A few weeks ago Bill from the National Energy Foundation visited to provide an assessment of energy saving (and creating) measures we could take to improve the energy efficiency of the hovel. This is part of their SuperHome initiative.
The hovel currently has an energy rating of 29 (the orange F group in the adjacent energy efficiency ratings) and it creates 15 tons of CO2 a year. The average UK house only produces 2.4 tons. Only 5 per cent of 22 million houses examined between 2008 and 2023 were this bad! The only good thing about this is that there is plenty of room for improvement.
Bill's 30 page report, which we received last week, was excellent. It provides cost estimates for improvement activities and the energy savings and reductions in CO2 emissions that will result from different actions.
We are keen to do our bit to 'save the planet' and had already wanted to do many of the things Bill suggested.
With luck we should be able to improve the energy efficiency so that the hovel becomes a 'SuperHome' with score of over 92, in the highest A group. Less than 0.2 per cent of homes in the UK reach this level, which a bit depressing. The hovel should also achieve zero CO2 emissions.
In readiness for putting 150mm of insulation on the external walls I've been demolishing the one metre wide stone facing on the corners of the hovel. It's a horrid dusty job using an angle grinder and the 14 pound hammer made me ache. In three days I got as high as I safely thought I could and removed about 3 tons of stone. Slow and steady wins the day! I'll remove the rest when scaffolding is erected to renovate the roof.
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