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It's about doing what you can

Like you, perhaps, we're concerned about the effects of climate change. We believe the science that says it's happening, and that our carbon emissions are a significant contributor to the problem. We'd like our children to have a bright future to look forward to — and we believe that if everybody does a little bit, it can make a difference.

We're a rural community, off grid, so most people here have oil central heating and travel daily by car to the nearest towns and cities for work or leisure (if you call shopping leisure). We know we could reduce the village's carbon footprint if we could encourage everyone to transition to electric heating and electric cars — but that's not easy for many, not least because of the high price of electricity. If we could generate our own low-tariff electricity, that would surely ease the transition.

So our focus is twofold: to generate our own low-cost electricity, and to encourage the transition to electric heating and transport. And whatever form of heating you use, it makes sense to have your house as well insulated as possible — better insulation means less energy to heat, which means smaller bills and a warmer home.

Home Energy Efficiency

Home energy efficiency is about generating heat more efficiently and retaining it inside our homes, thereby reducing our heating bills and carbon emissions.

In future, when Broughton Community Energy is generating our own sustainable low-cost electricity, an electric heat pump will likely be the most efficient way to heat your home — but you'll only get the full benefit if your home is well insulated. Improving your home's insulation makes good economic and environmental sense today, regardless of whether you decide to switch to a heat pump in future.

To help you on this journey, we're delighted to have partnered with My Home Made Better, who can provide valuable advice free of charge:

  • Free house surveys, so you know what needs to be done
  • Up-to-date information about grants — you'll be surprised what's available
  • Advice on insulation, heat pumps, trusted suppliers and much more

Contact them directly, or get in touch with us and we'll point you in the right direction.

A word of warning: your boiler will, at some point, need replacing. Don't wait until it happens in the middle of a cold winter, panic, and buy the first thing you can. Plan ahead now — work out what your options will be, what you'll need to do, and what the costs are likely to be.

Retrofit (insulation)

"Retrofit" is the new buzzword — to you and me it means insulation. We've all been told about insulation a hundred times before. But have we done anything about it? Here are some of our excuses for not doing so, and why we should anyway.

Why we don't

  • Too expensive, no payback
  • Need the loft for storage
  • Already have loft insulation
  • Don't like plastic windows
  • It's too disruptive

Why we should

  • Warmer home
  • Lower heating bills
  • Increased property value
  • Lower carbon emissions

Where to start?

Roof

The quick win — 25% of your heat can escape through the loft if you don't have sufficient insulation. Since 2003 the minimum depth recommendation has been 270mm, so if your house was built before then it's worth checking, even if it's been topped up since. Loft insulation isn't expensive and it's something you might well be able to do yourself. Beware anyone offering to spray the inside of the roof — it can cause problems.

Walls

A little more complicated, but can reduce heat loss by up to 35%. If you have cavity walls, getting insulation injected is fairly straightforward — but it's important to speak to a qualified professional about this.

Windows

Can account for another 20% of heat loss. Are you double glazed or better? If you are, have the frames been well maintained — hinges that don't close properly mean more draughts. There are now better ways of upgrading without a full window change: vacuum-glazed units are much thinner and more effective, and secondary magnetic panels are easy to remove and clean.

Floors and doors

Floors can leak another 10–15% of heat, whether you have timber joist or solid floors — both can be insulated. Doors account for another 10%, and draught excluders (don't forget the letterbox) are cheap and easy to fit.

One very important point is ventilation. You must have adequate ventilation in your house to let moisture out — mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) is one way to do that without losing the heat you've just kept in.

Yes, doing all of the above adds up. But you'll get that money back eventually through a higher property value and smaller monthly bills — and, most importantly, a warmer home. There are also a surprising number of grants that might apply, including ECO4, ECO4 Flex, the Great British Insulation Scheme, the Warm Homes Local Grant and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. Eligibility may be wider than you think, particularly with a low EPC rating (below D) and household income below £36k, or in Council Tax bands A–D. It's worth exploring these through TEC.

So what to do next?

  • Hopefully what you've read will encourage you to think more about your home's energy efficiency, and maybe take action
  • There's a huge amount of information out there online — but as always, some of it is unreliable
  • We've partnered with other groups working in the community energy space, including WinACC (Winchester Action on Climate Change) and tEC (The Environment Centre), both well placed to help in our Hampshire area. Together they've launched My Home Made Better, where you can find more detailed information and get in touch for help, including on grants
  • One option they offer is a free online assessment of your home — they'll talk you through the details and provide a written report, helping to focus your mind on what needs doing
  • If you'd like more in-depth advice afterwards, they can arrange a survey and inspection, including thermal imaging (there's a cost for this more detailed work)
  • Contact us if you'd like, and we'll do our best to help

Heat Pumps

There's been a lot of mixed information about heat pumps — some fair, some exaggerated, some not quite correct. Yes, they do work. Yes, they work in most properties when properly designed. Modern systems are generally quiet. And yes, they work in winter.

They work a little differently to normal central heating. Rather than coming on in the morning, warming the place up, going off, then back on in the evening, a heat pump runs more or less all the time, giving a consistent level of heat throughout the day.

How do they work?

A heat pump doesn't create heat like a boiler does (by burning oil to produce very hot water). Instead, it moves heat around. It grabs heat from an outside source — normally the air — then increases the heat value by compressing it, a bit like how a bicycle pump warms up at the bottom as you compress air into a tyre. That heat is then passed into your house. Hence "heat pump".

They deliver heat more efficiently than a boiler. For every 1 kWh of energy a heat pump uses, it can deliver roughly 2.5–4 kWh of heat into your home. An oil boiler, by comparison, is typically around 85–90% efficient, so for every 1 kWh of energy in the oil you get around 0.85–0.9 kWh of useful heat. That doesn't automatically mean heat pumps are always cheaper to run — electricity costs more per unit than oil — but running costs can be similar or lower depending on your tariff and insulation.

A few things worth knowing

  • An oil boiler typically runs at 70–80°C; a heat pump more around 40–45°C, so radiators feel pleasantly warm rather than scorching — the idea is to keep it running steadily rather than cycling hot and cold
  • There are two main kinds: Air Source (ASHP), which grabs heat from the air, and Ground Source (GSHP), which grabs heat from the ground via boreholes up to 100m deep, or laid horizontally across an area roughly the size of a tennis court. GSHP is more efficient, as ground temperature stays fairly stable around 10–12°C year-round, but it's more expensive to install
  • They generally plumb into your existing radiator or underfloor "wet" system, and work particularly well with underfloor heating. Air-to-air systems exist too, pushing hot (or in summer, cool) air around the house like air conditioning
  • You may not need to change your radiators, but you might need one or two larger ones — your installer should do a full room-by-room heat-loss survey to work out what's required

Common questions

Don't they stop working in winter? No — that's a myth. They're not quite as efficient when it's very cold, with efficiency dropping to around 2.0, but that's still better than an oil boiler's 0.85. Even at 0°C there's still plenty of energy in the air for the refrigerant inside the pump (typically around −20°C) to absorb.

Are the fans noisy? Modern heat pumps typically run at 40–55 dB at one metre — about the same as a fridge, which usually sits inside your house. Still worth thinking about placement, and your neighbours, when planning an installation.

Is it going to cost a lot? We won't pretend it's free. At the moment there are still grants of £7,500 towards replacing an oil boiler. An average village house might cost around £5k–£9k to swap over, after the grant, including radiators — compared with roughly £3k–£6k for a like-for-like boiler swap. In the long run it should cost less to run, and it's worth thinking of as part of a complete upgrade: improve the insulation first, then install a heat pump when you're ready.

Remember: smaller bills, a warmer house, and doing your bit to reduce carbon emissions and slow the effects of climate change. It's a win-win.