Craven Retrofit Guide Keep the Heat In
Introduction Hubbub and Craven District Council are working together to help you reduce your energy use at home to tackle climate change and save money on your bills in the face of rising energy costs.
• By retrofitting your home, you could benefit from: - Cost savings and protection from energy price rises - More comfortable home with fewer draughts and cold spots - Better maintained home protected from damp, mould or damage - Potentially increasing the value of your home - Knowing you’re helping to do your bit to tackle climate change, by reducing your home’s carbon footprint.
What is retrofit and why does it matter?
What’s in this guide?
Retrofit : making changes to your home to make it warmer and more energy efficient. This could include installing insulation, better ventilation, new heating and hot water systems or renewable energy technology.
• A huge 22% of the UK’s carbon emissions come from energy used to heat and power our homes. • The amount of renewable energy in the energy grid is increasing all the time but there is still a big reliance on fossil fuels like oil and gas to provide this power. • Fossil fuels produce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change and damage our communities and economy in Yorkshire, through flooding and high summer temperatures. • Many of us live in draughty, energy-inefficient homes in the UK, especially in Craven with our beautiful but older housing stock. • This means that heat can go to waste. Currently £1 in £4 we spend on heating our homes is wasted – retrofit helps keep the heat in and avoid waste. What are the Council doing? • Craven District Council are taking big steps to reduce their energy demand and generate their own energy. • With a £1.2 million fund from the European Regional Development Fund, they are cutting costs, carbon and retrofitting seven public buildings to make them fit for the future by installing new insulation and solar panels. • Yet the Council’s buildings only create a small fraction of emissions in Craven – a quarter come from our homes. Why should I consider retrofitting my home? • Energy bills are predicted to go up £400 on average per household from spring 2022, so by acting now to retrofit your home and take advantage of available funding will protect you from prices rises.
• There are lots of things to consider with retrofitting your home, from your building construction, to planning permission and how you might fund it. We take you through step-by-step to get you started. • This guide gives you tips on retrofit to keep the heat in and get your home fit for the future. It covers: - How efficient is your home? - Quick win retrofit - Big impact retrofit - Planning permission - Funding options - Craven case studies
How efficient is your home?
Retrofit summary Retrofit
Getting an understanding of your home energy efficiency can help you decide which retrofit is best for you. You can do this by getting a survey from Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).
Insulating pipes and hot water tanks
Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
Radiator reflectors
Energy Performance Certificates shows how energy efficient a building is – with efficiency being rated from A (very efficient) to G (very inefficient).
Draught proofing
An EPC will provide some recommendations on where you can make improvements, however these figures are based on figures for a typical household in your home type - they won’t be tailored to you.
Solid wall insulation
You can get an EPC by going to authorised provider – which you can find on the government registry.
Pay-back time
Cost
Ease
Environmental benefit
Cavity wall insulation Loft insulation
Other methods • A blower door test can inform how airtight your home is • Thermal imaging surveys can help to identify where any areas of air leakage are and help to show visually how well insulated your home is
Floor insulation Double/triple glazing
Key Cost
cheap
Pay-back Time Ease
small investment
<£50
quick
<1 year very
£250 - £1000
medium-term
1 - 5 years
large investment
£1000+
long-term
5+ years
very
easy
Environmental Benefit
medium investment
£50 - £250
intensive small
medium
large
What is ‘pay-back’ time? Pay-back time : installation cost divided by the annual savings on your bills e.g. If loft installation costs you £350 to DIY and saves you £150 per year on your bills, then the pay-back time is 2 years.
Quick Win Retrofit These ‘quick wins’ are a great way to make quick savings on a budget, don’t usually require planning permission (though you should always check) and can be done yourself without a contractor.
Installing radiator reflectors If you have radiators fixed to external walls, reflector panels will help to reflect the heat back into the room instead of it escaping through the external wall. This is particularly helpful if your walls aren’t insulated. A good low-cost option that will help to save money on your heating bills. Cost: cheap • £2 per metre Pay-back time: quick Ease: easy • You don’t need to remove your radiator from the wall and can attach the panels with sticky tape. See this video on how to make your own. Environmental benefit: Small
Draught-proofing
Insulating pipes and hot water tanks You can insulate any exposed hot water pipes with foam sleeves or strips of pipe wrap to reduce the amount of heat lost through the pipes. If you have a hot water cylinder, you can keep your water hotter for longer by upgrading your insulation to 80mm thick. Cost: cheap • £15 for an 80mm thick hot water tank insulating jacket • £1.50 per metre for pipe insulation Pay-back time: quick • A hot water tank insulating jacket can save £18 a year, repaying itself within one year Ease: easy/medium • It’s easy to find and buy the insulation online or at hardware shops. Though you might have to get up into the loft to find your hot water tank. • Fitting insulation to pipes is easy if the pipes are accessible; though if your pipes are hard to reach, you may need to engage a professional. Environmental benefit: small • 110kg carbon emissions saved a year
Blocking up draughty spots can help stop heat escaping from your home. You can do this by using: • Foam or brush strips can block up gaps around windows • A chimney draught excluder to stop heat escaping up an open chimney • Draught excluders around doors to stop cold air coming in Cost: cheap • Window insulation strips and draught excluders for doors cost around £10 each, whilst a chimney draught excluder is around £25 and a simple door draught excluder is around £10. Pay-back time: quick • Draught-proofing around windows and doors could save you around £30 a year • A chimney draught excluder could save around £20 a year Ease: easy • Draught-proofing materials for windows, doors and chimneys can be bought at local hardware stores and are quick and simple to install around your home • Or see this video on how to make your own door draught excluder. Environmental benefit: small
Big Impact Retrofit
Solid wall insulation Solid walls can be insulated from either the inside or the outside of your home.
To have a larger, long-term impact on the environment and your bills, then it is worth investing in insulation and improved glazing. Joan installed loft insulation in her Sutton home and has said that “I feel happier knowing we are doing what we can to restore the planet for kids’ future”. Some of these measures can be more costly and time-consuming, so a great time to do them is when renovating or moving into a new home. What type of walls do you have? Most homes have either solid walls or cavity walls (these are made of two layers and have a gap in the middle of them). You can usually tell which you have by the age of your house and the brick pattern on your walls:
• Internal solid wall insulation involves installing insulation boards to the walls of a room, or by building a stud wall and filling the gap between this and the original wall with insulation. - This will reduce the size of the room as the insulation is usually around 10cm thick (3.9 inches). - You can reduce costs by installing internal wall insulation room-by-room, or alongside other home improvements such as a new kitchen, bathroom or redecoration.
• Solid walls – Home built before 1920s and bricks have alternating pattern. A narrower wall (<260 mm) is probably a solid wall. Stone walls may be thicker still but are usually solid.
• Cavity walls – Home built after 1920s and bricks have an even pattern (laid on top of each other). A brick wall thicker than 260mm is likely to be a cavity wall. If your home is non-traditional (e.g., concrete, steel or timber-framed building) you will need a specialist installer with experience in insulating your building type to advise.
• External solid wall insulation involves adding a layer of insulation to the outside walls of your house, and then covering it with render or cladding. It doesn’t disrupt things inside your house, but you may need planning permission – see the planning permission section for more advice.
Cost: large investment • External wall insulation is around £10,000, internal wall insulation is around £8,200. (Based on a typical 3-bedroom, semi-detached house). You can reduce costs by having solid wall insulation done at the same time as other renovation or redecoration works. Pay-back time: medium/long-term • A detached gas-heated house could save £425 a year, semi-detached £255, mid terrace house £160 and a bungalow £170 Ease: very intensive • Internal insulation will involve removing and re-fitting internal doors and skirting boards, and redecorating the new internal walls • External insulation will involve putting up scaffolding and installing new external walls for your house, so will renew the appearance of outer walls. Environmental benefit: large • CO2 savings per year: from 560kg for a mid-terraced house, to 1490kg for a detached house → Note when adding solid wall insulation enlist a specialist installer who can ensure moisture is considered, as stopping draughts can trap moisture and create damp problems. → Also check your installer is covered by a 25-year guarantee scheme – you can find a list of schemes by Ofgem here.
If your house was built in the last 20 years or so, the cavity walls are probably already insulated. To find out, you can: • Ask an installer for an inspection to check if your walls are hollow or filled. • Check with your local authority’s building control department. Cost: medium investment • From approximately £390 for a mid-terrace house up to £610 for a detached house. Reduce costs by doing alongside other home improvements or focus on part of your home. Pay-back time: medium-term • Energy bill savings for a mid-terrace house can be approximately £120 a year, up to £310 a year for a detached house, making the payback time around 2-3 years, so you’ll start reaping the rewards on your bills. Ease: easy • Once you’ve found a professional to conduct a survey to make sure your walls can be insulated, then they’ll carry out the job in approximately two hours. Environmental benefit: large • CO2 savings per year: from 415kg for a mid-terraced house, to 1100kg for a detached house → Look for an installer that has a 25 year guarantee, such as with the Cavity Wall Guarantee Agency (CIGA).
Cavity wall insulation
Loft insulation
Insulating cavity walls is done by a professional installer who will drill small holes into the external walls of your house, then inject the insulation into the cavity between your walls. They will then fill in the holes so they’re barely noticeable.
A quarter of your heating is lost through an uninsulated roof. Insulating your loft is one of the easiest and most effective ways to keep the heat in – and will pay for itself quickly and many times over its 40 year lifespan.
If you have easy access to your loft, it’s not a flat roof and doesn’t have damp problems, then it’s often possible to insulate your loft yourself by laying rolls of mineral wool insulation in between and on top of the joists, so the insulation is 270mm (10.6 inches) thick. You could also consider sheep’s wool insulation. If you want to use the loft for storage space, then you’ll need to fit a new floor on top of the insulation. Alternatively, you can get a professional to install roof insulation in between the rafters (the sloping timbers that form the frame of your roof).
Double/triple glazed windows and doors If you live in a conservation area, have an article 4 direction on your property, or if live in a listed building, you’ll need to check if there are any restrictions on what type of windows and doors you can consider – see the planning permission section for advice.
Cost: medium investment • £300-£400 for mineral wool insulation Pay-back time: short/medium-term • £150 a year savings for a mid-terrace house, up to £380 for a detached house, with a pay-back time of 1-2 years Ease: intensive • You can install loft installation yourself, or use a professional to install roof installation in between the rafters. Environmental benefit: large • CO2 savings per year: from 530kg for a mid-terraced house, to 1310kg for a detached house Floor insulation You only need to insulate the ground floor of your home, or any floors that are above unheated spaces such as garages. Older homes are likely to have suspended wooden floors, which you can add mineral wool insulation to, supported by netting between the joists. If you have a newer home, you’re likely to have concrete floors, which you can insulate with foam boards when you’re replacing your flooring. Cost: medium investment • £520 - £1300. Try insulating your floor if you’re replacing carpet or floorboards to reduce costs. Pay-back time: long-term • £35-£85 saving a year depending upon the size of your home Ease: intensive • You can seal gaps between floorboards and skirting easily yourself with sealant from a DIY shop, but a professional can help with full floor insulation and floor replacement. Environmental benefit: medium • CO2 savings per year: from 120kg for a mid-terraced house, to 300kg for a detached house
Upgrading your windows and doors will keep the heat in and has the added benefit of reducing condensation and noise from outside, making your home more peaceful. The efficiency of windows is rated from A++ to E, so look for A++ where you can. Cost: large investment • PVC windows are cheaper than hardwood windows, ranging from around £4,250 to £15,000. Pay-back time: long-term • Installing A-rated double glazing in a single-glazed semi-detached house, you could save £95 per year, which increase to £115 per year for A++ rated double glazed windows. Ease: intensive • It’s recommended you use a professional in most cases – find a competent installer via the Glass and Glazing Federation. It can be disruptive, so it’s good to consider when you’re renovating a home. Environmental benefit: medium • CO2 savings per year: 330kg - 405kg → Note there are DIY kits available that are significantly cheaper and can make a big difference such as acrylic sheets that can be mounted or fitted using a magnet or clip. Or try heavy lined curtains or blinds to reduce heat loss.
Planning Permissions
To check if you live in one of these areas and need planning permission, check the Craven planning website or email the Development Management Team (planning@cravendc.gov.uk).
Changes and developments to homes may require planning permission from Craven District Council or the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (if you live within the boundaries of the park).
Broadly, the Historic Areas of Settle and Farnhill Conservation Area have the following restrictions: • Historic Areas of Settle – Permission if retrofit alters appearance of building or roof; such as draught proofing, new windows and new doors • Farnhill Conservation Area – Permission required if retrofit alters appearance of roof; such as roof insulation and draught proofing
If do not own your home, you can still usually apply for planning permission – but you may need to check if there is a clause in your tenancy agreement and speak to your landlord. Generally, the types of retrofit covered in this guide do not need planning permission. This is because they are covered by “permitted development rights”, which allows certain work to be undertaken without planning permission. Though, always double check before installing as there are many exceptions! The following items are considered permitted development: • Cavity wall insulation • Solid wall insulation • Floor insulation • Roof/ loft insulation • Replacing windows with double/ triple glazing • Replacing doors with energy efficient doors • Draught proofing • Insulating pipes, tanks, and radiators. When do I need planning permission? There are exceptions to permitted development, however! You will need to obtain planning permission for the retrofit work listed above if: 1. The retrofit changes the external appearance of your house. 2. You live in a flat or maisonette – Permitted development rights do not cover flats and maisonettes. 3. You live in a listed building – Any changes to listed buildings require ‘listed building consent’ from the planning authority, regardless of whether they need planning permission. 4. You live in an article 4 direction area – These are areas where extra permission may be needed for retrofit. What if I live in article 4 direction area? There are four article 4 direction areas in Craven outside of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. These are: Skipton High Street, Skipton Town Centre, Historic Areas of Settle and Farnhill Conservation Area
Article 4 directions also apply in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in Cracoe and Upper Settle. For more information on restrictions in these areas, email planning@yorkshiredales.org.uk. If you live in a listed building, Historic England provide expert advice on energy efficiency and historic buildings, including practical examples. How do I apply for planning permission? For more information, how-to guides and to get started on applying for planning permission you can visit the government planning portal.
Funding Options
• If you are a tenant, you will get a £5,000 grant – but your landlord must cover at least one third of the installation costs
Investing in retrofit changes can help you reduce your bills in both the long and short term. Some bigger impact retrofit, such as loft insulation, can payback quickly. There can be large upfront costs for these retrofit items. If you are on a lower income or claim certain benefits, you might be able to access funding support from the two schemes below: Funding
Who can get it?
Households under £30k income Home Upgrade Grant
Energy Company Obligation
Homes with Energy Performance Certificate between E and G Households claiming benefit (e.g., disability living allowance)
What can it cover?
Draft proofing Loft insulation Cavity wall insulation
Loft insulation Cavity wall insulation Boiler replacement
Please note, funding schemes can change - these two schemes may have changed, or new schemes may have opened. For the latest advice on local funding, search for your postcode on the Simple Energy Advice website For households under £30,000 income Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) The Home Upgrade Grant is a local scheme which provide insulation for low quality households in Yorkshire. Who can receive this support? • Households on with an income of less than £30,000 and living in a home with an Energy Performance Certificate rating of E to G (D ratings may be considered) and living in Craven What support can I receive? • Funding for draft proofing, loft insulation and cavity wall insulation • If you are a homeowner, you will get all installation costs covered
Where can I find more information? • See the Craven District Council HUG pages For households claiming state benefits Energy Company Obligation (ECO) Under this national scheme, energy companies are required to provide funding for low income and vulnerable households to install energy efficiency measures. Energy companies are responsible for ECO – each company may have slightly different eligibility criteria and support available. The guidance below is a broad overview - you should check with your individual supplier to see exactly what they offer and who they support. Who can receive this support? • You may qualify for ECO if you claim certain benefits and meet other requirements. You can check here if your benefit is covered. What support can I receive? • Most companies provide funding for cavity wall insulation and loft insulation. Some companies may help replace an inefficient boiler or other heating system. Where can I find more information? • Find out if you’re eligible for ECO here Other Funding If you need emergency support for paying your fuel bills, you may be eligible for the warm home discount, winter fuel payment or cold weather payment. Please see below for more information:
Warm & Well helps people and communities living in cold homes or struggling with energy bills to stay warm and well in winter, to keep you fit for the future. Residents are encouraged to call freephone number: 0808 278 7900 or complete this form. They will help to see what support you’re entitled to, such as: • Warm home discount • Winter fuel payment • Cold weather payment
How have Craven residents kept the heat in? Hopefully this guide will help you get started on saving energy at home. Here’s two examples of what local residents have done.
Paul – Keeping Warm in a Conservation Area Living in a conservation area hasn’t stopped Paul from making improvements to his home in Settle. After getting planning permission, Paul replaced all his windows with triple glazing and installed insulation to the walls and roof – resulting in a much cosier and warmer home. Whilst the windows were provided by a number of contractors, such as the Huddersfield-based Green Building Store, Paul decided to get stuck in and installed the insulation himself. But it’s not just about the big impact investments, Paul says that “We’ve done some major work on the house, but small changes can make a big difference too”
Sally – Small Changes, Big Differences Inexpensive and simple improvements have made a big difference to Sally in Newby. By installing new radiator thermostats, switching off radiators in spare rooms and using a chimney sheep, Sally has found that her stone bungalow has vastly improved heat retention. Having only recently made the changes, she hasn’t seen any financial impact yet – but it’s likely that she’ll be keeping out draughts and additional future heating costs.
Want more tips on saving energy? Visit Craven District Council’s energy efficiency pages
Written December 2021 – using information from the Energy Saving Trust, Centre for Sustainable Energy and Better Homes Yorkshire. All information was correct at the time of writing.