Old buildings are inherently efficient. The carbon embodied in their fabric was hard-won and has lasted for centuries. Their thick walls act as thermal stores and have a higher U-value than is generally understood … but modern fashion requires an EPC, so Smith & Garratt have become adept at endowing old buildings with modern efficiencies and renewables.
LED lighting is a no-brainer … easy to install and it pays back in spades, being cheaper to run and needing fewer replacement bulbs.
Solar-thermal panels are, at their simplest, black-painted radiators installed on the roof to harvest the sun’s heat to a cylinder. Where there’s a low-heritage-impact, south-facing roof there should be a solar panel … it’s free energy. Solar PV is not far behind – pass GO and collect £200! With efficient cabling they can go anywhere – the old walled garden or the garage roof.
Window brushes are a no-brainer too. Pioneered by Ventrolla, they suit sash-and-case windows best. When servicing or painting, why not dismantle, fit brushes and reassemble … it gets rid of the rattle and the draughts.
Shutters are great for defeating draughts, but don’t count towards the EPC … secondary-glazing and double-glazing do. It is perfectly possible to retrofit either to listed buildings. Smith & Garratt have many examples. It is not cheap, and there is an element of compromise, but don’t let your local authority’s conservation officer stand in the way … you can and should improve the efficiency of your windows. If appropriate, use modern crown glass on the exterior and K-glass on the interior; no-one will be able to tell the difference from the outside or fail to notice the difference from the inside!
A heat-pump is ideally paired with under-floor heating. Ground-source or air-source, heat-pumps produce low-grade heat … which is what a heated floor requires. When renovating floors, why not install under-floor heating and power it with a heat-pump at one-third the cost of oil? If you have a body of water nearby, drop the input coil into that and harvest the latent heat. Smith & Garratt will help with the technicalities of the installation – for example a low-loss header is unlikely to be the answer; we will specify a system that actually works!
For the bigger or more remote schemes, Smith & Garratt provide practical advice and design for district heating systems incorporating biomass burners, and for combined heat-and-power (‘CHP’).
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Smith & Garratt have acknowledged expertise with heritage property, regularly working on listed buildings and Scheduled Monuments. See some of our previous work.
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