Sustainability - A guide to reducing carbon emissions from existing housing | Archive Titles

Proposed sustainability measures for Typical post-war semi
Airtightness	measure
Existing chimney	Seal up or remove existing chimney flues
Windows/doors	Replace, including frames, and seal new frames to existing reveals with airtight seal
Air bricks	Remove and fill existing opening in external wall unless required to ventilate voids or appliances
Ground-floor construction	Provide vapour check membrane under existing ground-floor boards and seal at dwelling perimeter under new skirting
Services, etc	Air infiltration through service penetrations – seal routes through external walls and into loft space
Insulation
External walls	Insulate cavity (about 50 mm) and external face of outside skin with 150 mm insulation and render
Loft	Insulate loft between and over existing joists (in preference to insulating the line of the roof which, in this instance, has insufficient head height to be converted to habitable space).
Floors	Insulate between (and perhaps below) existing suspended timber joist ground floor
Windows/doors	Replace existing with high-performance doors and windows. Windows to be soft coat low-E triple-glazed units with argon filled cavities
Services/renewables
Whole house	Installed in loft space with dry supply and wet ventilation with extract heat recovery
Photovoltaics	To southerly facing roof slope
Solar collectors	To southerly facing roof slope
Boiler/hot water storage	Install high-efficiency condensing boiler in loft with hot water storage tank in airing cupboard. Insulate pipe runs and keep as short as possible
Low-energy bulbs	Install low-energy light fittings throughout
Heating controls and sensor	Intelligent heating controls and thermostatic radiator valves to be combined with external temperature sensor in shaded location
Electrical wiring	Check and replace if necessary. If replaced, consider new positions for sockets/switches to comply with Lifetime Homes standard
Meters	Install water meters if appropriate
Ground source heat pumps	Consider appropriateness on case by case basis
Micro CHP	Consider as appropriate
Wind turbine	Review average annual wind speed for location,for potential to install wind turbine on or above existing chimney stack (if retained and suitable)
Building components	Solar shading to south facing windows as appropriate
Space planning/flexibility	Consider options to improve flexibility. Introducing Lifetime Homes may mean adding a ground floor WC. Another option is to make the living area open plan
Miscellaneous
Appliances	A-rated appliances for energy/water consumption
Water butts	Provide two
Waste/recycling	Provide internal segregated storage and dedicated external storage
Grey/rain water harvesting	Storage to be provided for irrigation/appropriate re-use
Education/motivation	Applies to end users, housing staff, maintenance staff for dissemination/monitoring of information