idea?

No idea about an aga, I don't have one.

Underfloor heating can be run off a boiler which runs on wood, solar, gas or a combination. Generally speaking it isn't massively efficient if you are going to be out of the house a lot, as it takes a long time to warm up and then keeps going for a long time, possibly after you are gone. We have it but don't actually use it!

I think triple glazed windows are a bit of an overkill if you are in the UK, I don't think they are a terribly cost effective way of increasing your insulation. Double glazed windows which seal properly and are well installed are likely to be good enough.

One thing that can help is having a ventilation system which uses the energy from the air being extracted to heat the incoming air. Not sure what they are called in the UK, though, I'm in France (here they are called VMC double flux, fwiw). You will probably need a good ventilation system if you greatly increase the airtightness of the place, or you risk having a problem with damp and condensation. If there are already any issues with damp, using breathable lime plaster instead of gypsum on the inside is recommended (but very expensive).

Electric aga which is programmable to be high/low depending on when you are cooking with solar panels to reduce your electricity costs would be best way to do that. We have AIMS aga but you also get newer versions which use less energy.
We are getting electric dual control and solar panels in our new house plus of course lots of insulation

Do some research on the renewable heat incentive - on phone but you can google or get more info via energy saving trust. basically they pay you for installing certain measures. As others have said insulation is key.

Back boiler on the woodburner to heat hot water.

I imagine it will have solid walls rather than cavity walls so you could add External Wall Insulation which can be rendered. In some instances you can get a grant for part of the EWI cost.

Liara - in UK it is called MHVR (or MVHR) Mechanical Heat Ventilation Recovery. We have it (but not tried yet as still building).

With airtightness and MHVR, a woodburner must be chosen very carefully. We have opted for an electric woodburning stove just for the glow and cosy look not for any heat.

All i'll say is, just be really careful with insulation, obtain professional advice before doing anything!

We accepted one of those government grants a few years back for cavity wall insulation on our 110yr old house (Our house is Victorian) and whilst it made the house really warm, it completely buggered up the ventilation in the entire house, so that our loft has been completely unusable for some years due to terrible condensation problems, with nowhere for the heat to escape.

Builders have since told us that old houses ventilate in a more 'natural' way - if you lift up our floorboards, there is basically soil / ground underneath. We have purposefully not carpeted our downstairs in order to let the house breathe more effectively. I would not have done the cavity wall insulation either, had i known the problems it would cause.

Not saying don't do anything, just get some proper advice before hand - we could've avoided our condensation problems by adding other ventilation points elsewhere in the house, to offset the heat being retained by the cavity wall insulation.

Thanks Lucy!

Heavy curtains lined with interlining plus a liner ie three layers. Double glazing is more efficient than single but you still get cold spots.

Yy to not making it too draught free, buildings need to have a flow of air.

You could start here www.historicengland.org.uk/advice/your-home/saving-energy/energy-efficiency/
Quite a lot of links to other documents and websites. NB. Historic England is the new name for the advice part of English Heritage (since 1 April).