HOME ENERGY SAVINGS PACK

1930’s - 1950’s Houses About 8% of houses in Widcombe were built in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. The majority of this group were built in the 1930s. These properties are typically of cavity wall construction with the outer wall leaf built out of or faced with stone. Floors are typically of suspended wood floorboards: the space below has to be well ventilated so spaces between the floorboards are a common source of draughts. Originally these properties would have had wood or metal casement windows however in approximately 90% of properties these older windows have been mainly replaced. Roofs are typically ‘hipped’ with large and accessible loft spaces. While originally un-insulated some level of insulation is now typical. Our survey showed that the residents of this group of houses cover a wide age range, but there are relatively more older people – and relatively fewer younger people. Residents in this group generally rate their houses more energy efficient than others. PTO

The older residents particularly tend to perceive their homes to be energy efficient. They are also more likely to keep the heating on through the day. They tend to be happy with the way their house is, and are more likely to be put off introducing energy saving measures by the disruption and the length of payback time.

What type of house do you have? 1930’s – 1950’s Houses One type of 1930’s house dominates this group in the Widcombe area:

1930s semi-detached houses make up around 8% of the housing stock in Widcombe, examples of which can be found at Abbey View Gardens, Spring Crescent and Horseshoe Walk.

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HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE Options You can discover a range of things to do for your Widcombe home. We’ve sorted them into three groups: • ”No-Brainers” – Measures which are cheap (or free) and easy to carry out • “Committed Saver” – Measures which cost a bit more. These measures are the next logical steps following completion of the ‘no brainers’. Some of these measures may qualify for a loan under the Green Deal. NB: page 11 gives a brief introduction to the Green Deal. • “Red Herrings” – things which are unlikely to be suitable for your Widcombe home You will be able to choose which suit you in terms of cost, disruption, energy savings and payback period.

Key These measures are compared through the following ratings which range from between 0 and 5:

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Cost

Disruption



DIY Difficulty



Energy Savings



Payback period



Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

Green Deal Eligibility

Health Warning! Your energy bill does indeed depend on the changes you make to your home. BUT, how you actually use energy in your house can make a huge difference – up to 4 times! This means how high your central heating is, how much you use the tumble drier, whether you leave lights on and the TV on standby and so on.

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NO-BRAINERS No-Brainers are energy saving measures which will typically cost less than £500 each, cause little or no disruption to implement and will pay for themselves within 5 years. Wherever possible they address issues specific to this family of buildings. Most of these measures could be implemented by a competent DIY-er.

Cavity Wall Insulation Effective, inexpensive and possibly even free! - and can be installed from the outside of your house in a day. The only visual evidence is small marks in the mortar, less than the size of a ten pence piece and usually difficult to see when filled with matching mortar.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

Block open chimneys with chimney balloons when not in use. Chimneys are designed to remove heat from rooms. As they don’t let cold air in they may not feel cold, but they are well worth blocking. 1930s-1950s houses typically originally had one or two fireplaces. Chimneys are usually comparatively small and chimney balloons can easily be removed and replaced, and are fire-resistant. Look out for chimneys behind gas fires - if the gas fire is not a modern one it may well be letting a draught through and straight up the chimney.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

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Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

Top up loft insulation 1930’s lofts are usually large with good access and some level of insulation installed retrospectively. Latest best practice is ~12” of mineral wool and you may be surprised that it can be as cheap to get someone in to do the work as it is to do it DIY. In spaces where there is already 4” to 6” of insulation the payback period will be considerably longer so a top up is less worthwhile, but in these cases there may be considerable energy savings to be made from insulating and draught proofing the loft hatch and small areas of insulation that might have been lifted (e.g. to install lighting). There are also solid insulation products which provide the same level of insulation whilst still allowing the space to be boarded out and used for storage.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

Replace traditional bulbs with energy saving bulbs Energy saving light bulbs (LED & Compact Florescent Lighting) are usually a straight swap for traditional light bulbs and can reduce energy consumption by between 30% and 80%. 50W halogen down lights (GU10) are common in most types of house. These can be replaced with LED lights which use just 3 - 7W. Despite costing between £5 and £20 each, they often pay for themselves within 5 years.provide the same level of insulation whilst still allowing the space to be boarded out and used for storage.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

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Unlikely

Not applicable

Unlikely

Not applicable

Add louvres to fans that are open when not in use If a fan has no louvres the wind can blow in all the time. A louvred outlet can be bought for about £10 and fitted externally as a DIY measure.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Likely

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Draught proofing doors and windows Draught proofing of the type of original wooden or metal casement windows found in 1930’s windows is usually fairly easy and can be especially cost effective if done more by DIY. Secondary glazing is also effective and relatively cheap, and will result in reduced draughts as well as giving much of the benefit of double glazing.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

Replace electric heating (fans & convectors) with gas (or oil) Draught proofing of the type of original wooden or metal casement windows found in 1930’s windows is usually fairly easy and can be especially cost effective if done more by DIY. Secondary glazing is also effective and relatively cheap, and will result in reduced draughts as well as giving much of the benefit of double glazing.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

More No-Brainers • Block passive vents - These are only required if you still have an old-fashioned fire that is not “room sealed”. • Time heating so that it is not on 24 hours. It’s a myth that you need to keep heating on through the day if you’re out of the house. It doesn’t take that long to heat up at the end of the day • Add insulation to un-insulated hot water cylinders • Eco-kettle, if you boil your kettle several times a day the savings from only heating the water you need can really add up.

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COMMITTED SAVER Committed Saver measures may cost a little more than the No Brainers, but they are still likely to pay for themselves within 5-20 years. Some are expected to be eligible for a Green Deal loan while others may not be.

Seal floorboards and skirting boards Most 1930’s houses have suspended floors through most of the house. If you have a suspended floor, the space below needs to be well ventilated, so seal it away from the living space to reduce draughts.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

Upgrade boilers that are less than 55% efficient Very old boilers (20 to 25 years) can be less than 55% efficient and even some boilers manufactured after 2000 are less than 80% efficient whereas a modern condensing boiler is around 91% efficient. As with most heating measures the savings are greatest if you have long heating hours; you may be amazed at how much a new boiler might save you. In 30s houses as you might expect some very old boilers are found. Giveaways that your boiler is very inefficient include: permanent pilot lights, and back boilers.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

Upgrade heating controls Adding a programmable timer, room thermostat and thermostatic radiator valves to your central heating systems will allow you to control which parts of your house are heated, when they are heated and to what temperature.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

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Add a weather compensator to your boiler If you have a new or newish boiler, or if you are considering a new boiler, you might be able to fit a weather compensator which stops your boiler working harder than it needs to in the spring and autumn by reducing the temperature of the water in your radiators when it is warmer outside.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

Replace fridges and freezers that are more than 10 years old Replace with A rated models or better. A++ models are slightly more efficient but much more expensive, so are sometimes less cost effective than A rated.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

Solar PV panels While the Feed In Tariff rate is less good than it used to be, solar panels are also getting cheaper every month and welldesigned systems still deliver good returns as well as low carbon electricity.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Replacing kitchen and bathroom fans with heat recovery fans Heat recovery fans are amazingly up to 95% efficient at taking heat out of the outgoing air, and using it to warm the incoming air.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! ! 8

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

Zone heating Savings can be made if you are able to heat part of your house for less hours. The cost is probably the key thing and this depends on whether your existing heating circuit pipes are easy to fit zoning valves and pumps to.

£ £ £ £ £ ! ! ! ! !

Likely

Unlikely

Not applicable

More Committed saver Measures • Lag pipes between boiler and hot water cylinder • Fit secondary glazing – secondary glazing can achieve most os the savings of double glazing but at a fraction of the cost. • Fit a wood burning stove – Widcombe is a smoke free zone so you will need to be a double burner that is allowed in these zones. • Get a dishwasher - It may seem surprising, but new top rated dishwashers (used with full loads) tend to use so much less energy than washing up by hand that they will pay for themselves in 5-10 years

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RED HERRINGS Red Herrings are energy saving measures which would not normally be appropriate for this type of housing.

Double Glazing Although single glazed windows, and especially large draughty and wobbly sash windows, are often draughty and feel cold, they are also expensive to replace so the payback is typically more than 50 years and often 100 years +. The most cost effective savings are to be made by draught proofing old windows or installing secondary glazing.

Under floor insulation – suspended floors This measure typically has a payback of 30+ years. This is partly because of the cost of raising the floorboards so if your floorboards are up for another reason this measure may be worth considering.

Heat Pumps These usually give good CO2 savings - but lower financial savings compared with modern gas boilers. They are generally costly enough that they are not cost effective if you have gas heating or gas available- as is the case in most of Widcombe Watch the Renewable Heat Incentive, RHI, for Ground source - though probably not Air Source

Under Floor Heating There are small efficiencies to be gained from under floor heating - but your house will also heat up slower, and the measure is costly, so it is usually not cost effective.

Solar Hot Water If you have several people having daily showers or baths this measure may pay for itself in 35 years, otherwise it will probably be longer. The upcoming Renewable Heat Incentive may make this measure more cost effective.

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GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES The Green Deal The Energy Act 2011 includes provisions for the new ‘Green Deal’, which intends to reduce carbon emissions cost effectively by revolutionising the energy efficiency of British properties. The new innovative Green Deal financial mechanism eliminates the need to pay upfront for energy efficiency measures and instead provides reassurances that the cost of the measures should be covered by savings on the electricity bill. http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/tackling/green_deal/green_deal.aspx

Feed in Tariff, FiT The Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) scheme was introduced on 1 April 2010. Through the use of FITs, DECC hopes to encourage deployment of small-scale (less than 5MW) low-carbon electricity generation, particularly by organisations, businesses, communities and individuals that have not traditionally engaged in the electricity market. http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/meeting_energy/Renewable_ener/feedin_tariff/ feedin_tariff.aspx

Renewable Heat Incentive, RHI The Renewable Heat Incentive is a new Government-backed measure being introduced to make it worth your while to produce renewable heat. Get paid for the renewable heat you produce. You earn a fixed income for every kilowatt hour of heat you produce. This is likely to be used in your own property, but if you are lucky enough to be connected to a heat network you might be able to get an additional payment for ‘exporting’ surplus heat. http://www.rhincentive.co.uk/ http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/meeting_energy/Renewable_ener/incentive/ incentive.aspx

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NEXT STEPS Want more info? There are loads of websites. Try these for a start: Energy Efficient Widcombe www.energyefficientwidcombe.co.uk

Centre for Sustainable Energy www.cse.org.uk

Energy Saving Trust www.energysavingtrust.org.uk

Department for Energy & Climate Change www.decc.gov.uk

BANES Council www.bathnes.gov.uk/environmentandplanning/Sustainability/Pages/default.aspx

Or talk to someone: For more information contact: Ozzie ffield or Catherine Adams on:

T: 07583 693 861 E: [email protected]