Eco Home Essentials
Your Guide to Green Home Technologies

Welcome to eco home essentials, let me ask you a question.

"If you live in an older home (over 30 years old), Would you like to:

Improve the energy efficiency of your home.
Lower your energy bills.
Reduce your carbon footprint.
and make your house a more pleasant place to be.

Without breaking the bank?"...

... Of course you would!

Turning an old house into an efficient house

Hi,

My name's Jeremy and my family and I have lived in lots of different types of homes over the years ranging from a new build eco home to our current home, an old solid stone walled house (built in c.1900) on the coast (so, very windy and cold) and some of my biggest expenses (and I'm guessing yours) on an on-going basis are fuel costs, such as electricity, gas, oil etc.

They're never ending, every month (or quarter), they arrive like clockwork and you've no choice but to pay them...

... Or do you?

At Eco Home Essentials I believe you do have a choice!

And I'm going to show you how to do it and that making you house energy efficient is achievable.

From simple changes, right through to the more expensive options and eco friendly technologies further up the price range.

This site is primarily aimed towards people who want to improve their existing or older homes into energy efficient homes.

But, I also cover some options for building new or adding extensions. So if you want to convert your existing property into your ideal green eco home or just carry out a few simple improvements that will reduce your energy consumption and your running costs, you're in the right place!

Once you understand how the simple things, that you may never have given a second thought, like vapour barriers and controlled ventilation etc. can make a huge difference, you might be surprised at how straight forward it is to create your very own eco home.

You'll also learn to appreciate how your high bills are affected by small things, most of us just don't know to look for and once you do, they're really simple to avoid.

Things like poorly installed or incorrectly specified insulation, draughts and ventilation.

If you can get the simple things right, you're well on your way to reducing your bills significantly.

"But all those renewable products cost a fortune, are a real hassle to install and no one understands all the jargon, right?"

Not necessarily, you can enjoy the benefits of lower energy costs while protecting the environment, and without spending a fortune!

Let me show you how.

We can all reduce the amount of energy we consume within our homes and it's not as difficult as you might imagine. We may not all be able to afford to upgrade our homes to Passivhaus standards, but everyone can do something to reduce their bills and make their home more energy efficient.

So forget about the fancy solar panels and heat pumps (for now) and start with the basics. They're not glamorous but they are essential if you want to achieve the best results possible.

Only when you get these basics right, should you move onto the fancy stuff like solar and heat pumps etc.

So What Should You Prioritise?

Insulation - Insulate to as high a standard as you can, preferably using natural, hygroscopic, breathable insulation. Older homes especially need to remain vapour permeable if you are to avoid expensive problems in the future.
Ventilation - Get rid of uncontrolled ventilation (draughts) while maintaining the controlled ventilation (essential for a healthy environment within your home).

That's it...

... just two things to get you on the road to creating the most energy efficient house on your street and not having to worry about where the money for your next gas bill is going to come from.

So while I do cover the various green technologies that are available they should not be the first things on your wish list.

I see houses with solar thermal panels and/or photovoltaic panels on them all the time, but most of them are draughty and poorly insulated.

That means they have a much higher demand for heat than they need to have.

If the owners of those homes had put the money they spent on the solar panels into insulation and draught proofing. Their home would have needed less heat (as it would hold onto the heat for longer). That means their boiler would fire less often and therefore, be cheaper to run.

Plus when they do get round to upgrading their boiler or installing solar panels, the energy demand of their home will be lower, so they can install a smaller boiler/heat pump or less solar panels to meet that lower demand. ANd guess what? the smaller heat pump is cheaper to buy and cheaper to run!

Here at Eco Home Essentials, I try to avoid the jargon and keep things as simple as possible, By educating yourself and arming yourself with as much knowledge as possible, you can understand what the sales reps or suppliers are talking about and see when they may not be telling you everything you need to know.

You'll be able to ask them the pertinent questions and know if they're simply 'bluffing you' or if they really know what they're talking about.

I also like to point out the disadvantages, as well as the advantages, with all aspects of your upgrade to an energy efficient home. Which will enable you to make informed decisions on which improvements and upgrades you should carry out next and which products/solutions suit your current position.

How Can Eco Home Essentials Help you?

I'll focus on the most important things, like insulation and ventilation and how straightforward additions to them (that many builders simply don't use) can make big differences to how they perform.
I'll explain all the various technologies without the jargon ( and without the sales pitch).
I'll tell you what you can expect to achieve by installing your chosen technology or upgrade, and how that technology or home improvement can have a knock on other aspects of your home (and not always in a good way!).
I'll tell you about the disadvantages of the various materials and eco-technologies as well as their advantages.

What if you Need More Help?

I'm aware it can be a bit daunting when trying to figure out what you need to do to improve the efficiency of your home.

You start with what appears to be a pretty straightforward task and before you know it, you've gone down a rabbit hole of online advice and you're totally confused.

Honestly I get it and I've been there myself.

So, I now offer two products that will help steer you in the right direction, without all the typical confusion:

My "Old House to Efficient House" ebook walks you through the process of establishing how energy efficient you current home is and how you can improve it.

I also offer hour long video or phone consultations - meaning, you can sit back and relax while I talk you through the entire process. Then when we're done, I'll provide you with a pdf document containing a breakdown of what we talked about.

I use images and information provided by you to establish what type of home you have (think wall, floor and roof construction, heating type insulation etc.) to narrow down what we talk about, to things that are applicable to your specific home.

Both of these can be purchased through my shop.

Having worked as a Chartered Surveyor for almost 30 years (apart from feeling old) I’ve come to realise that most of us want similar things when it comes to our homes:

We want them to be a safe and healthy place for our family.
We want them to be as cheap to run as possible.
We want them to be as low maintenance as possible.
We want them to increase in value.

… and if possible we want to achieve the above in as environmental friendly a way as possible.

The good news is, that it is possible (no matter what your budget) to improve the efficiency of your home.

Whether you've little or no money available to spend on turning your home into an eco-home, you’ve got a large budget to do a complete refurbishment or you're just somewhere in the middle.

There are always things that you can do today to get your bills down and become more environmentally friendly in the process.

So what qualifies me to give this help?

My name is Jeremy and I've worked as a Chartered Surveyor since 1996 inspecting residential properties.

I’ve also worked as a domestic energy assessor, carrying out EPCs (energy Performance Certificates) on residential property.

I've even worked with many of the renewable companies in the boiler, solar panel, ventilation, condensation, biomass and insulation sectors.

Within this site, I cover all the popular green technologies, from the obvious ones such as solar panels and wind turbines, solar hot water and low energy light bulbs to the less well known technologies such as biomass energy and the often overlooked details (but in my opinion the most important things to get right) such as insulation, vapour barriers, ventilation and draughts.

Please feel free to browse through my eco home articles and if you’ve got a question do get in touch. If I can help I’ll be glad to, and if I can’t I should be able to steer you in the right direction.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to receive regular tips on how to make your older home more energy efficient, sign up for my newsletter below . You'll also receive a FREE copy of my "Simple Energy Reduction Tips" ebook.

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