House style/age - 4 bed detached built mid 80s
Current insulation - loft and cavity wall
Occupants - 2 adults and 3 kids

Long term we are having building work done to add 2 dormer bedrooms and remove the conservatory.

Short term - next 2 years what can we do to be more energy efficient?

Thinking about increasing the level of insulation in the roof cavity.
5/8 rads are on outside walls under Windows - would them being moved help?
Curtains - 2 layers?
Is it sensible to create a "heat bubble" and stay in that until bed time then just use hot water bottles?

Oh and appliances - what sort of saving can be made from better/newer shower and also better/newer fridge freezer?

4 bed 60's end terrace here.
The extended bit has cavity insulation, the original bit dianne and can't have it fitted.
Getting new windows on half the house in sept, going to fit even more loft insulation soon.
External insulation is insanely expensive so going to replace the rest of the windows instead.
Beyond that not sure what to do really.

1950s 1.5 story house. 2 adults 1 child

Roofs as insulated as it can be. 3-400mm in places

Double glazed

Back of house built to modern standards where we built out.

Fitted solar PV last year - this alone made the single most difference to our energy costs. - it halfed the kWh used by our house hold averaged over the year. Battery storage on order to almost eliminate grid use and reliance.

Going to fit solar thermal and a indirect thermal store with excess PV diverted to the immersion also- this will feed the hot water and shower - our second largest energy costs.....

Changing correctly working appliances for more.modern ones will rarely payback. Unless your using stuff from decades ago.

Running washing machines / dishwasher at night if you have timer setting is good.

Running washing machines / dishwasher at night if you have timer setting is good.

Only if you have a time of use tarriff. A majority of tarriffs these days are flat rate unless your have octopus go or storage heaters.

But resident firefighters do point out the risk of doing so.

4 bed detached 1979
Loft insulation
Old double glazing
Unsure in cavity state apart from there is one.
Planning an extension next year where we will also replace all the windows and fit a new front door and porch.
PV system hopefully installed this autumn with battery.
Designing a heat recovery ventilation system which we are hoping will have the biggest effect to how we live in the house. PV will hopefully have the biggest effect on our bills.

Stone house built in 1816. Solid walls and frankly leaks heat like a sieve. Looking at maybe £7k/year energy bills with the new price cap, and that's with me insisting on the thermostat never going above 19°C 😐

In the process of embiggening the house at which point we'll be going solar/heat pump/battery/proper insulation/etc. but that's a good year or two before completion. For now I'm going to swap our log burner for one with a back boiler that can be hooked up to the radiators because wood is currently waaaayyy cheaper than gas per kW of heat, at least where I am.

Why isn't there someone offering cheap solar PV and a battery fitted for a couple of £k?, battery wired in and stored in the utility so the washer / dryer / fridge and any charging devices running off it?

The Technology ain't that new, surely the battery isnt the size of a small family hatchback anymore?

Guessing it is.

Only if you have a time of use tarriff. A majority of tarriffs these days are flat rate unless your have octopus go or storage heaters.

Didn't know that ours still is !

Why isn’t there someone offering cheap solar PV and a battery fitted for a couple of £k?, battery wired in and stored in the utility so the washer / dryer / fridge and any charging devices running off it?

Why hasn't the government spent the entire summer subsidising new solar & insulation of peoples houses?

Was the no brainer thing to do

Why isn’t there someone offering cheap solar PV and a battery fitted for a couple of £k?

PV and batteries have gone mental this year. We had planned to install a system for a few years and finally started the ball rolling in March; each week the quote was being arranged the install date slipped by a month. We've had panels on the roof for a month now, this week we've got a battery in a box in the garage, but no inverter or cables yet. Demand has gone through the roof (as have prices) but availability of components has been very patchy indeed.

Why isn’t there someone offering cheap solar PV and a battery fitted for a couple of £k?, battery wired in and stored in the utility so the washer / dryer / fridge and any charging devices running off it?

Who's interest is that in...... The consumers not the government's .

They want us reliant on the grid that's how the grid keeps existing .

I'm waiting for the day they want to tax us on our energy generation and storage facilities use......

Once it's out there enmasse I'm sure they will try .....

#tinfoilhatoff

Don’t need to wire appliances directly into the batteries, it’s all handled by the inverter.

I have 5 kWh of batteries plonked in the loft which charge via solar and run general house loads. Anything that’s a heavy power user (washing machine, dishwasher etc) either goes on when the sun is shining or overnight at 7.5p/kWh. Any excess during the day goes into topping off the hot water tank.

Energy companies have some tricky questions to answer. Right now only one offers a cheap overnight rate. Many are insufficiently staffed despite record profits. Many can’t fit smart meters in the north. Simple fact is that many people who want panels and batteries can’t find the up-front cost. WTF aren’t there 0% government backed loans for this sort of thing? Come October the savings might pay the loan off directly.

Smart Export Guarantee is worthless to many people if they can’t get the meter installed. FIT needs scrapping now and the cash redistributed to people who don’t have solar but can’t afford their electricity. It’s appalling that someone can be paid 60p/kWh for adding cheap panels to an existing installation.

WTF aren’t there 0% government backed loans for this sort of thing?

There is if you live in scotland

https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/find-funding-grants-and-loans/interest-free-loans/overview/

Awaiting install of my solar Pv system early September

My house is a early 1900s terrace, no cav wall insulation, the walls are just very thick, old'ish double glazing, and when i moved in the only insulation in the loft was a scrap of news paper from 1957...how does no one think to put ANY in? They were an old couple here before as well

You can get insulation grants in South Wales but after an hour on the phone to them their last question was 'are any building works going on' the house hasnt been updated since 1969...theirs going to be building works including and up to and including decorating for the next 2 years 'oh in that case we cant do anything' so Ive just put 300mm myself thinking that everyone else will wake up in late October and insulation will be sold out everywhere while Dave tops up to 600mm even when after 300 theres barely any point

Wheres Musk with a consumer freindly and affordable solar PV system, needs a disrupter type company, bonkers theres so little available, and Maplins are gone, no use!

I'm single and ride the bike back from work, get home about 7 then usually pop to the gym so found theres barely any point putting the heating on in the evenings, itll only go on when my toddler lads visit and we're stuck inside all day when its raining etc

1970s 4 bed detached in an exposed location. 4 occupants. Loft insulation to 300-400mm, cavity wall insulation, double glazing, but very old in places. Oil boiler.

We current use 6000kWh of power and around 1200-1500l or oil per year.

5.4kW solar array and 13kWh battery going into the house in 2 weeks. Luckily we started this before the energy price hikes, but has been delayed by the fact that it’s in-roof and it took time to get a roofer (full re-roof) and solar installer willing to work synchronous with one another.

Next project is the front door and windows.

Later project is to rip up the downstairs floors and fit underfloor insulation and underfloor heating ready for an AS or GS heat pump.

 It’s appalling that someone can be paid 60p/kWh for adding cheap panels to an existing installation

You can't legally do that. If you are getting FIT you can't change the installation except replace defective panels like for like.

WTF aren’t there 0% government backed loans for this sort of thing? Come October the savings might pay the loan off directly

This, or something like it. Unsure if it would have been inflationary like any injection of ‘free’ cash. Still, 0% loans, or tax relief over say 5 years on the capital cost would have been a great incentive.

Glad to hear Scotland has a better approach than England.

Oh, the thread!
Late Victorian detached, extended early C20. ~300mm loft insulation in both roof spaces. T&G wooden flooring on top of plywood on top of original floorboards downstairs. Modern upvc sash double glazing. 2 bedrooms with internal insulated walls. Modern Viessmann gas boiler with big HW tank in cellar and Hive controller.

Looking at getting 11kW solar PV + Powerwall asap. Something we’d considered a few years ago and held out hope for solar tiles. Those seem to be vaporware so here we go.

Aiming for more wall insulation as we do the next round of re-redecorating. That made a BIG difference to the bedrooms.

Energy usage was in another thread - it is high. I WFH, we run 2 EVs, and my SO is retired. Might go down a bit when both children go to uni in September. We expect to spend the winter in blankets and warm clothes to avoid the forecast £1,800 energy cost in November alone.

Why isn’t there someone offering cheap solar PV and a battery fitted for a couple of £k?, battery wired in and stored in the utility so the washer / dryer / fridge and any charging devices running off it?

The Technology ain’t that new, surely the battery isnt the size of a small family hatchback anymore?

The house battery technology is fairly new. But the panels, inverters etc, aren’t. A LOT of money is in the Labour for the install. At a rough guess, I’d say of the £17k for our inset array and battery, £5-7k of that is for the install itself. Based on the prices I can see the panels, trays, batteries and inverters.

I’d say of the £17k for our inset array and battery, £5-7k of that is for the install itself. Based on the prices I can see the panels, trays, batteries and inverters.

Ah, tbf not many people struggling to heat the living space have that kind of money floating about for a Solar install.

Aiming for more wall insulation as we do the next round of re-redecorating. That made a BIG difference to the bedrooms.

How are you achieving this? I ripped down all my lathe and plaster walls last winter and rebuilt with soft type insulation between plasterboard before skimming, but from what I'd read the insulation was of mostly sound reducing benefit

Least we'll have the community based communal 'warm spaces' so people can pop in and have a cup of tea on the way to and from the foodbank, so there's that.

30's semi. 2 adults.

New gas boiler last year and associated smart controls has cut our gas usage considerably. The last 6 weeks cost £18 in gas for hot water.

300 mm loft insulation
All double glazed though most is reaching it's design EOL
Cavity wall is insulated, 90's extension built to those standards is reasonably heat efficient.

Will need to top up the loft blanket and look at underfloor insulation in the older part of the house.

Economy 7 meter fitted I think we get 4 hours at cheap rate overnight which we try to do washing of clothes and/or dishes during.

Getting switches switched off is a major work here.

70's semi.

Our biggest issue is that the house was cavity wall insulated at one point in the depths of time. This has now crumbled to less than a cm of random, dust foam, and is no better than the empty cavity. I've also got an extension with no fill, but a narrow cavity.

No one will re-fill.

No-one can explain why they cannot refill - beyond 'oóh, it might cause issues.'

Other than that, the roof insulation I topped up once. We've a 4 year old boiler, A or better appliances, shower aerator, every window bar one has both curtains and a blackout/thermal blind, most of the windows had new double glazing units 4 years back too (although half are 1980's thin gap).

Our other challenge is that we sit under a North facing slope and trees. So for 3 months no sun touches the house in winter...

We've having a heat pump fitted in a couple of weeks, hopefully over winter can tell whether it was a smart move or not.

No-one can explain why they cannot refill – beyond ‘oóh, it might cause issues.’

FIL had some shark company offer to core 100mm holes at bottom of wall internally and remove "dust" and refill cavity. They would replace the core but he would have to make good themplater and decorating at his.own cost, they also want to remove 25mm from bottom of all internal doors to improve air flow within house.

Got told to GTF

For those replacing radiators, size them for a heat pump if you plan on staying in the house long term.

1800s cottage with multiple extensions, some cavities but a lot of solid stone.

Leaches heat due to it being on top of a hill with no shelter, wind just pulls the heat out of it.

Big solid pitch roof double glazed timber sunroom

Oil fired heating and Aga. And a wood burner in the living room.

Putting another wood burner in the sunroom as the agas heat just leaches into there as its open plan.

I've ceilings to replace and I'll be putting celotex or kingspan in and tapeing the joints up before re boarding the ceilings.

Looking at solar on the garage roof as it's 35ft long and south facing.

1980s house with original double glazing, topped up loft insulation that i did a few years ago. It is a large detached house in a windy location so can be quite cold. Estimated heating(gas) and electric bill is twice the so called cap!

Replaced the front door lasy year which has reduced drafts loads in the hall. Have solar (but we don't get the FIT, as it was one of those instal free offers). Means we use almost no electricity in the summer though as the panels cover most of the usage as long as the big appliances are running when the sun shines.

Have already invested in thermal underwear and electric blankets for this winter as we cant afford to heat at those prices. Tax cuts etc are great, but not when you pay no tax or NI...

It’s appalling that someone can be paid 60p/kWh for adding cheap panels to an existing installation.

It's also factually incorrect

Fit is based on installed capacity.

They can install more through a parallel inverter and will be paid at SEG rates.

1960s 4 bedroom detached. Timber framed with brick cladding but no insulation in the frame because 1960s. Old double glazing and a reasonable amount of insulation in the loft.

Choices are external insulation (spendy but not too disruptive) or internal insulation. One neighbour's just done internal insulation by going through every room, removing the plasterboard, adding insulation within the frame and than re-plasterboard. He didn't mind the disruption as the house was a tip when he bought it and needed a bunch of work anyway. Not sure which way to go, if we go internal I'll get the house rewired at the same time.

Whichever way I go, the windows and patio doors are going to be replaced.

Next month I'm going to replace the vented tumble dryer with a heat pump one.

Only if you have a time of use tarriff. A majority of tarriffs these days are flat rate unless your have octopus go or storage heaters.

Depends if money is your only concern. Grid emissions are fairly proportional to grid demand so running appliances at the lowest demand times directly reduces the emissions of doing so. (I.e. don't run it at 6pm when all the gas turbines are turned on)

Looking on Gridwatch the time to run appliances to reduce emissions is midday when there is loads of solar. Yesterday gas at 3am 66% of demand - 3pm 46%.

https://gridwatch.co.uk/demand/percent

WTF aren’t there 0% government backed loans for this sort of thing?

There was..... It was the FIT scheme!
Not the gov's fault if people didn't take it up.

It was the early adopters (with the FIT payments) that paved the way for reduced panel and inverter pricing that you can now enjoy .... When you can get them!

WTF aren’t there 0% government backed loans for this sort of thing?

There was… is

But you'll need to live in Scotland ....

And tbh I had quotes of 12-15 grand back in 2010 for what's cost me 4 grand today and only needs half the space on my roof compared to then.

My experiance of goverment backed schemes is the consumer never wins. Only the installer. price seems to be x alone or becomes x + most of the government scheme contribution when a contribution is offered

See also - boilers /double glazing and heat pumps.

Compared to the French system where the French gov energy saving scheme fitted a monsterous heatpump and a thermodynamic tank system to my folks house. About 6 grands worth of kit for 300 quid of their money.

I replaced my 40 year old boiler with a condensing one, put a second layer of hot water jacket around the hot water tank, got some "smart" (not very smart) radiator thermostats and added a solar immersion thingy to heat the hot water from the solar panels.

Energy usage this July was about 600kWh, last July was 1500kWh, May/June is similar, so down over 50%.

I think the things that made the difference were the boiler and the hot water jacket.

I've got some more loft insulation waiting to go up.

5 bedroom detached.

Ah, tbf not many people struggling to heat the living space have that kind of money floating about for a Solar install.

@scratch - Neither did I. I too. Out a loan at 1.8%. I figure that I’m going to end up spending the money anyway so I’d rather pay toward something than just (literally) burn it.

I’ve also had to pay £9k to have the whole roof refurbished in preparation for the install. Well, not had to, chose to as I figure it’ll be far more work down the line if something goes wrong.

Big investment, though and we’re not exactly flush.

My approach to efficiency. 

House 2000 -  4 bed, 2 adults (WFH) ,  2 children. 
Insulation - 400mm loft + new cavity wall + insulated internal stud walls.  South facing new build extensions (self) built to well exceed current BRegs. 
2021 year usage:
Gas - 9712kwh
Elect - 2380kwh

Firstly,  I reduce consumption. This follows the advice to insulate and make as air tight as possible. 

Then for central heating. Firstly ensure that all the radiators are heating up evenly (balanced) and the return pipe to the boiler is cooler than the flow (ideally 20° difference). Presuming that you have a gas condensing boiler,  these run most efficient at lower temperatures (flow less than 50°c) and use most gas when they are asked to make large steps in temp.  So running your heating through the night at a slightly lower stat temp reduces the step difference in the morning. 
Investigating running the boiler with Weather/Load Compensation stops the boiler adding too much heat when it's not required. The lower you go,  the bigger your radiators need to be,  so if doing a renovation make sure you fit huge rads! This is how heat pumps work efficientlty also. 
Hot water - If it's a pressurised system,  turn the temp down.  I run 45-50° in winter,  which also keeps the boiler in condensing mode. 

Electric
Think about which appliances use the most power.  I would rank them as follows:

1. Water heating element (kettle,  dish washer) - If you have pv/Thermal try to utilise.  I've connected my dishwasher to the hot water as my Solar Thermal heats the hw through the summer so the electric element doesn't have to.
2. Transformers - If it has one,  turn it off when not in use. These are continuously dawning current. 
3. Motors (Fridge) - Not much you can do other than buy an efficient model.

We are a normal family with TV,  PC's and games consoles. 

Even now,  PV doesn't add up for me.  My elect bill is around £60/mth,  so paying £'x' K for a PV array would take years to pay back! If you're sizing an array based on huge wastage,  your paying to power the waste in pv/batteries.  

There isn't a one solution fix for this unless you want to chuck money at it.  My approach is to offset with sensible energy management. 

If your new to energy efficiency and wondering why the Gov hasn't done this,  do some research into the schemes that they've been successfully failing at for the last 15+ years (RHI,  Green deal). 
If the recession is due to energy costs,  then I place the bulk of this on the Gov policy and their failure to support the country. 
If you want to go further,  take a look at how much a passive house costs to heat and why we don't build them as standard unlike many in Europe.... 

On the plus side of all this,  at least the CO2 figures will start to reduce 🙂 

My elect bill is around £60/mth,

And at the new rates ?

How ever it's 20 years at 30% of your current bill..

@trailrat - Yes 👍

@buttonmoon ~2400kW/y ? That’s a really small electric consumption for a 4 bed, 4 occupant house. It’s 6kW per day. Less than 270W/h on average. An oven for an hour is 2kW. A laptop for 8 hours is over a kW. Boiling the kettle 6 times per day is almost 1kw. Lights can be easily 100W even on LEDs. Running pumps for the boiler for an hour is 0.5kw. TV and Sky is 150W. PlayStations are almost 1kW at load.

As a comparison, Our house base consumption (also 4bed, 4occupant and quite light) is 135w/h for fridge, Wi-Fi, pond filter/pump, and the alarm system. Nothing else. 30w is the pond filter. That’s a base load of ~1200kW.

EDIT - Also, The October rates are set to be 40p/kWh (electric) + the day rate at ~0.50-0.60p. Come January, that supposed to be pushing 50p/kWh. Even at 2400kWh/y, that’s still £100/m.

Was just gonna say there's a numberwamg somewhere because 2400 units at the SVR of the cheapest on the markets still 75 a month and that's going to rise.

The cheapest fix on the market for 2400 it's 110 a month.

Fwiw the average house hold usage is 10kwh/day so 6kwh isn't out of the question esp if no electric shower /no electric hob.....

Just did a quick search for thermal blinds, found these:

https://www.blinds-2go.co.uk/energy-saving-thermal-blinds.htm

Look pretty interesting. Would ideally need an anchor at the bottom though in case you want to open the window as well as have shade.

I have those in the dining room in the clickfit variety.

Marketeers wet dream they are doing **** all for your thermals you can actually feel the sun beaming through them on a sunny day.

But they do work well on patio doors and tilt turns where a full length curtain would be a total disaster - as you point out even more so if you wanted to exit the room or have the window open.

People need advice as to how to reduce consumption, not PV or Tariff hopping if that isn't an option.

That is my advice.

@trailrat - Those are the 2021 figures. I've made lots of efficiency gains since. 😁👍

how to reduce consumption,

I've made lots of efficiency gains since then

Flip the breaker 18hrs a day it sounds like.

Even with solar without any heavy excess usage we still use 2400kwh a year The only way round that would be to smell and not have hot meals - but I assume you cook and shower with gas.

Marketeers wet dream they are doing **** all for your thermals you can actually feel the sun beaming through them on a sunny day.

Ah right, I was thinking as supplemental to thick curtains.

Any better blinds anyone knows of?

We're 4 adults in a mid 80's 4 bed detached in sunny bucks. Replaced & upped loft insulation to 300mm when we moved in, fitted trvs, new double glazing & doors soon after, heating & hot water set for 3hrs in the morning & 6 in the evening @ 18.5C. Washing machine on almost everyday but only use dryer to finish off line dried stuff. Was on £70pm with Avro, now £175pm with Octopus. Not willing to spend £10k plus on solar when planning on a move at some point. Would love to build/buy a small passive haus for our retirement but plots are £££ 🙁

heating & hot water set for 3hrs in the morning & 6 in the evening

That's a lot.

@trailrat

Not a humble brag thread or point scoring, purely to centralise ideas

I'm toying with the idea of cellular blinds in the kitchen in winter to keep heat in.

cellular blinds

ahh the Venus fly trap of the blind world

Not a humble brag thread or point scoring, purely to centralise ideas

Well yes but they have to be sensical

https://www.blocblinds.co.uk/blocout?source=tile

Anyone got any good ideas on how to get good insulation around the loft hatch and ladder. Hatch opens into roof space and three piece sliding ladder swings down. Planning to bump up the depth of insulation then board over so hatch and ladder will be in a divot and be the weak spot in the thermal barrier.
1970 three bed terrace so have minimal external walls as frontage is narrow. Kept a small hallway at the front and have a rear porch both with internal doors so can enter the house air lock style without freezing winter air blowing into the living space.

Could you place a secondary hatch above it hinging upwards into the loft and place foam insulation shaped to form a negative of the ladder bonded to the inside of the new hatch? You could even have the hatch (the new one) split in half (hinges on each side) if upward opening space is a problem.

@scratch

How are you achieving this? I ripped down all my lathe and plaster walls last winter and rebuilt with soft type insulation between plasterboard before skimming, but from what I’d read the insulation was of mostly sound reducing benefit

Builder used insulation-backed plasterboard sheets and some mounting system or other.

Unsure about sound insulation as that wasn’t a problem.

Definitely changed the heat insulation.

A child’s bedroom (~4x4.5x2.5m) changed from feeling fairly chilly and grim in winter to cosy with its heating set lower than before.

That effect had us take the same route for our bedroom (4x4.5x2.5m). It’s now rare to have the radiator in there above ‘1’ or ‘2’ on its TRV in winter.

Trying to teach my teenager the concept of the 2 minutes shower this morning. His answer was “ surely we’d save more gas and water if I only had a shower once a week”.

You can’t fault the logic…