MURTON & CO DIRECTORS UNDERTAKE THEIR OWN RETROFIT PROJECT TO INSPIRE HOMEOWNERS

MURTON & CO DIRECTORS UNDERTAKE THEIR OWN

Lancaster-based Jonny Murton and Caroline Lavelle are about to embark on an exciting retrofit journey, updating their 1970s bungalow with all the energy efficiency measures necessary to make it carbon neutral.

As partners and directors of family-run chartered surveyors and energy assessors Murton & Co, they’re passionate about helping others create comfortable, energy efficient buildings, and are now looking forward to putting their years of experience into practice closer to home.

“We can’t wait to get started,” says Caroline. “We’ll be keeping a vlogging diary and posting about every step of our journey on the website (murtonandco.uk) to explain the process, benefits and pitfalls. We’re effectively putting our money where our mouth is.”

The pair have built a solid reputation as the go-to experts on energy efficiency in the North-West, helping property developers, landlords and homeowners achieve compliance with Building Regulations, minimum EPC standards and creating affordable, comfortable, and healthy buildings. “We pride ourselves on providing a bespoke service,” explains Jonny. “We believe it’s fundamental to engage with customers to understand their needs so we can ultimately deliver on their goals. Just as importantly, we’ll follow up with post-work evaluation so that together, we can learn and improve.”

With a diverse client base, including architects, engineers, developers and organisations such as PLCs and local authorities, Murton & Co’s offering and expertise have evolved to provide an increased focus on climate issues, decarbonising the built environment and improving well-being in homes and business premises.

RETROFIT PROJECT TO INSPIRE HOMEOWNERS

This summer, the firm launches its brand-new retrofit service for homeowners which begins with thorough assessments. These collect measured data, involving a building survey utilising mobile scanning equipment, thermal imaging technology, temperature and moisture sensors, air leakage testing equipment, as well as energy bill analysis to deliver a bespoke report. “We believe the more quantitative the survey, the more accurate the results, which should ultimately prevent you from going ahead with unnecessary upgrades or, for example, not considering adequate ventilation when installing insulation,” explains Jonny.

To support this work, Murton & Co is also launching an app specifically for homeowners and residential landlords to help improve the energy performance of their property, a key part of which will be to establish whether their house is heat-pump ready. “We will provide consumers with information they can take away and do the work themselves or get contractors to do the work – or if they need professional support we’ll support them and take on the project,” says Caroline. “It’s important to give them choice and ownership of their journey.”

“There’s a lot of anxiety creeping in, particularly with the next 30% price rise in energy bills”

“There’s a lot of anxiety creeping in, particularly with the next 30% price rise in energy bills coming in October, but it’s not all doom and gloom. We want to put home owners back in control,” concludes Jonny.

MAKING YOUR PROPERTY ENERGY EFFICIENT IS A HOT TOPIC

Staying warm and comfortable while trying to reduce your energy use is a concern for everyone, particularly with rising fuel bills and so many of us now regularly working from home.

There’s also a looming deadline for many homeowners that could add to these worries. This country has the oldest and coldest housing stock in Europe and our homes use 35% of all the energy in the UK. It’s prompted the government to introduce climate change targets that include proposals to bring all properties up to an EPC band C rating by 2035, to make them more energy efficient. That adds up to about 24 million homes that might need retrofitting.

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Using the app, customers first answer a series of questions designed to establish the home’s suitability for energy efficiency improvements. This gives them a score – similar to a credit rating – and a brief report providing details of the simple lowcost measures they can undertake themselves and those that require more professional input, along with an idea of the costs and the impact this would have on their energy bills. For a deeper dive, they can opt for a more thorough, bespoke assessment which really gets under the skin of the building.

SO JUST WHAT IS RETROFIT?

Put simply, it’s about making changes to existing buildings so that energy consumption and emissions are reduced. Retrofitting improves the energy efficiency of homes, reduces fuel bills and creates comfortable, even temperatures all year round, as well as helping to eliminate draughts. Another great benefit is that these improvements produce a healthier home with cleaner air by eliminating mould and condensation problems. From reducing childhood asthma to cutting levels of depression and anxiety in adults, energy-efficiency upgrades don’t just lower emissions, they can improve our health.

A retrofit typically involves a significant improvement in the thermal performance and comfort of your home by reducing the heat loss through the building fabric – think roof, wall and floor insulation, double or triple glazing and draught-proofing. Interventions such as solar panels, replacing a gas boiler with a ground or air heat-source pump and installing mechanical ventilation with a heat recovery unit can also be undertaken for further reductions to household bills and carbon emissions.

Deciding to do all this would soon add up to a substantial sum of money; you’d probably be looking to spend a minimum of £30,000, with all the resultant disruptions. However, this work does not all need to be done in one go. By understanding where the main issues are and developing an action plan, most people could start to reduce their energy bills and improve the comfort of their home with a smaller budget. For example, installing 270mm insulation in an uninsulated loft would save on average of £215 each year in a fourbedroom detached house.

Despite retrofitting producing lower bills, warmth and comfort, some homeowners might question whether they’re going to see a return on this investment. If that’s the case, perhaps you could think about green improvements in the way a new fitted kitchen or conservatory adds value to a property. While a new kitchen might not be to everyone’s taste, new buyers would doubtless appreciate wall insulation or solar panels to generate their own electricity and help them spend less in future. An energy-efficient home is an attractive selling point that buyers might well be prepared to pay more for.

In fact, many are starting to put energy efficiency on their wish-list; the ‘Green home premium’ is worth up to £40,000 when comparing an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) A-rated home to one that’s rated G, according to the Halifax. Even moving your home from a D rating to a C will typically boost the price by about 2% - the equivalent of about £5,000.

Retrofitting undoubtedly adds value – whether you plan to move or just improve. So, if you’re ready to take the plunge and get an energy assessment, it’s reasonable to question how you’re going to pay for any resulting work. The government recently cut VAT on renewables to 0% while the new Boiler Upgrade Scheme – or Clean Heat Grant – aims to help fund the UK’s transition from gas boilers to lowcarbon alternatives. Homeowners can get £5,000 towards installing an air source heat pump and £6,000 towards a ground source heat pump.

In the private sector, we’re already seeing buyers being offered green mortgages which provide lower interest rates or cashback and there are signs that fixed-rate deals might emerge where, for example, the rate you pay within the fixed period comes down if you carry out certain green home improvements. It’s also hoped that a raft of green loans to

“The ‘Green home premium’ is worth up to £40,000 ”

- murtonandco.uk/news

fund retrofits could be introduced in the not-too-distant future.

But remember that with retrofitting, one-size doesn’t fit all. While nearly every house would benefit from some green home improvements, each has its own faults and defects – even identical houses in the same street have different issues. A retrofit assessment creates a bespoke solution for your home, including recommendations on which measures are the most costeffective, would have the most impact and in which order to carry them out. It’s then up to you to decide what to do and when.

The best way to decide where to start making changes is with an energy assessment, carried out by a professional Chartered Surveyor or Retrofit Assessor, such as Murton & Co, who will calculate your building’s energy performance based on actual measured data. Sensors are used to record the daily temperature patterns over a three-week period, while thermal imaging scans will identify specific areas of heat loss. Heat loss calculations on the building fabric and an air leakage test are also undertaken. Armed with this information, you can put an action plan together to fundamentally improve the fabric of the property.

When you’re ready to start thinking about future-proofing your home, Murton & Co can start you on the road to a successful retrofit, oversee the works and start protecting you against future energy price increases, giving you that warm glow inside and out!

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READY TO RETROFIT? HERE’S FIVE QUESTIONS YOU NEED TO ASK

1WHY DO I WANT TO RETROFIT? It may be that you want to make your house warmer and more comfortable, or the walls are plagued by damp, or perhaps you’re simply set on saving the planet. Understanding your motives and priorities can lead to establishing clear objectives that will then shape your retrofit project. Writing down what you want to achieve, with information about every room and with input from every family member, can be a good start.

2WILL A RETROFIT BENEFIT MY PROPERTY? The ultimate aim should be to improve the level of comfort, ventilation and air quality in your home, so before you get started, it’s important to understand your energy usage. Take accurate meter readings, preferably every month and on the same day each month, as well as the property’s temperature and humidity. Armed with this energy consumption data, you could work out peak heating periods and the findings will also be useful when the work is finished and you want to see how the results compare.

3WHAT IS THE SCOPE AND TIMESCALE FOR MY RETROFIT PROJECT? However tempting it might be to launch into a complete house overhaul, maybe start small and work through each room. Just like any building work, factor in the disruption involved when you’re going to be living in a property and work out what’s sensible and practical. It’s always a good idea to consider fabric first – meaning your building’s walls, floors, roof, windows and doors – before you start changing boilers and adding solar panels as this will make a considerable difference. And before you even start, make sure you’re up-to-date with any maintenance around the house that might impact retrofit work.

4SHOULD I CALL IN AN EXPERT? Although EPCs (Energy Performance Certificates) are a good guide – which you’ll have been given if you bought your house after 2007 - they aren’t the best foundation on which to base a retrofit. Instead, a proper energy assessment by a trained assessor is the way to go, although it’s worth bearing in mind that not all retrofit assessors and co-ordinators are accredited and the scope of assessments can vary; for example, their remit might not always include an air test or thermal imaging.

5HOW MIGHT I FUND A RETROFIT PROJECT? Government money is filtering down for energy efficiency work, including the recent VAT cuts on renewable materials (down to 0%) and the recent £30 million promised to produce more heat pumps. It has urged mortgage lenders to come up with products to help people make their homes more energy efficient, while its new £10 million Green Finance Accelerator programme should result in more innovative green finance products including low-interest, home improvement loans for retrofit work.