Tim

Where is your house and how old is it?

My house is a 1950s, four bedroom detached house in Totteridge, the London Borough of Barnet.

What work have you had done or what lifestyle changes have you made?

Like many people living in North London, we recently decided to extend our house (to five bedrooms and a new dining room downstairs) rather than move. Our three children all go to school locally so we didn’t want to change locality.

We considered how much energy saving and environmental improvements we could reasonably make. We’ve added solar panels, a condensing boiler, the latest double glazing, a high efficiency enclosed gas fire and also replaced the loft insulation.

In addition, we applied voluntarily to be placed on a water meter system and, wherever possible, replaced existing luminescent bulbs with low energy bulbs.

Who carried out the work?

While the bulk of the work was carried out by our builders, the solar panels were installed in a single day on the south facing roof by a contractor. Our builders, who installed the condensing boiler, double glazing etc, were impressed by the skill and speed of work of the contractors.

Any lessons learned and advice for other Londoners?

Ours is the first house in the Close to have solar panels fitted. Pretty much everyone I’ve pointed the panels out too have been very impressed with many saying they would consider installing something similar.

It’s important that Londoners don’t see the installation of solar panels as an eyesore. My experience points out how unobtrusive they really are and how they provide a significant contribution to carbon energy conservation.

What has been the impact on your life?

After just six months I’m already feeling the financial benefits of the installation – despite a poor summer.

Saving carbon by producing my own electricity feels great. I have three teenage children and feel I have a parental obligation, never mind a human obligation, to hand on to them our climate in the best possible shape.

Did you get a grant or any other financial assistance?

My system overall cost £13,960 and I was very fortunate to get a Low Carbon Buildings grant of £6,980. I would certainly have paid for the entire system without a grant, if one hadn’t been available. It’s about saving carbon not money. We only have one planet.