New Year new energy - we have been involved over the years in countless energy saving & retrofit projects, we thought we'd join the debate & see how we can share our NMD expertise learnt through hands-on real experiences.
What is retrofit?
Retrofit is the upgrading of existing homes or buildings to increase their energy efficiency & reduce or remove their reliance on fossil fuels for heating.
In practice, this can include quite simply:
Insulating your home: include a range of suitable materials, technologies & techniques such as roof insulation, cavity wall insulation, floor insulation, external insulation and high performance glazing.
Replacing gas with clean electric: by maybe removing a traditional gas boiler & replacing it with in a heat pump to heat the home. In addition, solar panels and a battery can be added to a home so that it produces its own on-site renewable energy.
Reduction of energy use: through new technology such as effiecient appliances, energy management & heat recovery systems to prevent wasting existing heat.
A simple balance of these measures can be considered to create an energy saving solution that suits your lifestyle.
Retrofit can also include measures to improve the climate resilience of a home, such as the installation of external shutters and ventilation systems to balance extremes of the local climate.
Cost of Retrofit?
Retrofit needs to be a carefully balanced approach, looking at the best way to invest - its not always the most cost effective solution to install fancy heat pumps, solar panels and energy generationgor storage equipment - we find with projects that careful specification of simple energy saving materials, super insulation and airtight construction can be the lowest spend for the highest short term payback.
You need to think about:
What do you want to achieve?
How much you have to spend - establish a sensible budget
Can it be integrated with your home & day to day life?
How can we help balance your aspirations with reality?
Though to be fair there is so much conflicting advice, comapnies promoting shiny new kit & the media giving us misleading sound bites where do you start to make clear & reasonable decisions?
At Nick Midgley Design we have established over the years a simple design concept for new buildings & renovating, to offer cost effective low tech solutions, to create comfortable energy efficment buildings.
Over at nickmidgleydesign.co.uk you can see some of our projects & begin to undertand our approach - it's about finding solutions for the individuals we work with - we don't have a tie-in to manufacturers or companies offering 'wonder bread' solutions - NMD work with tried and tested methods for build & retrofit, we understand building construction, with over 30 years in the property constriction and design industry, Nick has been called on by individuals, companies & institutions to offer bespoke solutions, I have a breadth of experince to offer individual householders or businesses no nonsense options for energy retrofit to suit all budgets.
You maybe searching for a property, about to start a major renovation or just start a simple self build upgrade - we have completed all these types of project and we are happy to offer simply an hour of our expertise & a guidance to start your project or to be come more involved helping you shape a major refit.
We will develop this dialogue & offer our insight into the myriad of simple solutions, to help you improve your work or living space, to save you energy, save costs & help you aspire to a better way of living & working.
We have the idea to put together a simple 'click & engage' here, through the 'blog', to offer more insight & expertise as a simple no waffle consultancy, though we can talk on-line or visit you in person to develop a solution for you today.
As we go on & develop this convesation we can discuss materials, construction technique, energy saving grants & available technology. We can help you search for ideas & solutions.
Why not email or telephone & we can see how we can help you?
nick@nickmidgleydesign.co.uk 07711182313 talk directly to Nick about what you need?
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