Along with Microgeneration, I am also investing in increased insulation and draught proofing.

The last house to lose its snow - it means you have the best insulation, or you don't heat your home!

The major part of my home was built in 1780, it has solid brick walls and when looking at the roof void, though the beams are clearly seriously up to the task, they are also clearly old bits of tree!

I cannot understand this (The Labour) Government's and many local council's obsession with demolishing well built solid housing dating from the turn of the century or before and then building increasingly shoddy developer homes which are largely designed to maximise profit for the developer rather than provide a quality home.

With exceptions, these houses can be renovated to provide modern and better standards of insulation and overall build quality. It is cheaper, quicker and far more sustainable to take this course of action. It preserves neighbourhoods and retains a footprint that in turn means people have decent sized gardens rather than the modern slums with perhaps a bbq pit and washing turntable out the back!

Loft Insulation

Insulating the loft, as with just about all houses was simply a case of adding lots of rolls of insulation, in this case on top of the previous rather thin attempt. We did this shortly after arriving so can't really identify any great difference, not having had a winter without it. However it is a very cold house and we have spent a lot of effort looking at ways of warming it up.

The old part of the house hase floor bricks with a relatively recent layer of concrete, when exposed, the bricks are damp. In one part of the house the concrete floor is lower with a raised wooden floor to keep the floor levels consistent. This area we removed the wood floor, inserted foam insulation board (ecotherm) then re-covered with floorboards.

The extension, built in the 1960s has solid concrete floors, two rooms we have covered this with reclaimed parquet (thick stuff from an old school) and floor panels, basically giving a wood insulating layer.

We are removing the concrete from the old floor bricks so that they will dry and act as better insulation (I hope).

The extension we have roofed with jablite roofing panels, these are foam filled panels, the image above shows them being installed. The material cost is higher than a traditional roof, but the instatllation is so very quick - two days to put the roof structure on, that the overall cost was lower!

Plus my roof is the last to lose its snow, in fact it is a worry that the snow stays so long. If I drive a few miles I see modrn houses that will have lost their snow covering ahead of almost all odler houses.

Dealing with Solid walls.

With the solid walls I basically added another layer of insulation. On the side which is rendered, it was an easy choice to add a layer of 2 inch ecotherm which was in turn covered with wood weatherboarding (the wood of course also acts as a carbon store!).

I am extending this insulation throughout the rear of the house even where there is a cavity wall which in turn has its own insulation.

In my opinion, I would prefer to have external insulation as this means the mass of the wall can act as an internal heat sink / store.

At the front of the house where there is the attractive Georgian brickwork, I have insulated inside. Again the 2 inch ecotherm with an internal plasterboard lining. Prior to this work, we replaced the single glazed box sash windows with triple glazed windows. These have a far better seal, have just about the best insulation you can imagine and the effect of improved the wall and windows has been immediate, we can no longer hear the traffic! The insulation that keeps out the noise should be similar for keeping in the heat.