More insulation

With all external walls now covered in external insulation we are waiting with baited breath to see what difference it's going to make to the climate in the house.  

On Friday my wife was convinced she could already feel a difference in the back bedroom (which was notoriously chilly previously).  

We've been told that it could take a few weeks for the full effect to become apparent due to the thickness of our walls - meaning that it takes time for the walls to heat up.  Still the early signs are encouraging; it definitely feels as though the heat in the house is being retained longer once the central heating turns off.

Anyway I promised some pics of the front of the house as the insulation was applied so here they are:

Before:

Here is the front covered with the insulation boards.  The pic below give an idea of the thickness of the boards that have been applied.

And here you can see the fastening system.  

This is then covered with 3 layers of render and mesh to provide a waterproof external surface.

External wall insulation. Installation week

Time seems to have telescoped somewhat with both ours, and our installers minds concentrated by upcoming grant deadlines.  

And so it comes to pass that only a few days after finally getting all the figures through on costs for our proposed external wall insulation, we have scaffolders, plasterers and assorted other trades on site as we go full tilt on installation week.

This is a before shot.  The render is nothing special, and we have a problem with water ingress due to a botched installation of the window on the right some years ago (which as a happy by product of the current work has been correctly diagnosed and sorted).

This picture shows the back of the house part way through the application of 90mm expanded polystyrene insulation which should give our solid walls a U value equivalent to a new build house.    

We are promised that it will transform our house from a freezing Victorian semi into a cozy warm home!  I will of course be reporting back over the next few weeks as the walls gradually heat up.

In the next couple of days the plasterers arrive to cover the insulation in a waterproof coloured render, and at that point our house should look as good as new.  

The same process is being undertaken o the front aspect of the house.  Again here is a before shot:

And I'll post the mid-work and after shots in a couple of days.

Green deal assessment day

So today we had our green deal assessment.  This actually comprised a two part process in which the assessor first produced an epc for the house and then went on to produce our green deal assessment.

Well, he would have if technical problems had not intervened to prevent the completion of the actual green deal assessment.

It was a lengthy, albeit painless process.  The assessor arrived at about 9.15 and left just after 2.30 (with a half hour break).   Substantial time was taken to record the number of light fittings, completing a floor plan of the property, check walls, windows, chimneys, floors, loft and our boiler and central heating system.

The outcome of the epc process was not a surprise, the house sneaking into the D category.  Energy saving recommendations included fitting low energy bulbs (which I have now done in the kitchen (Ill pot about this later), topping up the loft insulation and more interestingly, installation of external wall insulation.