Eco Home Design – a chat with Ingrid (Wetherby resident)

By Adrian | July 8, 2025 |

In 2015 we (husband and I) moved into our new 4-bedroom home in Wetherby. Modest in size, being 3 storeys, it consists of a lounge, kitchen/diner and wet room, 3 bedrooms and bathroom & large master suite in roof space. The house is very well insulated and soundproofed and achieved an EPC A rating, producing about 1.2 tonnes of carbon per year compared to the more usual 6 tonnes.

Local builder, Rick had completed new builds in York to a very high standard & he was willing to take on board some of our ideas for a more ecofriendly home, provided we did a little of the legwork.

We were to have: Solar panels (only 2.25Kwh as our south facing roof has a dormer window) and an ‘iboost’ fitted in our hot water tank (+c£500). We rarely need to have the gas boiler on in the summer to provide hot water now, since the solar panels can feed the hot water tank.

We had thought about an air source/ground source heat pump for heating but they were very, very expensive at that time, so we have a Worcester Bosch gas boiler which is very efficient and is also used to heat the water in winter. Downstairs we have underfloor heating (with room specific thermostats) and upstairs there are radiators which are rarely used, with a fully controllable thermostat/clock for each floor.

As the house is very well insulated and also airtight we were also recommended to install an MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery) system. This was easily installed during the build process (admittedly, not so easy to retrofit).

Whats an MVHR? air from outside is brought into the house across filters (which are easily replaced every 3 months). Heat from “foul” air leaving the house (eg bathroom, utility, kitchen), is extracted via ceiling ducts and passed via the MVHR to the incoming cold air, heating air in the bedrooms, lounge and diner. Keeping 90% of the heat in the house rather than it escaping through Ventaxia’s etc keeps heating bills lower. And there’s no need to open windows to ventilate the house (a plus for any hay fever sufferers since the air they breathe is less likely to have pollen in it). Furthermore, we have never had any issues with black mould or condensation and I always dry washing on a rack inside in the winter. The MVHR also has a summer mode whereby it changes the air, but doesn’t extract the heat from outgoing air to put it back in the house, useful as summers get hotter. A cooling system can be added to the MVHR unit and we plan to explore that more fully.

Some of the technical stuff!

Gas usage; around 5,000 kWh and Electric around 2,000 kWh.

The Solar panels generate about 2,000 kWh pa for which we are lucky enough to receive FITS payments of about £350pa (Feed In Tarif payments are more generous than payments from utility companies in more recent years). And we use about 700kwh of free solar power pa to heat our hot water.

What’s next?

We are now looking at installing a battery so that evening electric use can be off grid. Batteries are now much cheaper than 10 years ago.

Using an air source heat pump would also reduce our carbon emissions further.

Other considerations

We have always purchased A rated appliances; fridge, freezer, dishwasher, washing machine etc. although a little more expensive, they last longer and give longer term efficiency savings. All lighting is low energy.

We also try to be careful with water usage; we use around 84 litres pp per day (UK average c140 litres per person per day). No power showers, use tap restrictors and collect as much rainwater as possible into butts, for growing our veg and fruit in the garden (freezing some of the produce, helps it go further).

We use “strulch” as a mulch and slug repellent and wood chips around shrubs and on walkways. This helps to retain moisture in the soil.

“Futureproof” your home eg level access to the front door, downstairs doorways are wider, to allow wheelchair access, the downstairs toilet is a fully “tanked” wet room with shower and wheelchair accessible glass door.

Any easy wins?

Although our house is fully double glazed, recently I noticed a draught at the back door and the patio door. The black rubber gaskets get compressed over time and so we used some DIY insulation tape which noticeably stopped the draughts.

When it’s hot, keep the curtains and windows closed during the day and open windows on the north side of the house, creating a cooling through draft. We went as far as fitting awnings to the windows of the south facing façade.

A last bit of advice?

When having Solar Panels fitted be sure that the TV aerial or similar structures that attract birds do not overhang the panels. Otherwise, you might pick up a slightly expensive cleaning bill!