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"....a home not a science experiment..." &
"Britain's 59th Superhome"
Welcome to our Post-Carbon Living 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. 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:
Hopefully the reasons why this was important
will become apparent. The property has 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:
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NO Cavity Wall insulation
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NO Water Pipe insulation
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NO Immersion Heater insulation
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Less than 100mm of Mineral Wool loft
insulation
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NO Insulation Jackets around either Hot
Water or Heating Header Tanks in Attic
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Some very bad DIY plumbing
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The original 1980's Gas Boiler
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Rudimentary Heating controls/timer
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Built-in Kitchen appliances of unknown
efficiency rating
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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 wee several cm thicker than other houses of that era.
In August 2010 our eco-renovation was elected
to become Britain's 59th "Superhome" here:
www.SuperHomes.org.uk
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