When it comes to sustainable home upgrades, there’s no one-size-fits-all formula. Every household has its own unique needs, preferences, and capacity for different upgrades.
We’re sharing the story of a local Hampshire Energy Champion, Ken, whose home showcases the way a series of tailored, step-by-step adjustments can be made to upgrade your home.
Ken started from scratch. He had moved into an older house with a very low energy efficiency rating (EPC) of E. The first step he took was using a free advisory service to seek specialist guidance on identifying areas of improvement. They used a thermal imaging camera to find areas where his home was losing heat, and which upgrades could make the biggest difference. Ken says the results were not what he expected, and "well worth finding out".
Tailored advice helped Ken to understand his home. Taking a heat loss survey allowed him to find and prioritise the areas where his spending would have the biggest impact, so that he could make upgrades that suited his own unique budget and timeline.
“I always thought that improving the efficiency of an older home would be too difficult. This hasn’t proved to be the case”.
He found that insulating the loft was a measure he could take with a short payback period, meaning that his spending would generate savings quickly. He was able to prioritise this upgrade over measures with longer payback periods (like changing the windows).
Building on his initial savings success, Ken was then ready to make further upgrades, like putting in a PV (photovoltaic) solar system and batteries on his roof. PV solar panels generate electricity from the sun, which can then be captured and stored in batteries for use in the home. This means that he could achieve lower utility bills as he was buying less electricity from the grid, and he had the ability to sell back excess production at peak times, when prices are higher.
To make the most of this brilliant new source of energy, Ken bought an electric vehicle that could be charged from his solar system, making further savings on fuel and optimising his solar use. Ken found that he could run his car almost entirely on the surplus energy generated from the solar panels.
In addition to generating his own electricity, Ken wanted to use it more efficiently when heating his home, so he replaced his inefficient electric storage heaters with an air source heat pump.
Air source heat pumps use electricity to collect heat from the air, which is more efficient than using electricity to heat the air directly. They can produce around 3 units of heat for every unit of electricity they use, whereas even modern gas boilers only produce around 0.9 units of heat per unit of gas.
Rising fuel costs will be a worry of the past for Ken, as he may no longer rely as much on buying in electricity to heat or power his home, or car.
Whilst knowing that energy efficiency is a “good thing”, Ken says the challenge was knowing where to start and which aspects would be affordable and would provide the best return on his limited funds.
“The ability to access free unbiased advice helped me understand where my money could be best spent and which improvements could be saved until later”.
Are you looking to make upgrades, but not sure where to begin?
To find out how you could make similar transformations in your home, get in touch with a member of our specialist team today. The My Home Made Better project offers free, impartial advice in the form of a personalised plan, tailored to your circumstances.
