‘We bought an old schoolhouse for £215k – now we’re spending almost £300k to make it energy efficient’
Howard Mustoe speaks to a Cheshire couple who are hoping to slash the energy bills in their new home
When Steve and Sarah Barr visited the eco-home of a friend nine years ago, it planted the seed of inspiration that has led to an ambitious –albeit expensive – project of their own.
“I was shocked,” said Steve, “because it was a cold November day and his house was really cosy. When he told us what his electricity expenditure was, I couldn't believe it.”
The retired couple have set out to develop a dream home of their own, packed with the latest green energy products in order to prove that even the oldest buildings can be made energy efficient.
They have bought part of a 17th century schoolhouse for £215,000 and are adding triple glazing, a heat pump, solar panels, a solar battery and a sophisticated ventilation system which will filter their home’s air and keep humidity down.
The total project will come to £500,000 after stripping the property back to the brick, renovating the kitchen, bathroom and other rooms.
Steve said the retired couple spotted the property in Middlewich, Cheshire, and quickly saw its potential.
“It was in dilapidated condition,” Steve said, “we wanted to restore it in such a way that it would be energy efficient for our comfort, and also because we thought it was a good way to contribute to saving the planet.”
They are aiming towards the Passivhaus standard, which originates in Germany and encourages large amounts of insulation and other means of keeping the heat in. This makes the home greener and cheaper to run because it requires less energy. If they reach this standard, it should mean a 90 per cent drop in heating bills.
The couple are currently living in a home nearby where they pay about £2,000 for gas and electricity a year, but this does not provide a comfortable temperature all the time.
They say their new home will be 21C all the time at a fraction of the cost.
This will be achieved primarily through insulation and stopping heat from escaping in other ways, says Steve. The house will have 30cm of insulation added to the roof, 20cm added to the walls and 10cm to the floor.
Windows, doors and joints will be sealed to prevent heat loss. The home’s biggest windows will be south facing to make use of heat from the sun entering the building. Windows on the other side of the property will be smaller, since they won’t catch the sun.
All this insulation and making the house airtight means that moisture needs to be carefully managed, says Steve, or else you get damp and mould.
“We have to make sure that our building is completely airtight,” he says. “All the windows and doors and all the nooks and crannies and every cable and pipe that goes through the wall from the outside to the inside has to be made airtight with grommets and tapes.”
The potential for damp “is a massive problem,” he adds. “You've got to have some kind of ventilation system installed. And that's what we're doing as well.”
Their home will use a Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery to circulate air, remove humidity and pollution and keep the warmth. It won’t be hooked up to gas, instead using a heat pump for heating.
The roof will have 16 solar panels which will generate around 6.7kw of power, and it will have a battery attached so power generated during the day can be used in the evenings, slashing the home’s carbon footprint. Including the house and all renovations, they will probably spend about £500,000, he said.
It should be capable of running on less than £1,000 of energy per annum after all the efficiencies, but that’s before the use of solar panels for electricity, which should at least halve their expenditure again.
The couple will still need access to the grid for winter heating and cooking.
Steve admits that the project is expensive but it shows that bills can home down heavily with no loss of comfort if you have the budget for it. The couple have also shifted their pension investments into more ethical companies, through Path Financial, a company which specialises in sustainable investing.
Sarah said that she got the idea for a more efficient home after joining a local sustainability group. She said: “I met someone who'd done a retrofit on their house and I just thought, this is amazing.”
It has not all been plain sailing, said Mr Barr. “The main challenge of dealing with an old building is that nothing is straight,” he said, including walls and floors. The foundations have also required careful management, he added.
Steve says that he feels like environmentalism is portrayed as giving things up, when instead, it can mean building something.
“The way they're portraying it is that we've got to stop doing things, you know, to live in a green way. We feel the opposite. We feel that we can live better by adopting green technology. It's going to be comfortable in our house, it's going to have clean air, and it's going to be a pleasant place to be.”
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