This Old House
The house - April 2013
We discovered the house April 2013, (it had been empty for a year) and it didn't take us long to decide to make an offer to buy. It has solid walls on the ground floor with a timber frame on the first; covered in lathe and plaster internally and Kent peg tiles hung externally. There was one open fire and a stove with a back boiler in the
We discovered the house April 2013, (it had been empty for a year) and it didn't take us long to decide to make an offer to buy. It has solid walls on the ground floor with a timber frame on the first; covered in lathe and plaster internally and Kent peg tiles hung externally. There was one open fire and a stove with a back boiler in the kitchen. No central heating and no gas in the village. The house was a 'G 1' energy rating - the worst!
Work starts September 2013
The scaffolding goes up, the peg tiles removed. The first Green Deal allowed us to access a grant to externally insulate the external walls (see the 'Gallery' page for more details), these grants were withdrawn March 2016). We also installed a biomass boiler, with a renewable heating grant (RHI) which burns wood chips for heat and hot water.
Generating our electric
Generating our electric
Our old house resides in a conservation area, hence the reason for mounting the solar PV 4 kW array (12 panels) in the rear garden facing south. The photo was taken from an upstairs window, however, the array can hardly be seen from the ground. Planning permission was required and granted 2015. During the spring and summer seasons, the bi
Our old house resides in a conservation area, hence the reason for mounting the solar PV 4 kW array (12 panels) in the rear garden facing south. The photo was taken from an upstairs window, however, the array can hardly be seen from the ground. Planning permission was required and granted 2015. During the spring and summer seasons, the biomass is switched off and the solar PV's generate all the electricity for this old house, our warm home is now rated 'C 69'.