Transition West Bridgford Eco House Tour

On Sunday 16th May a group of local residents who have put in place a variety of renewable and other eco features in their homes were kind enough to open their houses for others to find out how it is to have these features installed, how to live with them, and the financial outcome.

The tour was put together by a few members of Transition West Bridgford and is supported by the Energy Saving Trust. If you would like to know more, read a bit more about the house case studies here, and browse the West Bridgford Transition sites, and the Energy Savings Trust website.

Hope this will inspire many of you to become more self sufficient, find ways to reduce energy consumption, and adopt a more sustainable life style. If you already have a house or school or office with any sustainable technology or passive design features, please volunteer some information, so we can add it to this site as a case study.

West Bridgford, 1980’s House

Detached, 3 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom & W/C 1986 House
Solar water, Woodburning Stove & Gas Boiler Link Up.

About us and why we did it
We own & run the Fireplace Centre on Radcliffe Road in West Bridgford, for many years we have been selling woodburning stoves & central heating. Last March we teamed up with a local solar company, Solar-Heat. Together we have been carrying out solar-woodburning-gas installations, which prompted us to install it on our own house enabling us to closely monitor the effectiveness & learn more on designing our tailor made systems.

Heating and Power
Gas boiler linked with solar panels & multi-fuel stove. The solar provides almost all of the hot water in the summer, the M/F stove does the heating & hot water in the winter & on days when the stove is not lit the gas boiler backs up the system.

Insulation
Currently we only have loft insulation & a few double glazed windows, but plan to do cavity wall insulation in the future & are currently getting quotes for double glazing.

Advantages of our solar hot water and stove
•Greatly reduced gas consumption
•Greatly reduced gas bill
•Fuel for the fire can be purchased from many different sources enabling much more choice than the few gas providers

Disadvantages
•In winter you have to look after the fire (although we find this enjoyable some may not)
•Finding places to store fuel for the fire


Who did each part of the work?

Heating System with Wood Stove, Gas Boiler & Solar Panels,
installed by
The Fireplace Centre & Solar-Heat
41 Radcliffe Road,
West Bridgford,
Nottingham.
NG2 5FF
(0115) 9813670
www.nottinghamfireplacecentre.co.uk
www.solar-heatuk.com

Gas Usage to Date:

Garden Share: Victorian detached house with garden

This house has a long well stocked garden with flowers, shrubs and fruit trees. At the end is a small greenhouse and area with raised beds for vegetable growing. The owner of the house was no longer up to growing vegetables and was looking for someone who did not have the space but did have the energy and knowledge. Last year, the match was made and the end result can be seen if you go and visit the garden.

This garden share was begun in the autumn of 2009. The raised beds were cleared, and overwintering brassicas planted which were harvested in the spring of 2010, shared and enjoyed. This year, garlic are developing well, but overwintered onions not so well. The beds have been planted with early potato varieties and broad beads, brassicas and salad leaf planted into a seed bed. An open area of soil and a green house are now part of the share, and a planting scheme is being developed for these, including green beans, courgettes, tomato and cucumber".

1930’s Semi Detached

1939, 3 Bedroom Semi detached house. Solid Wall construction with cavity wall rear extension. Loft insulation and double glazing.

In just over 3 year we have fitted additional loft insulation, some small areas of floor insulation and draft excluded. The next stage would be to wrap the house in a combination of external solid wall insulation/internal wall insulation and to insulate under the floors.

Annual energy use
• Annual Electricity imported 2000kWh
• Annual Gas 16,000KWh

About us and why we did it
In addition to the environmental benefits. Having worked in the field of housing and energy for 10 years and been involved in projects where we had put renewable technologies in to peoples homes I thought it was time to have them myself.

Heating and Power
• Solar PV – Generating just over half of our annual electricity
• Solar Hot water – provides almost all hot water April to end of September.


• A Rated Gas Condensing Boiler. This is much smaller, quieter in use than the older boiler and we expect to see at least 20% saving on our annual gas bills. The quality of our hot water system is much improved.

Insulation
Additional loft insulation, some small areas of floor insulation and draft excluded. The next stage would be to wrap the house in a combination of external solid wall insulation/internal wall insulation and to insulate under the floors.

Other green features
Vegetable garden, Water saving devices

Advantages
Reduced Energy Bills.

Disadvantages
None really.

Who did you go to for advice and info?
Own knowledge and experience.

Who did each part of the work?

PV EvoEnergy
Solar Thermal Carbon Legacy
Boiler
Heat Exchange Fan

Eco Tips

Over the years I have been looking through many books and websites to find easy to use Eco tips to make my household more sustainable and safer for those who live and work here.
I found one website in particular that was very good and you may want to have a look at. The Green Store on line is not local but might at least give you some ideas of products you can buy locally and use here.