The house was originally built around 1870. It's an end of terrace and the front faces west - this means it has no south facing walls or roofs.
Walls
The original walls were solid and so had a U-value or around 2.1W/m2K. The rear of the property had been extended in the 1960s with an unfilled cavity wall.
A large variety of wall insulation techniques were trialled in order to work out how effective they are in terms or insulation as well as how easy and practical they are to install.
The insulation materials used include:
Sheepswool
PIR
Mineral wool batts
Cellulose
Cotton and hemp quilt
Woodfibreboard
Floors
There is underfloor heating thoughout again with a variety of insulation materials:
recycled polystyrene
cellulose
polystyrene sheets
PIR
Underfloor heating allows for a lower hot water temperature as there is a larger radiant surface area to distribute the heat.
Roofs
The main converted loft has blown cellulose in the roof section. The picture on the leftshows it being installed using a contraption like a vaccum cleaner in reverse.
The flat roof on the kitchen extension has not been upgraded yet but will be insulated and re-felted.
Windows and Doors
The windows have been replaced with argon filled, low emissivity coated double glazing.
There are also 4 double glazed skylight windows and a triple glazed rear extension window from Sweden.
Central Heating and Hot Water
The original low efficiency combination boiler was replaced with a top efficiency condensing boiler.
A hot water cylinder was added to act as a thermal store for the solar thermal system. Its a triple coil cylinder linking the boiler, the solar thermal and underfloor heating.
Solar Thermal
An evacuated tube solar thermal system was added to the loft extension flat roof. The collectors are twisted in their tubes in order to point south west.
