Case Study: Retrofit on the edge of the Peaks
- Home: 4-bedroom semi-detached cottage,
- Built: 1917 cottage with 2009 extension
- Drivers: Get off gas, minimise disruption, improve comfort
- Measures: External wall insulation (EWI), windows, insulation, airtightness, air source heat pump (ASHP), solar photovoltaics (PV), electric vehicle charging
- Funding: Green loan and a mortgage extension
- Key outcome: Gas-free home, mould eliminated, lower bills
Edvin and Kathryn have lived in their four bedroomed semi-detached cottage on the edge of the Peak District for around 6 years, alongside their two young children.
The house has been built in two phases; a small cottage completed in 1917, with a later extension consisting of a living room and a few bedrooms upstairs finished by the previous owner in 2009. The home occupies a beautiful, but exposed, position above the valley; the constantly shifting weather rolls in unpredictably over the hills, leaving the front of the house to be battered by wind, rain, snow and sleet for much of the year.
Environmentally motivated
For Edvin, it was an environmental argument that propelled him to look more closely at retrofit. ‘We really wanted to get off gas,’ he said, ‘in a way that was sustainable and didn’t cause too much disruption. It felt important that we weren’t using gas any more in the home’.
The family reached out to People Powered Retrofit for support in figuring out their next steps. ‘We had loads of ideas in our heads about what we could do and what might make sense for the home. But we didn’t really know what action to take.’
People Powered Retrofit visited a few years ago, surveying the home and modelling three different scenarios that offered different interventions for different levels of budget. Though the house wasn’t unbearably cold in the winter, it did suffer from draughts as the weather changed, and mould and dampness in the bathrooms were becoming an increasingly annoying problem. The family saw the retrofit as an opportunity to address both issues at the same time.
‘We really needed help narrowing down our plans and developing more of a strategy of what to do,’ Edvin said, ‘the plan we created with People Powered Retrofit helped in that process’
Installing measures
The family chose their measures specifically to help them reduce dependency on gas, but also to minimise disruption as far as possible. ‘Retrofit always has an element of disruption and we were aware of that when we started out. But with a young family, it was important that the children still had their home to live in and that we wouldn’t have to move out’. External wall insulation, for instance, was mostly selected because the mess and the disruption happened outside and, for the most part, away from family life.
In the end, the family chose new triple glazed windows to all of the windows, cavity wall insulation, additional loft insulation, airtightness work, solar panels, heat pump and electric car charging
Work on site
For most people embarking on a retrofit journey, finding the right contractors is often the most difficult part of the work. Edvin and Kathryn wanted one contractor to take on the bulk of the work, to minimise the number of people on site and to make communication easier. ‘It was a challenge initially to find the right person,’ Edvin admitted. People Powered Retrofit helped to support the search and eventually contractors were found.
Thankfully, much of the work went smoothly. Despite concerns that the EWI and cavity wall insulation would take a long time to complete, the family were pleasantly surprised that the whole house was insulated and rendered within a small weather window. Similarly, the cavity wall insulation was completed within a ‘hassle-free day’. What took the longest was the smaller bits of roof work, drainpipes, loft work, scaffolding delivery and dismantling. ‘The rural location did make deliveries of scaffolding and materials a little bit more challenging,’ Edvin said, ‘but our neighbours were very forgiving and we made it work’.
External wall insulation (EWI), windows installation, cavity wall insulation, loft insulation and airtightness were completed first, with the heat pump, solar panels coming a little bit later. ‘We knew that the EWI and insulation would make the biggest impact, and wanted to make sure the heat pump was sized correctly', the family said.
People Powered Retrofit supported the work on site by providing specifications and discussing the installation with the contractors to overcome some of the more technical issues that occurred during the build. ‘It was helpful having that expertise to advise on the process and to tell us what we needed to think about’.
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A comfortable home
‘Reducing bills was never a priority for us,’ Edvin said, ‘but I think we’ve at least halved our annual bills - and that’s even with electric car charging.’ For the family, the biggest and best outcome is having absolutely no gas in the house at all.
‘The heat pump has taken some getting used to,’ Edvin notes, ‘but we’re happy with it now.’ The heat pump is situated on the side of the property and is ‘governed by complex algorithms’ that make judgements about the weather. ‘We mostly leave it alone, but it keeps the house at a pretty constant temperature over the year’. There have only been a few times where the heat pump hasn’t got it quite right - ‘we actually were slightly too warm once or twice’.
When asked about other improvements, Edvin noted the changes in their bathrooms. ‘The mould and damp has been completely eradicated, which is great, but a little bit weird. In the UK you become very accustomed to having a bit of mould in the bathroom - but it doesn’t need to be there!’
Financing it all
The family took out a Nationwide loan for ‘green measures’ and then extended their mortgage. ‘We didn’t necessarily have a budget in mind,’ Edvin said, ‘we wanted to figure out what we needed and what made the most sense and then worked backwards from there’.
Overall, they spent more than they had expected to, but still felt it was worthwhile. ‘I doubt the measures will ever fully pay for themselves, but that wasn’t ever the point’.
Next steps
There is still more the family would like to do, including insulating the skeillings (sloping ceiling sections at the edge of upstairs rooms) and improving airtightness further. But for now, they are enjoying a home that is warmer, healthier and - most importantly for them - completely free from gas.
Get in touch
Interested in how you can improve your home? Thinking of taking on a retrofit project? Get in touch.
