We are planning on doing a whole house renovation including converting the loft, side extension to the kitchen, re-configuring the bathrooms, putting in internal wall insulation, re-wiring, plumbing, installing solar PV and decorating.
It was important to us that we made this house as energy efficient and sustainable as possible within our budget. One of the key measures we had to do in order to achieve this was insulation of our solid walls and floors. Luckily, there was already over 250mm of loft insulation put in by the previous owner after they had a new roof installed.
We are also considering Solar PV or solar thermal panels for generating our own electricity and hot water. Given the favourable return on investment now available with the Feed In Tariff for solar PV, I looked into the viability of having this fitted.
The orientation of the roof is naturally of paramount importance as this determines how effective the panels will be and if it is worth installing them in the first place. We were looking for a house with a south facing garden but ultimately were happy to settle for one facing south-westish with just enough roof space for 6 solar PV panels after a loft conversion. We discussed this with our architect at the design stage so it can be included in the drawings.
I spoke with several solar PV panel providers and found that a lot of them were either too busy to come out and give me an estimate or dismissed our request as being not worth bothering about as our roof space was too small. In the end, I had to speak to over a dozen companies to find two I was happy dealing with and who were able to think creatively to provide a solution to our lack of south facing roof space. More to follow on this at a later stage.
