High energy prices are affecting people up and down the country, but not Colin Usher.
Colin, Church Secretary for West Kirby United Reformed Church, and his wife Jenny are making huge savings having designed and built their own zero-energy, eco-friendly home.
Since moving into their home nine years ago, the couple have saved a whopping £35,000 in energy bills.
“I had always wanted to build my own house,” explains Colin, an architect. “I had specialised in low energy design at architecture college in the 1970s and have been building low energy homes since 1998.
“It was always my hope that we might find a suitable site to build on, to show that low energy buildings are not hard or expensive to build.”
In 2011, Jenny noticed a dilapidated detached house for sale 250m from where they lived.
The couple bought the property, demolished it, and built a new zero-energy home. Since then the pair have made huge savings and because of Colin’s understanding of how to optimise the design, it did not cost any more than an economical bespoke house to build.
Referencing Channel 4’s popular TV programme which highlights Britain’s most ambitious self-building projects, Colin adds: “This is no Grand Design. It fits into the street scene and provides a warm, draught free home which even stays cool in summer.
“One summer, my grandson, who was 15 at the time, declared ‘Your house is weird! How can it be cool in summer and warm in winter?’.
“The answer to that question is, of course, very careful design of every aspect of the building, an understanding of the UK climate and careful attention to the detailed building construction process.
“This is not ‘rocket science’ but it is building science – that may be quite simple science, but it is still science!”
The main features of the house include:
- Lots of insulation – the building does not even touch the ground but floats on 20cm of insulation
- Good orientation with large south facing windows protected from mid-summer sun by slight overhangs
- An airtight shell with no draughts, so it has a ventilation system with heat recovery.
- Solar panels to generate electricity, which is not linked to a battery
- An air source heat pump for hot water and to provide warmth for the underfloor heating (on the ground floor only)
- Thermal mass – it is a traditional type of building with blockwork walls and partitions which help to store the heat (or the coolness) and even out all the vagaries of the UK weather.
“That’s it,” continues Colin. “Simple really.”
Colin is also part of West Kirby URC’s eco team which helped the church recently gain a silver Eco-Church award from A Rocha UK for its efforts in expressing care for God’s world in worship and teaching, eco-friendly buildings and land, engagement in community and global environmental campaigns, and for helping its congregation members become more eco-aware in their personal lifestyles.
In the meantime, Colin continues to work as an architect in semi-retirement, building one-off zero carbon homes in Merseyside, West Cheshire and North Wales.
Jenny, meanwhile, enjoys her light-filled studio where she paints exquisite botanical Illustrations, runs the West Kirby URC toddler group and is part of the church’s eco and eldership teams.