           
Britain's 59th Superhome: "....a home not a science experiment..." Welcome to our Post-Carbon Home - a five bedroom House (well, three beds and two offices) in deepest Buckinghamshire, UK. We would not normally wax lyrical about a building if it were not for the fact that it will become a model for what many (if not most) people can do to make their homes low-carbon. 80% of all the homes we will be living in by 2050 are already standing today. So if we wish to build resilient, relocalised communities for a post-carbon age then we had better start with the homes we have. Important note: this was NOT an "eco-refit". It was modernisation. It was simple future-proofing. cont....
You can visit THIS Superhome! |
Visitors can now book to come and see this Superhome. Check for openings and book your place by going to: www.superhome59.info We have public openings for two tours on Saturday 17th March: Please book your tour at www.superhome59.info or by calling 01494 858390. Max of five people per tour. Tours last 50 minutes. You now also have the chance to see Superhome 113 some 2 miles south as our tours don't overlap. See poster below for details. 
How to find us (with bus route info):
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continued... The property was purchased in 2008 and we moved in in May of that year. The house is quite average in many respects but we chose it for a couple of important features: This was one home that had considerable room for improvement. Since it was built in the mid-1980's the previous occupants had performed some cosmetic modernisation on the interior but had, otherwise, made few practical improvements. When we moved in we found the following horrors: No Cavity Wall insulation No Water Pipe insulation No Domestic Hot Water Cylinder insulation Less than 100mm of Mineral Wool loft insulation No Insulation Jackets around either Hot Water or Heating Header Tanks in Attic Some very bad DIY plumbing The original 1980's Gas Boiler Rudimentary Heating controls/timer Built-in Kitchen appliances of unknown efficiency rating Gas Fire in Lounge to Open Chimney
 To the previous owner's credit they had replaced the original single-glazed window units with White PVC Double Glazing - but that was about it. So we inheritted a house in fairly "average" condition for its age. It reflected most people's priorities over the last thirty years. Energy was cheap and Climate Change was just a theory. (As an example the ceilings had been punctured to install recessed ceiling lights. A very fashionable idea at one time but a nightmare for anyone trying to make a house air-tight to modern building standards.) We obviously had a lot of work to do. It was an ideal opportunity to demonstrate some best practice for the modern household and the informed DIYer.
The biggest challenge for us will be engaging a sympathetic Local Planning Authority. The House is in a Conservation Area and Smoke Control Zone. Although this will not impact most of the basic changes to the internal systems, it would mean Planning Permission (&/or careful product selection) for such work as: Before we bought the property we had already made an informal approach to the local Planning Authority to ascertain their attitudes to Solar Panels. Good news - they were sympathetic and stated that they were unlikely to raise any objection. However later enquiries about lists of locally approved Bio-Mass Boilers with the "Air Quality" Officer met with a less-than-useful response. Clearly we were in for interesting times. On the flip side we did have an interesting advantage - as the property was of brick & flint construction the walls were several cm thicker than other houses of that era. 
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