Homeowner Caro Johnson has always had an interest in reducing her carbon footprint so when the opportunity came to cut emissions from her home, she took it.

Caro and husband Peter live in a terraced house in Petersfield and decided to have a Whole House Retrofit Plan (WHRP) carried out to enable them to see what changes they could make to reduce heat loss from their home during the winter.

The Petersfield Area SuperHomes (PASH) project, ran by Petersfield Climate Action Network (PeCAN) involved a professional retrofit coordinator carrying out a report on your home, giving step-by-step guidance about the changes to make and in which order to do them in.

Caro said: “I have considered myself a bit of a greenie for a long time but we also wanted to do this for a totally pragmatic reason. 

“Our gas boiler was reaching the end of its life. It had been there for 20 odd years and it was on its last legs.

“We had an energy certificate done when we had our solar panels installed and the chap who did it then said the windows needed replacing.”

Caro and Peter were advised to get their windows changed and they also put some more insulation in the loft.

Caro added: “We had a retrofit report done through PeCAN which seemed like a good idea from an interest point of view as much as anything else which I think confirmed what we already knew needed doing.

“The final part was the installation of a heat pump. This was at a point when all the electricity prices were going up so we were trying to keep the thermostat turned down.”

So, is a retrofit plan a good idea?

“I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in helping the planet,” Caro said.

“It definitely helped having the boiler upgrade grant. This seemed a good thing to invest in. I would certainly recommend the retrofit plan and see from there what are the benefits of doing these steps.

“I found the report interesting and confirmatory. It’s definitely worth doing.”

A professional retrofit coordinator carries out an independent, impartial assessment looking at the energy efficiency of your home. They take that assessment and produce a plan of the changes that you could make to you home to reduce your energy bills, increase your comfort levels and reduce your carbon footprint. Recommendations will vary from house to house but will often include the following measures:

• Loft insulation
• Cavity wall insulation
• Double glazing
• Ventilation
• Solar panels to generate renewable energy on the roof
• Changing a gas or oil heating system for a low carbon heat system such as a heat pump

Critically the plan gives you a whole house view and is independent, giving you the confidence to engage with installers when it is right for you. PeCAN can provide a list of qualified Retrofit Coordinators and Installers that operate in the local area for you to engage with.

To find out more, contact us.