The home:
Detached chalet bungalow with brick cavity walls, tiled roof. Built 1973
Modifications:
Cavity insulation, loft insulation and double glazing. Central heating with skirting radiators and wood pellet boiler. Solar PV panels with excess energy diverted to hot water tank. Solar hot water panel and rainwater harvesting connected to the toilets
Motivations:
Bought house in 1998. It had single glazing, no insulation and electric radiators, plus two storage heaters. There was an open fire in the living room. Undertook full upgrade of insulation etc and installed central heating with conventional radiators and a gas boiler running on propane from bottles. This rapidly increased in cost and we installed an oil powered stove in the living room. When the gas boiler failed in 2015, the pellet boiler was installed. The solar panels were installed in 2011 motivated by the feed-in tariff
Approximate costs:
Solar pv - £12500 (payback after 8 years)
Solar hot water - £3000 (received about £1000 RHI tariff over 7 years)
Pellet boiler - £15000 (received about £10000 RHI tariff over 7 years)
Approximate energy savings:
They have never fully worked it out, but they get 3000kWH per annum from the solar pv. The solar hot water provides a bit but rather disappointing. The solar PV to hot water diverter provides all our hot water during the summer
Who did the work?
PV installed by local electricians
Solar hot water installed by manufacturers contactors
Initial set of double glazing by national company, then remaining windows by local companies
Cavity insulation and some loft insulation by large company
Loft insulation DIY
Central heating DIY
Pellet boiler by local energy company
Rainwater tank by local builders as part of other work
We are happy with what we have, so would recommend suppliers where they still exist
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