The Evelyn Eco House

[purcell]

An East Sussex landlord has taken up the challenge of a green makeover project on a house she owns, and has recorded the details on an interesting website:
http://www.evelynecoproject.co.uk/index.php
She is trying to see what steps can be taken, within a reasonable budget, to bring an ordinary 1940s home up to good, energy-efficient standards and to reduce its carbon footprint.

Some solutions are quite low-tech, such as draughtproofing and composting food waste. Challenges include what to do about the garden: she would like to give plenty of space for vegetable growing, but a tenant might not like the effort involved. Other, more technological fixes include a LaZer2 solar hot water system.

She is doing something similar with her own home as well.

[jazzactivist]

I am also very interested in how to make an existing house as eco as possible, purcell. 'Had a look at the website and it is very interesting what can be done on a limited budget. I am currently a tenant in the house that I live in, and the only comment that I would make to other landlords trying to do this is to keep in mind your tenants' needs. Eco-awareness shouldn't be used as an excuse to cut financial corners. Tenants pay market rents to live in a nice house, and most wouldn't like to live with kitchen worktops that are past their best, piecemeal carpets from Freecycle, and charity shop curtains - unless they are very clean and in neutral colours suited to the house. This is fine in your own home if that's what you want, but not to impose on others. Other than that, I think that Evelyn is doing a grand job. Permaculture magazine is very good for advice on retrofitting and eco-products, and I would suggest that for the garden a section cut out of the lawn to make a Lazy Bed would be enough of a veg patch. Then the tenants can either cover it with grass seed to make it all lawn or keep it as it is and plant veg in it.

[Crocus]

Goodness that looks quite interesting Purcell! I just had a quick peep at the link, but will definitely have an in depth look at this. OH is also interested, thanks for the link!

[franbee]

We have always tried to be 'green' and conserve energy in our 1960's house. It already had cavity wall insulation, we installed roof insulation, replaced the double glazing, lagging on the hot water tank, though we use an airing cupboard, central heating temp is adjusted morning and evening, radiators are at different temperature settings. We have a water meter, 2 water butts, re use or recycle everything possible. The only thing we don't do any more is grow veg, but we try to buy local produce and have milk delivered.

[Primrose]

Thank you for this and have added it to my favourites.

I have looked at Light Bulbs quickly - my Mum has one in her sitting room and the light is awful. She does a lot of reading and her suduko. When I was down there the other evening I realised how bad it was - I know they take awhile to become affective. I said I would forget saving the planet and think of her eyesight. Even though she had her new reading glasses on she sometimes resorted to a magnifying glass. So I am going to look out for the Megamann brand. First port of call the Centre for Alternative Technology website - I think.

Did anyone see the program on TV where one poor lady had cavity insulation installed but her walls were not fit to take it? Until she found she had this constant smell in her house and her decoration was getting ruined she did not know what it was.

Finally the CW insulation was inspected and when they bored a hole to inspect the cavity filling it was wringing wet. To try and cure it would mean all the insulation would have to be removed - nightmare.

I cannot remember correctly but I think this had to be done at her expense and of course she could not sell her house until it was done.

I am not saying cavity insulation does not work but it showed the importance of making sure that your house structurally is able to take it - well that was the conclusion I came to. I know nothing about these companies but once it is pumped in and you have paid I take it - it could be up to you to have done the survey first?

[franbee]

If we were starting again with CW insulation, I would be very cautious, and get a very reputable company to give advice. Ours was already in, before 1975, I suppose there wasn't the choice then, but it certainly has kept the house warm, our power bills are low compared to most people.

[jazzactivist]

There are types of eco cavity insulation that wouldn't cause that type of damage or any noxious fumes - real wool waste or shredded paper insulation. It is installed in exactly the same way by pumping it into the cavity, but no problems afterwards. The house that we currently live in has the shredded paper one in the walls, floor and ceiling of the upstairs attic conversion part, and it is fantastic. We hardly ever need the radiators on upstairs and the rooms are still warm the next morning, and our bills so far are quite low. I would go for that if I was having it done in my own home.

One eco thing that is cheaper than wool carpets is cork flooring. I read about it in Permaculture magazine where someone was searching for flooring to replace their old vinyl. It is warm, looks nice if laid well, you can polish it, it lasts for years and is a renewable resource as cork trees grow quickly. It comes in sheet or tiles and usually comes from Portugal where cork is grown, so less air miles too.

I love the Centre for Alternative Technology site and would love to go down to Wales and visit it myself.

[Primrose]

Jazz - we visited the Centre in Wales many years ago and really enjoyed it.

As for the 'fillings' in cavity walls - I do not know what that lady had in hers. It could have been shredded paper for all I know because it was like a soggy mush in his hand. By the way I don't think it was noxious fumes it was the smell of damp.

My only point was - you have to be careful - and it is not a product that you can 'pick up' and return as faulty.

Update: The program I saw was 'The One Show' and we do not usually watch it. So I have just searched to find their summary.

Cavity Wall Insulation (CWI) has made a huge contribution towards keeping homes warmer and saving energy in recent years. It works by filling the gap between the inner and outer wall of your home, creating an extra layer to keep warmth in. But that extra layer can cause damp problems in some homes which are exposed to wind-driven rain or have unsuitable wall construction. Before having Cavity Wall Insulation you should have your home inspected for suitability and only use a registered installer to have it put in.

How do I know if my property is suitable for CWI?
Your local Energy Saving Trust is a source of useful advice. You can visit their website here or call them on 0800 512 012.

Dom points out that not all property is suitable for CWI. Common reasons for not insulating your home's wall cavities include:

* Your walls have porous bricks, bad pointing and rubble in the cavity can also be unsuitable.

* Your home was built before the 1930s - it may have cavity walls, but these may be too narrow to be filled.

* Your property is exposed to wind-driven rain (on high ground, by the coast).

Link: Part C of The Building Regulations 2000 contains a map that indicates the areas of the UK that are often exposed to driving rain. Click here to download the regulations (pdf format).
More links:
Energy Saving Trust: Search online for grants you may be entitled to receive for energy saving measures

Warmfront: Government funded scheme to improve insulation.

Find a registered CWI installer: Make sure they are a member of either The National Insulation Association (NIA), The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency (CIGA) or The British Board of Agrément (BBA).

So I am all for Insulation but just felt so sorry for this lady. If we can be aware of any pitfalls, that one would not have thought, because being offered Grants are attractive and being energy efficient is good. Just sometimes we can think it has to be right so go for it which had obviously happened in this house.

Out of interest Jazz are the grants only available on products that are eco-friendly?

[jazzactivist]

No, primrose, I think that there are two types of grants - one type for insulating your home and changing your boiler to a combi boiler etc through Warmfront, and another type of grant for eco improvements like solar panels. I would be a bit concerned about Warmfront, though, as I have listened to several "You and Yours" programmes on Radio 4 where people have phoned in to say that in order to get the grant towards the costs you have to use one of the few companies that are part of the government scheme and they charge a lot more than other companies doing the same work and over-estimate the amount of work involved, so lots of people have ended up even more out of pocket despite receiving a grant.

Thanks for the info on insulating walls. I can imagine how difficult it would be to have the substance removed. We once had a dead rat inside an area of the house that had wallboard inside the stone, and it stunk to high heaven. We had to cut holes in all interior walls to find it and get rid of it!

[Primrose]

Talking of grants it made me re-call the time when we bought this cottage about 27 years ago now. We were able to have a grant to bring it up to standard. By the time we were told to take up the flagstone floors and dig down to get ceiling height, make the window in the walk in pantry larger, take down an old wattle and daub wall, etc. - we said No! Thank you.

We bought the cottage because we liked it for what it was and still love it. It has stood all these years and we saw no reason to change it to get a grant. It was so silly when I asked what the reason would be for doing it and the reason was to get ceiling height. (No-one has to bend down and we are not short people!) Anyway the answer was for 'light and ventilation' at that time.

So I asked - OK if we dig up all the downstairs floors, meaning we have to step down into the cottage from the front and back door, what about upstairs? The answer was well we can't make you do anything about that.

[franbee]

Primrose, I think the grants were good if you had a more modern house that needed a lot of things doing, they only isssued a grant when you had everything the council wanted done, which may have been more than you wanted. Though my Mum got a new back door, and 2 new (single glazed!) windows done, there were other jobs that would have been more appropriate.

[jazzactivist]

Council requirements for grants can be very strange. It said on You and Yours that people accepting the Warmfront grant were being expected to have more work done than required, and what was done didn't always solve the problem. There was one elderly chap on whose boiler just needed a new thermo-coupler, but the company replaced the whole boiler, even though his was only two years old! Instead of costing him £60 it cost him about £600 in total, even with the grant. As he had signed the contract he went ahead with the work, as he didn't now that he could back out.

Another eco idea that I read about in Permaculture magazine was to plant plants along the base of your house to prevent damp. A lot of surveyors today say that plants on the house encourage damp, but apparently years ago, before damp proofing, people planted plants that were greedy for water there to keep it away from the house. We tried planting around the base of our wooden shed in our last house as it was on quite waterlogged soil. Even after heavy rain the shed walls and floor were always bone dry. I put this in as you had mentioned it on another thread, primrose.

[Primrose]

Yes - good idea Jazz for wooden sheds. Never thought of the 'alternative' benefits before.

[Julia]

Hi
Rather a late reply to the posts on the Forum but I have only just managed to register.
I am the person who has been doing the Evelyn Eco House project (www.evelynecohouse.co.uk) and wanted to make a couple of comments on what someone said about landlords doing up houses.
I have used charity shop curtains but they were fantastic quality and very smart and nothing I wouldn't be happy living with. I did have to buy new carpets (wool) but I would have been happy using good clean second hand ones if I could have found them.
Since doing the website I have also got my husband to build a log store for the tenant and I have also persuaded the tenant to use eco balls for washing her clothes, rather than washing powders. She hasn't yet worked out how to use the central heating programmer or TRVs properly so that's something I need to help her with.
On the subject of cavity wall filling, you cannot use shredded newspaper (Warmcell is the main brand). It is used for interior insulation of walls, but not in a brick cavity. The cavity wall product used by the contractors on my rented house was mineral wool fibre. See http://www.nationalinsulationassociation.org.uk/housholder/householder-nia.html?nib insulation home body=cavitywall.html

I'm glad to say my tenant and her children are very happy in the house!

Julia
http://transitiontowns.org/Lewes/Lewes

[franbee]

Very pleased to 'meet' you julia. We are very interested in your sort of project, so keep us updated will you? I'll have a proper look at your website later.

[cindy]

We have just taken advantage of the government scheme to insulate our house. The survey said our walls were not suitable for cavity insulation as the bricks were too porous, house was built in 1907. We did have the loft re insulated to the modern standard, free as OH is now 70. I also grow my own veg, make compost, but what I can't get on with are those lights. We both read and I embroider during the evening and the light is hopeless. We had them in the kitchen but they took so long to produce a useable level of illumination we changed half of them back the ordinary ones

[jazzactivist]

Pleased to meet you, Julia, and I am a great admirer of your Evelyn Eco House, and also a keen charity shopper. It was me who made the comments about worrying about landlords passing off sub-standard as eco, or estate agents doing the same when they can't be bothered to sort out a problem. I recently left a rented house where we had extreme difficulties getting the estate agent or landlord to do necessary repairs, as she was passing not doing them off as an eco decision. For example, the downstairs toilet stopped working and it turned out that the sewerage pipe from the toilet to the main pipe had collapsed due to age. It took months of hard negotiation to get our landlady to have the toilet fixed, while we lived with sewage smells downstairs, as she kept arguing that she only wanted one bathroom in the house for "eco reasons". She expected us to live with an unusable and unsanitary bathroom to suit her eco-sensibilities! Equally, she had left her mum's hideous old curtains at the windows and a lot of old junk in the house which she didn't want to get rid of for "eco reasons". On the other hand, she had turned a large area of garden which had previously been used for veg and herb growing into a parking area!

We are quite knowledgeable about sustainability, and look forward to owning our own home again soon where we can have solar panels for lighting and a woodstove for heating, grow our own veg again etc. However, even in the house that we now rent, which is in much better condition than the previous one, the hot bath tap doesn't turn on properly so it takes forever to run if we want a bath, and the shower is permanently set at a certain temperature that is too cool for adults, but the estate agent won't act on it claiming that these are better for the environment and part of their new policy. I think that it is important for landlords to keep their tenants' needs in mind, and not make decisions for them that will make their day-to-day lives more expensive or tricky. Beyond the basic infrastructure of the house, as you describe, it is up to tenants to do the rest. I would say including tenants bringing their own furniture and curtains, just in case your landlady's taste isn't your own, and choosing for themselves which washing methods to use based on information that the landlord leaves in a welcome pack.

It is a much bigger question, but we do have to ask as well whether some people being able to afford to own a second home to rent out is sustainable, when many people would like to own one home to live in, but can't afford it.

Best of luck with the Evelyn Eco House, Julia. You are doing well so far, and it is very interesting to see how retro-fitting an existing house can work. One of the most exciting aspects of sustainability is that no-one is yet at the stage where they can make their whole life sustainable, so it is all a learning process.