Eco adaptations to older houses

[TobiasToad]

I've been inspired by the Super Homes website and looking at doing some improvements to improve the energy efficiency of our home. It already has an EPC 'C' rating. I'm looking at solar panels and heat pumps. Does anyone have either? Heat pumps particularly are a new one on me. The main motivation behind this is environmental, this is a 'forever' home so not in a rush to make the money back. Are there any other things anyone has had done? The house is being renovated so I'm keen to work in energy efficient changes during the planning.

Full eco refurb on my 1930's house around 8 years ago. Total waste of time and money. Had the lot pulled out and changed back.
The only thing that was worth it was the insulation.
Loads of hype none of it at all practical unless you live on a farm. Try getting anyone to fix this stuff when it goes wrong - nightmare.

We have solar panels on our 1940's house. We didn't pay for them so don't store ant of the energy. But - when the electricity meter started going backwards it made a lot of sense. I generate enough on a good day to run all the electrical equipment, lights and either the washing machine or tumble dryer.

so do I, but the subsidies are much lower today than they were a year or two ago, so they aren't really a paying proposition.

We've recently put in solar panels with a tesla 2 battery storage. Moved in about a month ago and so far only used about a total of 20kwh from the grid as we had a few horrible days weather wise. It's working quite well for us. We've got the tesla app which tells you how much your generating, using and how full the battery is. It's getting a bit addictive checking as I'm loathe to put anything into the grid. We're getting FIT payments too but that's pennies compared to what they used to pay out.
Hopefully getting an air source heat pump delivered today to service underfloor Heating and hot water. We're rural and have no gas.

Check your wall insulation - I live in a house that's too old for cavity walls, so I have external. It's great & has made a big difference to bills. I've also noticed a huge difference in rooms where I've started to put down very good quality, ecofriendly underlay - doesn't cost much, but makes a huge difference.

Solar - I think a lot depends where you are in the country, tbh. My parents are in the sunny East and they get loads. Here in the grim north I fear it would be a lot of expense for not much benefit. I love the idea of the Tesla roof, but I've tried crunching some numbers, and unless I've made a miscalculation (perfectly possible) it works out a load more expensive than solar panels??

Whatever you do don't get tempted by log gasification biomass. It is the absolute bane of my life and I really wish we hadn't put it in. A disproportionate amount of our time is spent trying to fire up the boiler and that's without all the processing of the wood. It also constantly uses electricity and so I'm not even convinced by its eco credentials. Makes me want to cry when I think of the £15k that could have been put to far better use and which we will definitely not recoup despite all of the calculations which were done beforehand.

@IrritatedUser1960 interested to hear more of your story if you're happy to share.

OP: if you can install solar and an air source heat pump, technically the solar can power the heat pump at least some of the time, and if you have a hot water store that can be topped up by both solar and air source if I understood correctly.

Also, worth noting that electricity can be green (eg my supplier is Green Energy) but gas is more difficult. Yes, I know the electricity I'm actually using is probably not green but there should be green electricity going into the grid elsewhere to cover me. Approximately.

fluttershyby

might I enquire what you paid for your solar+battery?

What's the generation been, for the month of September?

Regarding the expanding foam, acetone or nail varnish remover is the chemical that dissolved it. Only works when it's still wet.
Tool station sell a foam eater that's supposed to work when it's dry but it doesn't.
Did I also mention I got some on my hair and had to cut that bit out?

Regarding solar panels, does anyone have them on their garden? It puzzles me a bit that people stick them up on the roof when a gazebo 2.5m high at the bottom of the garden would be less risky for the integrity of the house.

This has been a really interesting thread. Ta much.

We have a 1850s stone small farmhouse with a larger 1980s brick and rendered extension. It has coal-fired central heating and single-glazed wooden windows. Also have a newish log-burner put in by the previous owners which we use for most of our heating (we have a small woodland so use surplus wood from that, so it is effectively free). It doesn't heat the water though. For that we need the immersion heater, which we use for most of the year, or the coal-fired central heating for the winter months. Our bills are not huge because we use the free wood - so maybe £1300 per year all in for electric and coal? Been here 2 years by the way.

So we've been mulling over what to do:

• New wooden double-glazed windows seems obvious although the old ones are in good nick and fit well? Not sure that we need to rush to replace.

• New central heating. But what? We have no mains gas. Loads of space for ground-source heat pump but is it the way to go? I did think about biomass but Newt upthread has put me off. Most people have oil round here.

• DH is keen on solar but I am very fond of our Welsh slate roof and the solar panels would need to go at the front of the house (we are south facing at the front). Not so keen on the look of the panels.

Conclusion is that we are indecisive. We're lucky that we don't need to make changes immediately. Everything is working okay at the moment, just thinking longer term as hopefully this is our forever home so don't mind making an investment.

Will lurk on this thread though.

"New wooden double-glazed windows seems obvious although the old ones are in good nick and fit well?"

It is not at all obvious that you need to pull out something in good nick that fits well.

How many pounds a year do you think a double-glazed window saves?

What does a double-glazed window cost?

@Popchyk have you considered secondary glazing? Not as effective as double but we found it a really big improvement on single in our last thick stone walled house. We did get some new hardwood double glazed but many of the windows were in very good condition and had beautiful old glass panels.

We measured up ourselves (with our builder/ joiner) and had the glass cut and delivered then our joiner fitted the panels into the existing frames.

It was a fraction of the cost of all new wooded windows, looked good and made a difference.

Regarding ground source heating my one big question if you're rural is how stable is your power? We lived rurally with airsource heating and two back up woodburners. We had a spell at -15 and a power cut. IT was a really cold winter and the power was quite unstable that year maybe 1/2 day a fortnight off. The heat from the airsource was lovely and gentle and the house acted as a storage heater so it was not fast to respond to temperature change. The wood burners were worth their weight and then some.

While I agree that the high entry price for double glazing means that it won't necessarily pay for itself as an energy-saving measure, low u-value eco-friendly windows may make the most enormous difference to your comfort levels! However, do check how another solution, like secondary glazing, might work cost-wise before taking the plunge!

(BIL has recently had all his windows redone with single-glazed sashes. While the joinery is magnificent, to the point that it's hard to imagine any better job, the house is still pretty cold - I take extra layers to wear at night, but I am a wuss).

What about upping your insulation - internal wall, done as you work through each room? Underfloor?

Oh, thanks for the replies.

No idea on all of those, PigletJohn. Not worth the outlay then?

RippleEffects and guilty, could certainly look into secondary glazing.

Our electricity is quite stable, I think. We are in the lee side of a hill and have had only one power cut of one hour in the last two years. We also have a generator gifted from the previous owners.

Our utility room has a stone outside wall (with some concrete render on the outside) and no heating in it. Consequently the room itself is prone to damp. Currently run a dehumidifier in there a lot of the time. We intended to lime render the inside of the wall. We'll put a radiator in there when we replace the heating system.

The rest of the house is not damp, even in the older parts of the house (survey said damp levels were low for the age of the house).

We live in an older (mid 1500s) house and one of the first things that we did was install a ground source heat pump. I would highly recommend it as the house is always warm with control by thermostats. It runs both underfloor and radiator heating and we never run out of hot water and only needs to be serviced once a year.

We are rural but only have short power cuts in thunder storms, we also have three phase electricity so no impact on the rest of the electrical items in the house.

If you are going to use draught proofing be careful that you use appropriate materials for the build of your house as you don't want to create damp problems - a lot of older houses need to be able to breathe and hence why some draughts are necessary. If the house is listed you should also speak to your conservation officer for advice, particularly if you are planning to install double-glazing.

DH seems keen on the ground source heat pump with underfloor heating idea, bearstrike.

My only wibble about that is the lovely quarry stone floors downstairs that would have to come up .

Upstairs are pine floorboards so they'd be easy to get up and back down again.

Hmm, I wonder if radiators downstairs and underfloor heating upstairs would work? We could use our existing pipework and radiators downstairs maybe?

Sorry for the merail on your thread, OP. Just thinking out loud a bit.

in most houses, the windows are much smaller than the walls, so you will save more energy with wall insulation.

draught-stripping windows and using curtains has good payback.

You could always relay the stone floors - we have thick flags in our kitchen, pantry etc and they have underfloor heating and are really quite nice to walk on!

Don't apologise Popchyk, I'm learning loads from this thread so hearing everyone's thoughts and experiences is great.
I am planning to get a wood burner too although not one with a boiler as I understand maintaining the pressure on it is a nightmare.
Solar panels I think we will definitely go for as even without the previous subsidies of seems like they do generate a reasonable amount energy for the common good.
The experts on expanding foam have convinced me not to do this as it could never go well given how shit we are at DIY. Thick curtains seems less risky!
I'm still undecided about a heat pump. We seem different as we live in a city so normal mains gas/no power outages usually.
Does the electricity cost of running the pump mean it is more expensive to run than standard gas central heating? I'm assuming minimal solar energy in the winter which is when you'd actually have it on. I haven't had a quote but I was told that subsidies mean you get the installation and equipment cost back within 7 years so it's just running costs. Although I suppose that doesn't include the cost of underfloor heating installation which would be expensive I assume.
The Ikea solar idea is an interesting one, they do batteries as well. I was told a Tesla battery is £7k so that one was firmly parked until the cost of the technology comes down.

The energy saving trust is a good source of info.

www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/renewable-energy/heat/ground-source-heat-pumps

And this calculator is helpful too.

www.gov.uk/renewable-heat-incentive-calculator

Thanks for those links, Daffy.

Will take a look.

We retrofitted a 60's brick bungalow a few years back from D to A energy rating.
Cavity wall insulation, under floor rigid insulation to all rooms(did one room at a time over a period of 18months, integral garage wall insulation, filled in the top of the cavity wall with rigid foam insulation(access through the loft), removed the gas fire, sealed the lower half of the chimney with rigid foam insulation installed new electric fire, removed the external chimney, new roof tiles(this job needed doing), new solar panels.

Sealed all holes under new bath and fitted recycled plastic insulation all around the bath before putting new panel back on(this was the most cost effective job!! £20 for the insulation and bath water stayed warm for ages). Energy bill for gas £100 per year, electricity bill £zero due to solar panels. Feedback tariff is all profit.
Fitted composite door to front door that was cut to fit existing wooden frame bought from eBay for 120 including delivery.

Hmm, I wonder if radiators downstairs and underfloor heating upstairs would work? We could use our existing pipework and radiators downstairs maybe?

Yes this would work popchyk my sister has this configuration in her house.

Hmm, I wonder if radiators downstairs and underfloor heating upstairs would work? We could use our existing pipework and radiators downstairs maybe?

Yes this would work popchyk my sister has this configuration in her house.