Eco-Friendly Home Renovations

- This is a Paid Partnership with Three Counties -

I’m back with another home renovation post today – while last week I wrote about dream renovation plans and all the things we’d love to do in the future this week I’m back to reality with some practical projects. We moved in late September, the days quickly started getting cooler and it became obvious that the windows in our new house would need replaced sooner rather than later. Plus, I need a step to reach up and open all of them and I’m not a particularly short person. We really need a modern replacement to make our house eco-friendlier.

That’s where Three Counties come in with their traditional sliding sash windows. They are perfect for a contemporary look without loosing the authenticity of an older house like ours. Most importantly for me you can open and close them with ease so there will be no more looking for something to stand on.

A big part of the initial renovation has been making this old house more eco-friendly. The windows are only a thin double glazing so until we can upgrade these, we’ve put in big thick curtains to keep the heat inside (and the cold out) on dark winter nights. It’s easy to underestimate how much heat can be lost through your windows and if you’re spending the money heating your house you want it to stay warm.

Speaking of heating our house one the first projects we undertook was replacing the old heating system. The existing boiler was ancient and heating an old hot water tank which wasn’t practical for us, so we invested in a good combi-boiler and put new radiators in all the rooms. It made an incredible different straight away and knowing we won’t be burning so much gas is a bonus too.

One of the key things we wanted to do to save some money (and ensure we weren’t cold working from home) was install a smart thermostat. We opted for a Bosch Easy Control which works best with our boiler meaning the isn’t on any more than it needs to be, the boiler isn’t always on full power and when we are out of the house we can control it via the app on our phones.

We were lucky that our loft is well insulated so there is no heat loss from there. The same can’t be said for under our house and when we removed all the carpets, we realised cold air was coming from the suspended timber floors. We want to keep the floorboards in the living room, so we’ve been working to insulate under the floors with earth wool. It’s already made a big difference in the front of the house, so we’ll keep going to the kitchen and back bedroom. If you’re willing to do it yourself it’s really cost effective too.

We will notice the biggest difference when all the windows are replaced and I’m hoping this will happen before Autumn 2021 so we can get the full benefit next winter.

If you want to read more in my renovation series I’ve grouped all the posts together here.