How’s the building made?

Original construction:

• cavity brick walls, waterproofing render
• timber roof, boards and felt under concrete tiles
• metal window frames
• timber floors.

Changes from the original:

• timber windows, single glazed, 1980s
• electric storage heaters, electric immersion heater 1980s
• roof insulation, 2006.

Examples of projects

• Doing the basics
   

• Porches
   

• Ground floor insulation
   

• Ground source heat pump with underfloor heating
   

• External wall insulation

What’s the problem?

Front door — a rush of cold air whenever the front door opens and no space to leave wet shoes.

French windows — great for summer but cold at night and in the winter.

Walls — render coating should protect walls from wind and rain but cracked, come away in places.

Heating — old electric storage heaters cost a lot, even on off-peak tariff — changing to a ground source heat pump means cutting down heat losses everywhere.

Doing the basics

• Low energy lamps in all room lights, standard lights.

• Roof insulation already up to modern standards.

• Draught-stripped front door and french windows, sealed gaps in walls round windows, pipes.

• 80mm (3") cylinder jacket, insulated hot water pipes.

• Set new underfloor heating system to give 18°C in living room and bedrooms.

• Already have modern double flush toilet. Fitted spray insert in kitchen and bathroom taps.

• Added a water butt.

Porches

• Front door porch wide enough to handle bags of shopping, long enough to open and close doors one at a time.

• Rack for recycling boxes and wet shoes.

• Porch outside the French windows South-facing — included an opening window to limit overheating.

• Solid roof to avoid overheating.

• Second hand natural Scottish sandstone floor slabs to retain warmth in winter.

Ground floor insulation

• Needed to fit underfloor heating to make good use of the heat pump so laid insulation in nets hung under the floor first.

Ground source heat pump

• Dug a trench in the garden with coil to feed heat from the ground to the pump.

• Space in the back kitchen for the heat pump.

• Got grant from SCHRI to reduce the cost.

• Underfloor heating makes best use of energy from pump.

External wall insulation

• First step after Planning was to persuade the neighbours to insulate their walls too!

• Insulation company adjusted the gutters and downpipes, the edges of the windows and doors.

• New waterproof render coating.

Work done well

Found accredited builder and heating engineer at:

www.clescotland.co.uk

Found a member of the National Insulation Association:

www.nationalinsulationassociation.org.uk

Checked with Planning at council, didn’t need permission to alter walls, not in a Conservation Area.

Got Building Warrant — one porch is over 8m^2.