AndyT wrote:I think this thread is nicely exposing the enormity of the challenge ahead of us. Even among this small group of well-informed, capable people, it's really difficult to fit enough insulation into an old building. Adding a ventilation and heat recovery system is even more daunting.
Compare this with the relative ease of swapping out a gas boiler. For that, we have a mature market of manufacturers and a wide pool of qualified installers.
For installation of heat pumps and insulation, there's clearly huge potential for messing things up because of insufficient knowledge or experience of how buildings work. Then think about the number of old, poorly performing houses in the country, and the proportion occupied by people without any cash to invest in them...
AndyT. If you are interested in the effect of energy efficiency measures on period properties you may care to look at some of the technical papers here:
www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-a ... on_type=30 Papers 16 and 17 IIRC (but many others are relevant). Done from the view point of Green Deal, but the figures can enable you to take a view on payback periods.
Oh, and many of the authors, poor dears, are architects, pretending to be academics. Not a happy combination.
Not that I have anything against architects as a class. Just some I have had to deal with. Or indeed academics. But their English can be tortuous.
My conclusion on this is simply that most suggested measures are impossible for many, if not most, period properties under current legislative frameworks (all my properties are Category A or B (your Grades I and II). To take an example: external insulation of walls – not possible (mmm, over cladding polished ashlar stone work. The New Town conservation bodies would love that); internal insulation – what, over original plasterwork, cornices and mouldings; again a non-starter. The only thing they seem to suggest is blowing beads or cellulose into the cavity between the lathe and plaster and the wall. Apart from the disruption (all original skirtings off, holes punched every metre through the plaster work, no certainty of complete coverage) it is suspiciously like cavity wall insulation. And we know how good that was. Try and find a reliable contractor that will give you a meaningful guarantee to do this…
And I will refrain from having a rant about retro fitting dg into original sashes.
And if you want a further hoot at the stupidity of current thinking, try The Energy Efficiency (Domestic Private Rented Property) (Scotland) Regulations 2020. I think you have much the same thing in England (The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015? – but that is far less Draconian than our tartan version). A more egregious example of poorly thought out legislation would be hard to find as far as it might affect period properties, which, generally in the form of tenement blocks, are the dominant built form in the centres of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The pay back period on most of these proposals is so long as to be ridiculous in my circumstances. Having shutters and using them. Turning the heating down when you don’t need it. That works. But it doesn’t show up on their (rather discredited) EPC models.
Phew. Now that feels better. Apologies for the jeremiad.