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  • 2 weeks ago
Heat My Home Season 1 Episode 2
Transcript
00:00I'm Ciaran McCarthy, and I've been working as a building engineer for nearly 30 years.
00:07I get asked all the time, how do I save money on energy costs?
00:12Well, retrofitting is all over the news lately, and in this series I'm travelling around Ireland
00:18checking out homes that are getting energy upgrades.
00:21That dark blue is the coldest.
00:23This is typically what I'd expect to see in an old house.
00:26With prices only going up and the planet under pressure, more and more people are saving money and energy
00:33in their homes by taking on the retrofit challenge.
00:37I'll be showing you what's actually doable and what kind of grants are out there to help.
00:41From heat pumps to HVAC, I'll break down the technical jargon and make sense of all the retrofit lingo
00:47so it's easy to follow.
00:48You're just bamboozled with all the decisions that need to be made.
00:51So, come with me as we retrofit Ireland and discover how you can reduce your energy costs.
00:59This is Heat My Home.
01:04Today, I'm on my way to Dublin to meet with Ashley Cortez and his husband, Myles Kenny,
01:10who have been living in this beautiful 19th century end of terrace house which they bought in 2020.
01:16They plan on carrying out a full renovation of their home, aiming to raise its BER rating
01:22from a chilly E1 to a toasty A3, with the help of an extensive retrofit process.
01:30Due to the age of the property, there's a lot of work to be done, but Myles has known this since day one.
01:35We've been looking for a property for a couple of years.
01:40Forever.
01:41But, yeah, we really fell in love with the volume and the space we had in this place.
01:46We knew when we bought it, there was a lot of work that needed to be done.
01:49An old building like this, we knew it would need renovation at some stage.
01:53And we were looking for a bit of a project.
01:55Not sure if we were looking for as big a project as this actually turned out to be,
01:59but we were looking for something to kind of do a rupper.
02:02The heating system is fine, it'll heat it up, but once you turn off the heating, that's it.
02:08It doesn't, we don't, so basically the heat needs to be on all the time.
02:11All the external walls are having internal insulation.
02:16We're changing out the gas boiler heating system for a air to water heat pump.
02:22We're also getting the attic insulation complete.
02:24We're doing a full upgrade of the windows and doors.
02:27And that's pretty much the energy upgrades.
02:29Looking forward to it being finished.
02:32I'm not entirely sure I'm looking forward to the middle bit where we have to get in and,
02:38but look, it has to be done, so let's get on with it.
02:41To be honest, I can just see myself sucking in and then just like get the work done and yeah.
02:51As I approach the house, I can see straight away that it's in great condition for a property of its age.
02:56Maintaining the character of a Victorian era building can be a full-time job and a drain on resources.
03:05So it's great to see Miles and Ashley have really invested in its upkeep.
03:10What an amazing house.
03:11She's wonderful Irish.
03:13Old house, I think built in 1860, as far as we can see.
03:18And I suppose the benefit of living in the house before you start renovating it is that you get to
03:22understand all the ups and downs of the house.
03:25It's south-facing property, so we get a huge amount of sunlight coming in the windows.
03:29So if we'd launch straight into it, we probably wouldn't have understood exactly how big a feature
03:34that is of the house.
03:35So yeah, no, we're happy that we took our time and, you know, understood the property before we started any work.
03:41Will you show me around and give me an overview of what's going to happen inside?
03:45For sure, yes. Come this way.
03:47Great.
03:50Wow, the first thing you're drawn to is the height of the ceilings, isn't it?
03:53Yeah, they're huge. They're about 13 feet.
03:56It's great character straight away.
03:58You're trying to keep as much charm, but obviously bring the energy efficiency well.
04:01Yes.
04:02Yeah, we want to keep this look at entrance hall as it is, but at the same time, warm it up.
04:07Wow, another fabulous room with high ceilings and great views out of the locality as well.
04:14What are you doing in this room now, Tommy?
04:16These are external walls, so we need to dry line. We need to put the internal wall insulation on all these walls.
04:22Some older homes can lose heat through solid walls, making them cold, drafty and expensive to keep warm.
04:29An option is internal wall insulation, which adds an insulating layer to the inside of exterior walls,
04:36helping keep warmth in and cold out.
04:39It's especially useful in some period properties where external insulation isn't practical and may not be allowed.
04:46It can improve energy efficiency and reduce heating bills without changing the home's external appearance or character.
04:57And tell me what the windows. Do you hear much road noise at the moment, like kind of during the week with the existing windows?
05:02Yes, it's a busy street actually, so from the buses and all of the cars, so it would be great to get these windows fixed up.
05:11This is currently a bedroom. Is it staying a bedroom? What's your future plan with this room?
05:15No, this will become the living room, so we'll come in the front door and come straight into this room.
05:20We want to get rid of the fireplace here, so rather than just keeping it as an open fire itself, we need to keep the air tightness of a stove unit.
05:29Yeah.
05:30The cost of a wood burning our pellet stove isn't covered by grants, but the benefit of a stove is that it's a sealed appliance.
05:37Typically the air for the fire is drawn from the outside so the room heat is not being sucked in by the stove.
05:43They are much more efficient compared to an open fire, with around 80% of the heat generated being emitted to the room.
05:51They also reduce heat loss in the house because eliminating the open chimney reduces warm air escaping.
06:01I've had a good look at the current setup of their home and I want to show Miles and Ashley some of the trouble spots that are causing most of their heat loss.
06:09What I have here is a thermal imaging camera. It'd be good to see what the house is like before
06:15big and all this deep retrofit work, and we can have another look again afterwards.
06:18So like you have an external wall here and it's all freezing, you can see by the blue there.
06:23So like it's all cold bridging, so you're losing an off that heat straight out this wall.
06:27Like when you go down into the fireplace there as well, see the way it's kind of blue in around the fireplace
06:32particularly? You've got all drafts and everything else there, so you have negligible air tightness in the building
06:37and you're particularly, you're losing a lot of your heat straight up the chimney. I know we're dealing
06:41with that now in the retrofit, but you can see here like how valuable all this work will be, you know.
06:46I've identified some of the heat loss trouble spots and now it's time to sit with the couple
06:51and take a look at what this major renovation is going to cost. Miles and Ashley have gone for a
06:57one-stop shop provider who will not only carry out all of the works, but will also help with the grant application.
07:02Right, time to look at the thorny issue of the figures for all this work. Altogether, all these
07:08works are coming into €134,000. You have grants of €21,500 coming off that, so your end result is still
07:18eye-watering €112,500. It's shocking, but it has to be done. So yeah, we're looking forward to this.
07:27You're looking forward to having it all done, I suppose really, and enjoying the better quality
07:32of the living environment, I guess, is it? Indeed. People initially look at this and go,
07:36how long before I get payback in terms of lower energy bills and that kind of thing, but I wouldn't
07:41discount the value of just better quality living space and living environment. I think that's
07:45something you really enjoy in the old house to have, to maintain all the character that we spoke of,
07:50a prickly one, window reveals and ceiling rows and doorways and whatever, but to have a much nicer
07:55living environment inside and lower energy bills as well. Please go.
08:01When you are retrofitting an old building like this, it's all about balance. You have to consider
08:05all the new features you'll be adding, all the new insulation, some air tightness membranes, but you
08:10have to consider the old building, all the old beautiful features. And of course, these old buildings
08:15need to breathe, so you can't make them too air tight, but you can dramatically improve these buildings
08:20in terms of energy efficiency and good quality living environment.
08:29Before the contractors arrive to start on the full renovation,
08:32Miles and Ashley have to do some of their own demolition work. And time is short.
08:38Yeah, our deadline is tomorrow morning. The contractors on site tomorrow morning, so we still have a bit of
08:43demo work that we agreed to do up front, so included the floor coverings, carpets, removal of all existing
08:51wardrobes, removal of the existing kitchen. So we're pretty much there other than one wardrobe and we
08:57have a floor covering we need to take up in this room. So it could be a late night tonight before we
09:01get wrapped up and ready for the contract to start work in the morning.
09:05The lads have made their demolition deadline, so the contractor can get to work straight away.
09:16And first up is the internal wall insulation. Miles has popped in to see how it's all coming along so far.
09:23Yeah, it looks good. Looks like it's quite a quick process. Once the stud is put up, then the actual
09:31application of the mineral wool seems to be quite quick. So I'm no complaints. The fact that we're a
09:36tree house terrace to put an external insulation wrap around the house, you're going to change a look
09:42at the tree house terrace. Plus we have the volume in this house that we can afford to lose the 120 mil
09:50that the internal insulation requires. So it was a better job.
09:53The internal insulation is going up at a steady pace. So it's not long before the window contractors
10:02can begin the next step of the retrofit. But the characteristics of the new windows have the team
10:07facing into a challenging day. The new windows are to come in one piece and they're huge. They're like
10:13400 kilos to get some of those larger windows in. And some of the larger windows are on the top and on the
10:21landing. So to get the windows in, you need to go up and there's a return on the stairs. There's
10:26another straight stairs. But hopefully they'll get them in and installed without any concerns.
10:30Okay guys, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
10:34Lads, slowly. More up and up and up. Okay, one, two, three.
10:38They're double-glays, six over six sash windows. Specifically went for double-glays because we want to
10:44maintain the solar gain from the south facing orientation of the building. So if we use triple-glays,
10:49we don't get that solar gain. So we kept it to double-glays, which gives us the value we need
10:55to achieve aerating properly. But we don't lose the solar gain.
11:01With all hands on deck, the crew managed to get the windows upstairs and into position.
11:06But there's a problem. Is that the same all the way across? Yeah.
11:08There's a rot on that side as well. It's a little better, but this side's really bad.
11:13We had inspected them all and I thought we'd give them the green light on every one of them.
11:17It looks like that one is not in as good as Nick. Again, it's one of those things that you find in
11:22a 170-year-old house. There's always going to be some element that's not 100% correct. So once
11:27it's in and set, we'll probably look to reinforce that corner before we complete the final installation.
11:38Today, I'm back in Dublin to catch up with Ashley Cortez and his husband, Myles Kenny,
11:43who are in the middle of a full renovation of their Victorian-era end of terrace house.
11:49Alongside the renovation, they're carrying out a full retrofit to bring the house into the 21st century.
11:56Since I last visited, they've had a huge amount of work done,
11:59but they've also had to handle a big challenge on the glazing front.
12:03Hey, Ciaran. Good to see you. Come on in. Thank you very much.
12:07Huge changes already. Yes, indeed. It might be very different from when last time you saw it.
12:13Isn't it just? Yeah. We have a great view of the windows now with a beautiful day outside.
12:18How did the windows installation go? It's quite an ordeal because they're installed as a single unit.
12:23It's not like you bring in a frame and then separate window pieces as one unit,
12:27so there's a lot of weight in them. But one particular window, there was a slight issue with
12:30the header. We ended up having to replace that because it was a certain, it was a timber,
12:35there were original ones. So we ended up having to replace that one.
12:38And all the rest of them are fine? All the rest of them are perfectly fine. Very good.
12:43As general building work continues around the place, the contractors are preparing to install
12:48the new heating arrangement, which will replace the old oil boiler with an up-to-date air-to-water
12:54heating system. This is the outdoor unit so, Rory? Yeah, that's part one of part two. So the indoor unit
13:00is inside there, the cylinder and the pump as well. So that's not too far away from the heat pump.
13:04There's only a short run to it. Which is always good for efficiency. Exactly, yeah.
13:08Our intent was to plant up this area. So is there anything that I cannot, is there a clearance that
13:14must be left in front of the heat pump? Or can I plant right up to it or what? Yeah,
13:18no, that's a good question. So you do want to leave a gap all the way around the heat pump.
13:21Okay, so it needs air flow coming through it. And there have been problems in the past where people
13:25wanted to put fences and things like that in front of them to block out the view. We advise not to do
13:29that. So at least 350 mil is what you want to be leaving around it. And probably a half a meter on the
13:34front of it because a lot of cold air comes out of that. It's fine for planting and things like that in
13:38front of it. You won't sit in front of it because it will be cool. Okay. But other than that, it's as is.
13:43As you see, try and leave it like that. So a couple of arctic plants in front of it should be fine?
13:47Yeah, exactly. Okay.
13:51As the work continues on this domestic project in Dublin 8, I'm curious to see how retrofitting can be
13:57implemented on an industrial scale. At the West Park Gym in Tallagh, they're making huge energy savings
14:04thanks to a wide range of measures they've put in place. Facilities Manager Kevin Doyle has been leading
14:10that transformation. Kevin, when did energy efficiency first become a big priority at your
14:16health club? So I suppose about five or six years ago, we decided to really start looking at energy.
14:21We had a couple of different consultants come in and do some energy balance studies and that led us in
14:27the direction of different energy saving initiatives that we decided to do. I'm looking forward to seeing
14:31what you've done. Will you show me inside? Yeah, absolutely. Let's go. Looking forward to showing you.
14:40Right, Kevin, there's an awful lot of plant here. What's happening here?
14:44This is the hub where everything happens. Some very innovative things. We have a chiller unit.
14:48Our gym needs an area that needs to stay really cold, our gym floor, and our pool area needs to stay
14:53really warm. So this would feed cool air to all our air handling units. And normally the waste product,
14:59the byproduct, is heat. And that's normally just put out to exhaust. But we actually use that now to
15:04heat our pool air. Pool air needs to be a degree above the temperature of the water to stop any kind
15:09of heat evaporation. Your pool, how efficient is this? Tell me how this works. So this pool is a stainless
15:16steel pool. It's like a giant kitchen sink. It's one of the few pools in the country like that. Five
15:20years ago, we put in air to water heat pumps, and the water is heated with heat pumps. Originally,
15:26we would have had four gas boilers in place. So we were able to get rid of all of those and put in
15:31the two big heat pumps. So this, being insulated on heat pumps, it's about as efficient as it'd get.
15:37The pool would be one of the biggest costs in a leisure centre like this? Yeah, by far. The pool was the
15:42low-hanging fruit to try and get some kind of energy saving initiative in place. So between the heat
15:47pumps and the chiller, we feel we've taken it as far as we can. But it's so much cheaper than it was
15:52before. So speaking of costs and cost savings, what kind of impact have you seen from these energy
16:00saving measures? A lot of the energy saving measures we put in place had a payback of about four or five
16:06years. And this is on plant that's guaranteed for 20 years. So basically, at the end of a four or five
16:11year period, it was literally making us free energy at that stage. As regards percentage-wise,
16:16our electricity came down in around about 40%. Now recently, since we put the solar in,
16:21there's times through the year where we're 100% efficient. So we're chipping at that all the time,
16:26and hopefully we'll have major savings. What's great about this fitness centre is they didn't
16:32complicate things. They looked at where energy is being used, made smart upgrades, and it's really paid
16:37off. It shows that energy savings aren't just for factories and tech companies. With the right
16:43approach, even a busy leisure centre can make big savings. And that's something a lot of small
16:48businesses could take inspiration from.
16:54Back in Dublin 8, the retrofit works are accelerating to a finish on Miles and Ashley's mid-19th century
17:01end-of-terrace home. Today, it's time to install one of the final pieces, helping to ensure a solid
17:08thermal seal around the whole house. We've insulated all the external walls, so now we need to make sure
17:14that the roof is equally insulated. For a house to go from an E1 to an A3 rating, the attic needs to have
17:23300 millimetres of insulation packed into the floor. Site manager Rory is taking Miles through
17:30the steps involved in the process. You already had some insulation, so sometime in the lifespan of
17:36the house, somebody decided to put insulation in the house. So there's about 100 millimetres there.
17:39So we're going to leave that in place. It's still performing. There's no reason to take it out.
17:42We're disposed. Okay. And what we're going to do is we're putting in an extra 200 mil of this stuff,
17:46which is earth wool, excellent insulation properties. We're going to roll that across the existing
17:51insulation up there. We're also going to insulate any pipework that's up there, because in the
17:55wintertime, that attic is going to be freezing cold. It's going to be keeping all the heat into
17:58the house. We don't want any of the pipes to freeze, because if they freeze, they expand and they burst.
18:02So there's little things like that, precautions that we take. And then the very last thing is we're
18:06going to provide enough ventilation, because now that we've sealed the attic and made it really
18:10airtight, we still want the timbers up there to breathe. So we're going to put in vents.
18:14This house, and when it was built, it wasn't designed to have proper roof ventilation,
18:19so we just need to make sure that we're providing enough ventilation in this very old structure,
18:24and that's going to last and stand the test of time. While work continues on the attic insulation,
18:29attention is also focused on another way to keep this house nice and warm. The old front door is
18:36for the chop. All the windows are in a couple of weeks now at this stage, and the door was the last
18:40portion. So we've ripped out the existing door and door frame. Looked like it was like a original door,
18:46but the actual door itself wasn't in good shape. Probably one of the very last steps that's
18:52actually kind of a messy job. So once the door gets in, we've patched it all up, seal it all up,
18:58then we can start cleaning it down and get into the final fix.
19:06Almost seven months ago, Miles and Ashley's mid-19th century end of terrace house was invaded by an army
19:13of builders in a campaign to increase its chilly E1 BER rating up to a toasty A3.
19:22Thanks to interior insulation, a heat pump, double glazed windows, and a new energy efficient front door,
19:29they have transformed it without losing much of its character. Today, I'm back to see the results for
19:35myself. Wow, look at the house. I'm lost for words. Yeah, it's coming together, or it has come
19:43together. It took a while to get to here, but yeah, it's it's been worth it long run. And Ashley, how are
19:48you at the end of this long journey? Delighted that it's nearly over. What's been the toughest part so far?
19:54I suppose it's a lot of us staying up late at night, and I'm working, and you're doing all the work.
20:00So, yeah. Well, look, you've really set the scene. Will you show me inside? Of course. Great. Lead the way.
20:10The place looks amazing. The incredible front door is the first thing you notice. It's such a lovely,
20:16heavy front door as well. Of course, it's an energy efficient front door. Yes. A bit of time in deciding
20:20the design of the door. We, as I said, we need to be energy efficient, but the shape of it is a little
20:27bit different from your standard doors you would get. There's a huge transformation in this room.
20:34Even that gorgeous new window that really sets off the room, doesn't it? Yeah. This was a bedroom
20:38originally, so we wanted to bring it back in to make it a reception room or a living room again,
20:43and it really stands out as that room. And these walls here, like this wall over here and over here,
20:49all have that 100ml of internal wall insulation. But I'm not feeling any lack of space in this room. I mean,
20:54how did you feel when you realized you were losing 100ml on this wall and 100ml on this wall?
20:59The deck, what's getting used to? No, I don't think in the whole scheme of things,
21:02you really miss it. We obviously knew there was plenty of volume in this room anyway,
21:06so if this house couldn't take 100ml, then nobody could.
21:13So there's a massive transformation in this room. The last time I was here, it was still
21:17under construction. But one thing I'm noticing is these amazing tall radiators. So they're all
21:22connected to your air to water system. Yeah, the heating system allows us to set up different
21:27zones. So individually, we can set what temperature we want in each of the rooms and what time the
21:32heat pump will turn on or off the heating. So it's fantastic, yeah. Absolutely no issue.
21:37A lot of people think you have to have underfloor heating with an air to water system. But like,
21:41in your situation, you fitted these kind of statement feature radiators, which could do the same thing.
21:46The transformation is stunning. Miles and Ashley's home will have no problem nailing the target of
21:54an A3 rating. On my first visit, my thermal imaging camera was setting off all kinds of cold colours.
22:01It'll be interesting to see the readings now all the work is done. I know you're a fireplace here,
22:06and you covered all that, and you brought insulation over all this wall. It'll be good to just check it
22:11to make sure there's no cold bridging anyway. So I mean, a dramatic improvement straight away,
22:16isn't it? That looks good. Greens and yellows. I mean, this is exactly what you want to see,
22:20you know, because you can get a kind of a cold bridging when you're covering over some existing
22:23features. But I mean, this is a dramatic improvement, isn't it? Yeah. Oh, it's great to see that all the
22:29installations are all working. So yeah, that's a good relief, right? Very, very happy.
22:35It's open house in Dublin 8. Miles and Ashley's friends and family are here to give this warm home
22:41the once-over and hopefully the seal of approval. Do you like it? It's beautiful. I like it. Oh,
22:48we love it. We'll move in tomorrow. The house is fantastic. It brings a really nice atmosphere.
22:55Yeah. That's true. Oh, wow. This is gorgeous. Really cozy, really gorgeous. And I'm very jealous. It's
23:03finished to such a high degree. There's a big impact with the new windows. You wouldn't know you're on a
23:07busier out here in any way. Miles and Ashley, congratulations on your beautiful home. You've
23:13done an amazing job. Your house is amazingly energy efficient, but also beautiful to look at. So well
23:18done. We came to this project as both an energy and a upgrade project, not just one or dearer. So now
23:29that we have combined both, the quality of the house is very different from when we started. Very happy,
23:34but really hands-on to Miles. You really did all of this. So proud of him. Yeah. Retrofitting a house
23:41of this age was always going to be a monumental task, but Miles and Ashley have pulled it off. Their
23:47home is now warm, efficient and ready for the future. This project proves that even our oldest homes can be
23:53upgraded to modern energy standards without losing too much character.
24:23that wasn't really the last two weeks ago. But in terms of podcasting, what's this
24:26and the latest on the waiting list of notes of the future? Like, some of the
24:28things you've been wanting to get to know about, what's this point of the student is
24:30to do? We've got the full idea of getting to offer a couple of information. And we're
24:34going to make sure we've got a couple of information. I'm just going to let's go.
24:36I'm just going to get to the next one, where you will get to the same
24:41way.
24:42I'm going to have a couple of information I'm going to get to see you.
24:43And I'm going to give you a couple of information of what you can do for that, but I'm going to
24:46give you a couple of information about.
24:46And I'm going to get to answer your linked list, but I'm going to catch you and
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