Sigrid and Peter initially planned to have a passive solar house built, but couldn’t find an affordable building plot in the city. Instead they bought a lovely Victorian house near Preston Park, with great access to the city. However, the house was far from their green ideals. This is how their idea of the eco-refurbishment of a Victorian house was born.
Even though they have an awareness of environmental issues, and they work in this area, Sigrid and Peter had no design or technical expertise in sustainable building before starting this project. It took five months of planning and eight months of hard work by various local tradesmen to transform the house from a typical Victorian house into a bright, warm and environmentally friendly home.
The house possesses many features to improve its energy efficiency most notably insulation of the internal walls of the house and wall radiant heating. It is predicted that the CO2 emission have been cut by 70%. Their house features on the Old Homes SuperHomes website.
Features
+ internal insulation
+ condensing boiler
+ solar thermal
+ high performance glazing
+ radiant wall heating
+ energy controls
+ solar thermal
+ wood stove
+ low energy cooking
Further information
Peter and Sigrid’s own website which tells the story of this refurbishment
Old Home Superhome website which features Southdown Avenue
Case study on ‘Eco-refurbishment of Victorian house’ on receipt of an award for ‘Private sector commitment to carbon reduction’ from South East Sustainable Business Partnership, SEEDA, GOSE and the Environment Centre
Case study with more detail