Terrace property, hosted by Catharine

My house was built in the 1890s.   I arranged to have a whole house retrofit report to show me how best to make it energy efficient and lower its carbon footprint.   I started by making the fabric of the house as energy efficient as possible by topping up the loft insulation, replacing the single-glazed original windows with timber double-glazed windows, installing cavity wall insulation and having most of the ground floor insulated.   I then replaced my 20 year old gas boiler with an air source heat pump.   This required having nearly all my existing radiators replaced with thicker radiators because of the lower flow temperature of the heat pump.  I had a new water cylinder installed for the heat pump.    The heat pump was installed in a courtyard at the rear of the house.    The whole installation took 8 days.     It was a bit disruptive but I only had one night without hot water during the installation process.

I'm extremely pleased with the heat pump.   It has surpassed my expectations.   The house is always warm during the colder months and there's always ample hot water.   the house is far more comfortable to live in than it was when I had the gas boiler because there's a constant gentle background heat all the time.   I retained my gas fire in the sitting room in case I needed it but I haven't used it at all since the heat pump was installed, and I'm intending to remove it and get the gas meter removed.

My energy consumption is considerably lower than it was before I started this project.  As an example, here's a comparison of my winter energy use before and after I retrofitted the house and installed the heat pump:   Before: from December 2022 to the end of February 2022, I used 2716 kilowatt hours.   After:  from December 2024 to the end of February 2025, I used 1111 kilowatt hours.    This is a reduction in energy use of 59%.