Historic home or an eco home? You don’t have to choose!

Many people put up with a draughty old home, the compensation being lots of beauty and character. But you can have an eco-historic home. Apart from anything else, re-use and refurbishment is about as eco as you can get, you are not adding carbon by building!

Insulations that are suitably breathable for a historic home, are also renewable and therefore more environmentally friendly than non-breathable foam insulations.

But, if you do live in an old home, heat loss is costing both your money and the environment. Energy bills in a historic, leaky home can be excessive, not what you want to be spending your retirement fund on!

Bolting on a heat pump or PV panels (the latter unlikely to gain consent on a historic building anyway), will not solve your heat loss problems. You need a holistic solution that looks at all the possible ways to save energy, without losing the character of your home. This would likely be a combination of draught proofing, insulation, heat recovery ventilation and choosing the most efficient heat source (which may well still be a heat pump, but we would find out).

This is future proofing for you and securing wellbeing of future generations all rolled into one.

(picture above shows breathable cork insulation being applied to the walls)

NB: Ecohome does not mean Passivhaus. For us, any reduction in energy use combined with increased health, wellbeing and comfort for you, is all part of creating an eco-home. Don’t worry we are not proposing your historic home should be super airtight, non-breathable and high tech! That being said, eco-tech has improved enormously in the last 5-10 years, there are lots of helpful options for character homes. Read more here.