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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 in their homes by taking on the retrofit challenge.
00:36I'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 so 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.
01:00Today, I'm on my way to Dublin to meet up with John and Isabel Fallon, who are getting ready to carry out an extensive retrofit on their 1930s mid-terrace house in Clontarf.
01:15The couple carried out some renovations on the house when they bought it back in 2003, but now they want to improve the energy rating of their home from a C2 to a very healthy A3.
01:28They have enlisted the help of a one-stop shop contractor to take on the task of completing all of the work.
01:34We didn't want to rush the project.
01:37We wanted to make sure that we were comfortable with what was being done.
01:40You know, it's a pretty large investment in the house and that allowed us to do that.
01:46When we got the house, we did what was appropriate at the time, but there was no sense of energy efficiency and things have moved along so much.
01:52And we're really looking at this house and what is needed to maintain that and looking ahead for the next 20 years.
01:58Yeah, and we want the house to be cozy for ourselves, but we also want to do a bit for the environment.
02:04Like most people, we have a gas boiler and even, you know, a good few years ago, we actually replaced the gas boiler.
02:10And, you know, we're looking ahead and going, well, we'd like to remove gas from the equation.
02:14We'd like to be able to move to electric.
02:16And the nice thing is it is possible, even in an old house like this, to bring it up to modern standards and actually get to an A-rated house.
02:24We're very attached to the house and really the neighbourhood and the area that we live in.
02:28It has all the amenities that we want. We're close to the city.
02:31So we really enjoy the house and we both work from home and you'd like it to be that little bit cozier.
02:37You know, in the wintertime, you know, it's fine to put on an extra layer or to know, oh, that room's going to be really cold in the morning.
02:42It'll warm up later in the day.
02:44But I think there's really no real reason why the house can't be that bit cozier and that bit warmer and that bit more comfortable.
02:50And we're looking forward to that at the end of the project.
02:53The exterior of this house features a classic 1930s red brick finish.
03:03Although it's not a protected structure, John and Isabel are making no alterations to the road-facing facade.
03:09And I'm curious to hear their plans for this cracking period building.
03:14So this is your beautiful home in Clontarf?
03:16Yeah, this is the house.
03:17The brick is the first thing you see, isn't it?
03:19It is stunning. And of course, when you're doing a retrofit job on a house like this, you want to keep all the old character.
03:24Absolutely. And even when we did the original renovations, we didn't really want to change the character of the house.
03:30So the challenge for you is to bring it from a C up to an A whilst maintaining the old features and staying in the house for as long as you can while the works are happening.
03:40Yeah, I think that's it.
03:41Very good. Well, I think we've seen enough here. Will you show me inside?
03:44Yeah.
03:44Great. I'll follow you. I'll follow you.
03:45Let's go.
03:50What is a fine room, isn't it?
03:51This is your day-to-day living room, I guess, is it?
03:53Yeah, this is one of the biggest features of the house is to have this double living room and, you know, a little bit of height in the ceilings and a nice bay window.
04:00What's the plan here? I can't just add, like, on the external wall, you have the red brick on the outside. How are you insulating the wall here?
04:06Yeah, the big thing here is that we're going to need to insulate on the inside of those walls. So that's going to bring things in a little bit.
04:12And we've got a sort of additional complication where part of this wall in here is actually facing the exterior.
04:18So we're going to have to insulate all the way up even to this wall here.
04:23And so this is the kitchen living space.
04:25Yeah, and this is actually a west-facing room, which is lovely in the evening. But in the morning, this is, you know, one of the colder spots in the house.
04:32And what changes are you making in this room?
04:34Well, the big change here is going to, we're going to visually see, is going to be the windows and the doors.
04:38So we're going to move to aluminium windows and doors.
04:41Isabel, are you sad to say goodbye to the French doors?
04:44No, no, I like those doors, but I'm looking forward to even more light coming with just two big doors and then having the easier entry and exit point when we leave the house.
04:55Well, these are the benefits of upgrading a house by deep retrofitting, that you get all these opportunities to kind of upgrade little parts of the house that were, you know, good but could be better in the future.
05:06Another area that's up for a future upgrade is outside at the back of the house, which John is targeting for external insulation.
05:13So I suppose what we're seeing here, you have an old rough cast render, and that's where the new external insulation will be going.
05:21Yeah, so we're going to have that pared down, a blast down some way, and then we'll have more of a smooth render on top.
05:27External wall insulation involves fixing a layer of rigid insulation to the outside of a building, then plastering with two layers of reinforced base coat and sealing with a weather-resistant finish.
05:40This system significantly reduces heat loss through poorly insulated walls.
05:45It also helps prevent internal condensation and mold occurring as the wall is protected from external elements like wind, rain, and cold temperatures.
05:55The Fallon's plan is an ambitious one, and I've been juggling some numbers to see what this retrofit is going to cost.
06:04Right, let's have a look at these figures.
06:06So the total cost of retrofit works before grants is a significant 102,116 euros.
06:16Yeah, it's a large number, so hopefully you get to the number after the grants.
06:19But that's not the money you're paying today.
06:21The total cost of retrofit works after grants is well down at 81,716 euros.
06:29Still a very considerable sum, so you'll be looking at the payback time to get value out of this investment.
06:35Yeah, for us it's a long-term investment.
06:37I don't know that we're looking directly at the payback.
06:39We're looking at all the comfort factors and other factors and what we're doing for the environment.
06:43And I'm looking forward to my super cozy house and I'll be feeling sometimes like I am in France, although I'm in the depth of winter in Dublin.
06:53That'll be a pleasant change.
06:54Clearly this is a beautiful old house with period features.
07:01There'll be a lot of care and attention needed by the contractors when they're fitting all the new deep retrofit measures.
07:07We know we're fitting internal dry lining behind the front elevation wall with the red brick.
07:12When this dry lining is being fitted, we have to take care of all the old cornice works and, of course, all the architrave works around the original doors and windows.
07:20We also know on the rear elevation there's external insulation and we need to be very careful how all that's dealt with.
07:26So it's a big challenge.
07:27It's a unique, beautiful house and I'm looking forward to calling back to make sure all this works out okay.
07:37It's day one of John and Isabel's retrofit festival in Clontarf and the contractors are the headline act.
07:44They're replacing the old plastic framed windows with new aluminium triple-glaze units to help keep the heat in and the noise out.
07:53The retrofit crew are a well-oiled machine and for John, all of this sudden activity is a bit of a shock to the system.
08:00A little bit nervous, yeah, because, you know, it's the house you're living in.
08:03You know, you've all your personal belongings, all your stuff there.
08:06And we've been planning this for months and months and now it's actually the first day that there's real work starting on the house.
08:12As you see, there's quite a lot of things happening in one go.
08:14We've done as much preparation as we can but it's really, we're handed over now to the crew to do their job and hopefully it goes really well today.
08:23John may be worried about his windows but project manager David has done this countless times in the past.
08:29Window fitting is such a big job, people think it's going to take days on end but you can be in and out of a project within a day.
08:37Mainly in this house they're all mechanically fixed so it's four screws holding them in and a little bit of silicone which we're able to strip out quite quickly.
08:45The fitting takes a little bit more time because we have to get them plumb and level and nice and neat and then the finishing off of the windows, sealing them and stuff like that takes a bit longer in the process.
08:56Alongside the windows, the front door is also being upgraded to a hardwood model that replicates the style of the original, which includes a unique feature that was Isabelle's idea, a pair of specially commissioned stained glass panels.
09:11Yeah, we kind of felt that was the only piece where we got a bit of freedom so we worked with a designer in Mead and we gave them the brief and that's what he came up with.
09:23And we kind of had different iterations where first we thought we might have the same image in the two panes and then we thought we'd want kind of an extension of it.
09:32But it looks beautiful, like.
09:34On the ground floor, the patio doors are going in.
09:37Up on the roof, they're preparing for the arrival of the first of the solar panels.
09:42The solar is sort of the icing on the cake really when it comes to a house like this because you're getting a payback.
09:46You're actually generating electricity.
09:48We put the heat pump in and our hope is that the solar is going to really help us to be able to run that heat pump very cost effectively.
09:55And it's one of those things we're going to see a benefit of most quickly.
09:57And the nice thing is with solar panels is there's no planning involved and it's becoming more normal.
10:02As you just glance across any of the houses across the neighbourhoods, you're going to see probably one in ten houses now have solar panels up and that's increasing all the time.
10:11So it's becoming just a normal feature.
10:14So remind me now, I'm going to get morning sun in here because I've got this really direct coming on onto this roof.
10:19Exactly.
10:20And then I'm going to have some more panels on the back, isn't it?
10:22More panels on the back.
10:23So we have panels on the existing roof on the back and then we have some on the extension as well.
10:29So there's plenty there.
10:31Originally when we were looking at this, we were initially only thinking we'd put the panels on the back of the house because we have west facing, which gets a lot of sun, and we have a south facing slope.
10:40And then subsequently, you guys suggested we also put some panels here in the front.
10:44Yeah.
10:44We didn't even know you could sort of split the panels around.
10:47They were so flexible.
10:48So that was a big plus for us.
10:49Like a straightforward roof would be ideal that you can have all the panels in one row.
10:54Yeah.
10:54But in a sort of intricate house like this where we can split it between three separate roofs, it's great, you know.
11:00But like we've got the maximum we could get here.
11:04Even in a terrace house with unusual roofs, we've managed to get, yeah, 10 panels up, which is going to give us quite a bit of power, actually.
11:11Definitely.
11:11Definitely, yeah.
11:12Today, I'm back in Dublin to catch up with John and Isabel Fallon, who are in the middle of an extensive retrofit to their 1930s mid-terrace house in Clontarf.
11:28The house has seen a parade of contractors on site getting stuck into the various elements of this big project.
11:35And I have to say, I'm impressed.
11:38Isabel.
11:38Morning, Ciaran.
11:39John.
11:39Hi, Ciaran.
11:40How are you?
11:41Yeah, very good.
11:41You're flying it.
11:43You really are, yeah.
11:44I think we're only 10 days in, but it's been team after team and we seem to be making enormous progress.
11:49I can hear lots of activity on the outside anyway, so I'm very excited to see what's happening.
11:54Will you show me around?
11:55Yeah, sure.
11:55Great, lead the way, lead the way, lead the way, lead the way.
11:57Oh, well, they have an awful lot done here, haven't they?
12:03I see all the dry lining is up and running and plastering and all complete.
12:07Yeah, I mean, this is the room that probably has the most change because we've got dry lining here to the front, but we also had some exterior wall over here.
12:14So we had to dry line both of those and now we're looking at the dimensions.
12:18But actually, the room supports it well and the guys have said that they're going to be able to match in the doorway as well as a bit of a finish.
12:23And it's actually starting to look like our room again.
12:26Moving through the house, I can't help noticing there have been a few very significant changes since my last visit.
12:33Are these new radiators, Isabel?
12:35Yeah, they're all new radiators in the house.
12:37They had to be changed to be compliant with the whole UV value, you know.
12:42So, and we really liked our previous one, so I'm happy to see that they're generally similar, you know.
12:49They're quite sleek looking, aren't they?
12:50Yeah.
12:51At the back of the house, they are on the home stretch with the external insulation.
12:55They have the bulk of the main wall insulation in place, but now you get to all the finessing details.
13:02The thing about external insulation is it's not that complicated a process.
13:07I mean, you're putting on 100, 125 millimetres of insulation onto the outside face of your wall, but in reality, like, if you don't have it all carefully considered around all these tricky details around your sliding doors and all that sort of things, it would look like a dog's dinner.
13:21But, I mean, it's a relief to see that they really have worked it carefully around here, because that's what will show up at the end of the day, you know.
13:28The work continues in Clontarf, and I'm taking the opportunity to head back to Cork on a visit to the HQ of the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind.
13:38Over the past couple of years, and with the aid of available grants, the organisation has upgraded its energy systems to be more efficient and cost-effective.
13:47I'm meeting CEO Tim O'Mahony to find out more about their retrofit journey.
13:53Tim, thanks for inviting me around.
13:54You're very welcome.
13:55Tim, tell me, where are we right now, and what amazing work have you done recently?
14:00So, you're here at Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, where we enable people with vision impairment and families of children with autism to live more independent and mobile lives through our dog services.
14:10What drove you to take a new approach to the buildings?
14:13We have clients here that stay with us when they're on class, and so their rooms would go from the extreme when the heating was on to the very cold when the heating was off.
14:20So, there was plenty of opportunity to look at bringing a more consistent environment for everyone.
14:24I'd love to see the inside and see how it all works. Do you want to show me around?
14:27I will indeed. I'll lead the way. Thank you.
14:33This is a client bedroom. Our clients stay here when they're on site for classes.
14:37The main upgrades that were here with the building management system allows us to regulate the temperature more closely to ensure that there's less extremes between hot and cold.
14:46And what benefits have you seen in these rooms now from the measures that you've already installed?
14:51Our clients have commented that the environment is more comfortable, more consistent, and just less extreme.
14:56This is our kennel building. It's one of the oldest buildings on the site.
15:02So, there's been insulation installed in the walls, insulation in the roof, so it makes it more of a cocoon and more comfortable for our dogs and their hair inside.
15:11This is an autism assessment unit, so when the child and their family would come on site, to consider the suitability of a dog match, it's in here they would come.
15:19So, this is very child-friendly, so the child can relax and play and be introduced to their new potential park.
15:24It has also benefited from the building management system, which allows the temperature to be regulated.
15:30So, you want to recreate the conditions at home so that the partnership can be as relaxed as it would be in a family environment.
15:37You can measure the savings, but you can't put a value on the comfort for our clients and for our staff and our dogs when they're here on site,
15:43which are absolutely far outweigh probably the individual monetary savings from a comfort level and benefit to the charity in the long term.
15:51So, tell me, what were your heating and energy bills like before the works?
15:56The gas and electricity costs here before the upgrade works was around $115,000, $120,000 per annum.
16:02That is a staggering figure.
16:04And it was literally evaporating through the roof because of the age of the building.
16:07And I suppose, given our backgrounds, we look to spend as much of our resources on the front line.
16:11And we have a reduced carbon footprint, reduced energy costs by 30%.
16:15So, it's a win-win on all fronts, the environment, our clients, the charity and our future.
16:22This place runs around the clock.
16:24So, making it warmer, more energy efficient and easier to manage doesn't just help the environment.
16:29It helps the people and the dogs who rely on it every day.
16:32Thanks to a full energy upgrade, they can spend less on bills and more on training dogs that change lives.
16:41Back in Clontarf, the retrofit of John and Isabel's 1930s red brick house is entering its final stages.
16:50The solar panels are in place and the attic insulation is being rolled out.
16:54So, John is looking forward to getting his house back.
16:57The main construction work is really behind us and what's happening today is we've got plumbers and electrics being closed out.
17:04So, it's sort of a second fix of those elements.
17:07The heat pump getting ready for commissioning and then the whole electrical element.
17:11So, all the neat electrics.
17:13We did have some controls on the house.
17:14So, we did have it fairly well controlled.
17:16But I'd love to see the latest technology.
17:18So, yeah, give me some of these techy toys and I'm very much at home.
17:22So, I'll be learning a little bit about those.
17:24But, again, I imagine they're going super easy to use and they'll just run themselves.
17:29To make sure John gets the most out of his new tech toys,
17:33electrical supervisor Jake is up in the attic connecting the indoor controls that will run the new heating system.
17:39This will control the outputs for the motorized valves,
17:42which will allow the hot water to pass through to the specific zones.
17:44So, the house will be split into two zones.
17:47So, we'll have an upstairs zone and a downstairs zone.
17:49This will be able to read then downstairs is at 20 degrees.
17:53Your target temperature is 22 degrees.
17:55So, it will knock on the heat pump to slowly heat the rumps back up to 22 degrees in that downstairs zone.
18:01For us, we can see the progress, which is really good.
18:03The guys have been really good at just keeping the project on schedule.
18:06And it looks like, fingers crossed, we'll be able to move back in this weekend.
18:10That's the hope.
18:14At the start of the summer, John and Isabel Fallon began the retrofit on their 1930s red brick house in Clontarf in Dublin.
18:23They wanted to make it more energy efficient and environmentally friendly whilst also keeping its 1930s charm.
18:31The installation of triple-laced windows, solar panels on the roof and internal and external wall installation
18:37means the couple are well on their way to achieving energy independence.
18:42I'm really looking forward to seeing the results of all the hard work.
18:47It's great to see your house looking, I won't say unchanged, because there is subtle changes.
18:54Tell me, how have things been?
18:55Well, we're delighted to be back in and everything finished, you know, so it's sort of a relief from our point of view.
19:01But yes, the front of the house was very important to us to try to keep the character of the house
19:05and to be able to achieve what we wanted to do from the retrofit.
19:08And Isabel, how are you after the whole journey?
19:11The whole retrofit went very well.
19:14A few snags here and there, but we're getting there, getting there.
19:18So, well, I'm really excited to see how it looks on the inside.
19:21Will you show me around?
19:22Yeah, let's go.
19:23Yeah, sure, come on in.
19:24Great.
19:26So, this room is actually the room that's had the most work done to it.
19:29And yet, when you walk into it, you wouldn't necessarily know that.
19:32Yeah, and the windows are the centerpiece of it.
19:34So, in terms of the windows, we've got the bay.
19:37We had all of that stripped back, stripped back to the brickwork, and then we had the insulation put in.
19:42I see you have a radiator over here in the corner.
19:44Like, did it ever come up in conversation as an option to go for underfloor heating?
19:47Yeah, I guess with our house, one of the main features of the house is that it's an old house and we've got the original floorboards here.
19:53So, for us to do underfloor heating would mean destroying all of the floors and taking them up.
19:58And it would have turned a retrofit project into a major construction project.
20:02But for us, the rads were taking up the same space as we had before.
20:06So, there's no detriment from our point of view to have the rads.
20:10The first thing I'm noticing in your kitchen is there's so much more light.
20:14Yeah, well, this is the area we've had most glass in.
20:16And the new windows, because they're all sort of slimmer profile, and you get that more light in.
20:21Isabel, how do you find this space to come in to know in the morning?
20:24No, it's really nice.
20:25And actually, the rads have barely been on.
20:27Even without them, the house already felt cozy.
20:31And then, yeah, the extra light makes it, I guess, warming as well.
20:35The solar panels are playing their part in heating the home, and there are other terrific external touches.
20:42Straight away on the outside, I can see the beautiful blue sliding doors, but I'm also drawn to your external insulation.
20:49I mean, it's barely noticeable.
20:50Yeah, well, it's the whole back of the house, then.
20:52It's got a refresh, I suppose.
20:53So, everything looks fresh and new, and we've got a really clean finish.
20:57And I see the outdoor unit of your heat pump is now raised up onto the side wall of your extension.
21:04We're getting used to the fact you don't really see it there unless you come back around the side of the house.
21:08And it's interesting that such a unit is just sort of fitting neatly in against the side of the house.
21:13The transformation is amazing.
21:15And now that the project is complete, there is one thing I'm really curious about.
21:19When it comes to the BER, you were originally a C2, which, as we all remember from our exam days, was a reasonably good result.
21:28Where are you now?
21:29Yeah, well, our objective was to get to an A rating.
21:32That was, you know, like anyone, you want an A rating, you don't want something less than an A rating.
21:37But we didn't know where we would land.
21:38We were really delighted when we got the cert back.
21:40So, we got an A1 rating, the highest possible rating for the house.
21:43Yeah.
21:44That's incredible.
21:45When you consider that you haven't taken up the floors and you haven't had to go to the expense of really driving home a high level of air tightness and all that.
21:55I was thinking it might be an A3, maybe an A2 if you were lucky.
21:59But to get an A1 is an excellent result.
22:01Yeah, from our point of view, you know, to take on the project and just, I suppose, really to see that you can, in an old house,
22:07go from whatever the rating is before and get to an A1 rating without destroying the house.
22:12I think it's testament to the materials and the work that can be done these days.
22:19John and Isabel's investment of their time and finances has paid off with a well-earned A1 rating.
22:27Today, it's time to throw open their door to family and friends to share the new cosy home they love and hope their guests will love it too.
22:36Oh, look at this.
22:38The house feels great. Modern, stylish, nice colours.
22:42You know, you had the bricks.
22:43Very jealous of their heating and maybe their low-cost energy bills from now on.
22:49What's really lovely is there's a lot of modern insulation work that's been done, a lot of retrofit work, but the original features are all still here.
22:56I'd like to congratulate John and Isabel on their wonderful achievement.
23:01They've brought their house up to an A1 energy rating.
23:04So, congratulations, and I wish you many happy and energy-efficient years in your new home.
23:10Congratulations.
23:11Thanks so much, Carol.
23:14We're relieved and actually chuffed now that we can enjoy our cosy home.
23:19We're doing our bit for the environment.
23:20And I guess it seems strange today that everybody's saying, oh, but I don't see any difference, but I guess that's a compliment.
23:27Now that the weather's a bit cooler, we can see the heating's starting to come on a little bit.
23:31We can feel how cosy the house is.
23:35After living here for more than 20 years, John and Isabel knew exactly what they wanted.
23:40A warmer, more efficient home that still felt like theirs.
23:44Retrofitting a red brick terrace like this was never going to be easy, especially when the facade had to stay exactly as it was.
23:51But they made it happen.
23:53The result is a comfortable, low-energy home that's ready for the next 20 years.
23:57We'll see you next time.
24:27We'll see you next time.
24:28We'll see you next time.
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