GBRC

In my first blogpost, I described the work we had done in our Bristol Victorian Semi and our experience of Refit West and Bristol Green Doors. This time, I'm looking at what its like to live there, and what we learnt through the whole process.

We, in the Huntingdonshire District Council have teamed up with the Building Research Establishment (BRE) as part of their ‘Rethinking Refurbishment’ campaign to demonstrate how typical family homes can be refurbished affordably and easily, not only to reduce carbon emissions but to be cheaper, comfortable and more efficient to run.

If refurbishing a home wasn't complicated enough, we now have to choose our materials with greater care and attention. You could see this as a limitation, but for me it’s an opportunity to create a style that embodies the philosophies of sustainability.
  Luckily, there are ever more interesting materials to choose from as I found out when designing the Eco home exhibition at the Geffrye Museum in East London. It struck me that when designing eco homes there are masculine and feminine sides to consider.

The “masculine” focuses on the technical aspects involved in making it more efficient and practical things like new boilers, water efficient toilets and A-rated appliances.
By contrast there is a “feminine” element involved in creating a beautiful and nurturing home. Think fabrics, furniture and dressings.

So you’ve seen Will’s solar home and are inspired?

(Will, we’re really glad you’re chuffed with your new mini power station).

The UK’s newly announced Feed-in tariff brings a new dawn for generating electricity with solar power in the UK. The new scheme means homeowners producing solar electricity will earn income from energy generation, benefit from significant savings on electricity bills and cut carbon emissions. It’s estimated that you can save and earn over £1,000 per year for 25 years, increasing with inflation, with a typical solar electric system.  Because of this, the Government hopes one in every ten homes will be solar by 2020.

So what next?

Check out your roof. It will need to be up to it, meaning not caving in with significant structural problems. As long as it’s not north facing or shaded for most of the day, you’re likely to be able to consider going solar.  

I remember when generating electricity from the sun seemed closer to science fiction fantasy than a realistic and practical means of micro-energy generation. That was up until yesterday; when I became another homeowner in the UK with the capacity to generate green electricity from an otherwise very ordinary rooftop. 

The refurbishment is well underway at our house in Bristol, which will make it the 10:10 and Great British Refurb Campaign's Home of the Future. 

A notable change so far has been the arrival of vast quantities of Knauf Insulation.

How do you start an eco refurb? As you mean to continue of course: with lofty environmental intentions.

In my case that means stripping out my home’s old fixtures and putting in steel joists and columns to improve its efficiency and circulation, and future proof it (more on that later).