Think about the fabric first, which means considering the thermal envelope – the walls, roofs, floors, windows and doors. Are the walls, roofs and floors insulated? Do they have enough insulation? Do you have any single glazed windows, or old timber doors with big air gaps around the frame? Identify the areas that need improvement and make a plan to upgrade anything that needs upgrading. You might want to appoint a professional to provide tailored advice on the best approach to upgrading the thermal envelope of your house. You can then decide what order to complete the works. You might want to tackle the least intrusive jobs first, for example cavity wall insulation or loft insulation. You might want to do the jobs that will have the biggest impact first, for example replacing single glazed windows with triple glazing. You might want to take a deep retrofit approach and complete all the works in one go. We have an article taking a closer look at types of insulation, and one on upgrading windows and doors, coming up as part of this series, so check out our website for these.
Next think about airtightness. If you have a leaky home the air you pay to heat up in the winter can quickly escape and be replaced with cold, outdoor air. By improving the airtightness you can significantly reduce heat loss (a UK experiment showed a reduction in heat loss of 31-35% by improving airtightness[1]). You can improve airtightness by sealing gaps around windows and external doors, replacing old windows and doors, and by installing airtightness membranes when insulating internally. You can test how airtight your house is by doing a blower door test, where the property is either pressurised or depressurised, and the amount of pressure required by a fan to maintain the pressure is measured. The results will be given as a number of air changes per hour for your house. You can identify specific air leakage pathways by using a smoke pen, which lets off smoke so you can see if air is escaping through gaps. If you drastically improve the air tightness of your property you will need to consider ventilation to guarantee good indoor air quality. This can be done through background ventilation, either passively with trickle vents on windows and doors or mechanically with extractor fans or a mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system. MVHR systems provide fresh air that is heated by the exhaust air to reduce heat loss. You can have centralised systems which remove stale air and provide fresh air through ducts, or decentralised systems which have individual units connected directly to the outside of the building.
Next look at your heating system, is it due to be replaced? Modern boilers are much more efficient than ones from 20 years ago. Ideally replace fossil fuel heating with an electric heating system as electricity can be generated through renewable or clean methods. Heat pumps are the most efficient heating systems – see our other journal post on heat pumps.
Next look at installing renewable technology on your property. This could be solar photovoltaic panels to generate electricity for your house, solar hot water panels to heat water for your house or a wind turbine to generate electricity. There are a wide range of options for renewable energy generation and storage and it is best to seek professional advice to design a system that is tailored to your property and your energy usage. At Keystone we work with a variety of consultants who can specify renewable technology for your project that we can incorporate into the design.
Finally, especially if you are designing a new build house, think carefully about the space you need. Space efficiency and energy efficiency are closely linked, so design your house to be the size that you need and don’t add rooms that you don’t need or that are excessively large. Instead think about efficient floor plans and multi-functional spaces to make sure you don’t have unnecessary areas to heat and light and you can get the most out of the spaces in your house.
[1] https://www.rehva.eu/rehva-journal/chapter/research-into-the-effect-of-improving-airtightness-in-a-typical-uk-dwelling
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