8 Sandy Bank, Whixall, Whitchurch - 20th and 27th October

Property details

3-bedroom house originally built in 1750, upstairs added in 1970 and rear single storey extension in 1990. Property has 6 acres of land, barn and detached garage.

What changes have been made?

We have done a great deal of retrofitting through installing a ground source heat pump (GSHP), underfloor heating, skirting board heating, solar thermal for domestic hot water, 10kW total solar photovoltaic (PV) panel arrays, 2 Tesla Powerwall batteries, 2 Zappi smart car chargers and 2 Eddi power diverters for both domestic hot water and underfloor heating. We removed the night storage radiators and replaced all double-glazed sealed units with K glass. Most external walls have been internally insulated; Superquilt multilayer foil insulation on all walls upstairs along with new plasterboard, Wallrock KV600 thermal wallpaper was fitted downstairs. In the sitting room a wood burning stove was fitted; a smoke particle filter was later added in 2023. All wood burnt comes from coppiced trees on our land. Lastly, we installed smart thermostats in every room, updated our washer and dryer to low energy and changed all garden tools to electric.

What have been the approximate energy savings?

We make a net profit of roughly £200 per year with no energy bills or petrol/diesel costs, thanks largely to the Feed in Tariff. For 2020, we used 11MWh of electricity and generated 9MWh. In the summer months, our home and cars run almost totally from solar power, Powerwalls used at night. We minimise the use of expensive peak rate electricity as the Powerwalls charge up at night using cheap electricity and run the house during the day.

What have been the benefits to you and your home?

Our home feels warm and cosy in the winter and cool in the summer. It has been a real benefit to us having zero energy costs.

For more information, please see attached PDF.

Additional information

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