|
Mar 19
2010
|
Home of the Future showcased at EcoBuild 2010Posted by: Will Homoky Tagged in: UK Green Building Council , PAYS , Labour Government , Knauf Insulation , Great British Refurb Campaign , Energy Saving , Eco-Refurb , Bristol
|
|
The grand unveiling of our house happened just four weeks after the start of the eco-refurbishments. Representatives of the press, campaign supporters, and competition sponsors joined in with the celebrations at our house, as Campaign Director Simon McWhirter handed us back the keys to our 75% more energy efficient home.
No sooner than Cat and I had spent our first weekend in perfect comfort, I had been whisked over to Earl's Court in London for the 2010 EcoBuild conference. Speaking on a panel with Great British Refurb Campaign representative, Simon McWhirter, and representatives from Campaign sponsors Keepmoat, and Knauf Insulation, Journalist and BBC Radio 4's presenter of the Today Programme, Justin Webb, chaired a packed theatre discussion about eco-home refurbishment. Our house, The Home of the Future, was presented as a real example of the energy savings, emissions reductions and improvements to the quality of living than can be achieved in a typical Victorian terrace.
It was great to see such a big turn out for our presentation, with listeners queuing in the aisles and it was great to hear all of the efforts of individuals in the audience who are striving to embrace the eco-regeneration of their own homes, both for the sake of the environment as well as improving the comfort in the home and lowering the costs of living.
A message I was keen to communicate at EcoBuild was that our house represents approximately a third of houses in the UK and it has changed from an average energy wasteful home to an exemplary energy efficient home, which is far more comfortable to live in. With 80% less CO2 emissions it is ready to meet the emissions reductions target set by government for 2050, and thanks to the immanent Government Feed-in Tariff should generate more income each year than we currently spend on energy bills. Not bad for four weeks work! A key focus of the EcoBuild debate was the mechanisms and incentives for individuals to bridge the costs of these refurbishments in their own homes in the future. The recent announcement of the Governments 'pay as you save' scheme is a welcome one, and appears to be at least another step in the right direction.
Watch the debate session: The UK Green Building Council videod the conference session at Ecobuild and you can watch the highlights from the session called 'Refurbishment begins at home' here.
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
written by James Atkins, May 01, 2010
-
- +0
-
-
written by Will Homoky, May 02, 2010
As best as I know the reported £23,000 investment reflects the cost of eco-technology, and materials that has been installed in our home. Therefore this does not include the additional expense of some of the re-decorating, re-tiling etc and labour costs, which was provided by Keepmoat, the company which sponsored and managed the eco-refurbishment in our home. This cost does include the £12,000 worth of solar PV (prior to any grant subsides). Let's hope mechanisms that allow people to undertake eco-refurbishments in their own homes expand in other countries in near future too!
-
- +0
-
-
written by Jonathan, July 29, 2010
This will seem really banal given what you aimed for and have achieved, but I notice that you seem to have had a kitchen refurb done whilst this work was being done. I'm looking for something similar and would love to know if this was a new kitchen or updating what you had. I really like the shelves that you have too (I saw them in the BBC website video clip on July 19th), could you tell me where they are from?
On a more relevant note, how did you insulate the floorboards, did you raise the level of the floor at all.
Thanks
-
- +0
-
-
written by Will Homoky, July 30, 2010
The kitchen you saw on the BBC news is new. Due to the fitting of internal wall insulation into our wonky-walled house, our old kitchen units could not be re-fitted into the remaining space - these went to recycling. The new units were provided by Keepmoat, who sponsored and managed the building works. They came from a company called Howdens. The aluminium shelves you refer to (highly recyclable!) were a later addition by me, and came from Habitat (I was lucky to find them at a very discounted price -so that might mean they've been discontinued?).
With regards floor insulation: We did not need to raise the level of our floor. Typically suspended wooden floors have a cavity large enough beneath them to accommodate the 150mm Knauf Insulation that was added, by stapling between the joists that support the floor boards. It is important that there is sufficient space remaining to allow for the ventilation of joists beneath the insulating layer. Of course the boards need lifting to achieve this, but once they have been replaced it looks as if nothing has changed at all.
Hope this helps!
-
- +0
-
-
