Richard's Green Home Story
Richard works for a national construction company. Inspired by the eco-schools and sports centres they’ve built – he wanted to apply the same standards and technologies to his family home renovation.
Together with his wife, Rachel, he’s taken an ordinary 1960s home and turned it into an eco-home, heated by a Good Energy heat pump.
He shares his heat pump testimonial with us.
Ordinary home turned eco-home
“We bought an ordinary home with an extraordinary view and set about turning it into an eco-home.
We wanted it to be sustainable and efficient, so getting rid of fossil fuels was a must. That’s why we got a heat pump.”
“We’ve worked hard to make the building warm – using lots of insulation; and airtight by covering the walls in a vapour proof membrane. To prevent moisture and mould, we’ve installed Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery throughout the house. As well as removing the moisture, this technology recovers the heat energy from the moist air, and pushes the warm dry air back through the house, providing ambient warmth.
“The final step to getting a warm, efficient home was to install an air source heat pump – which captures heat energy from the outside air and transfers it to our underfloor heating and hot water tank using electricity.”
Find out what’s gone into making Richard and Rachel’s eco home.
Tell us about your heat pump installation
“Our install took place over 3 days. We had no kitchen and no bathroom, and other trades were working in the home too.
Good Energy communicated brilliantly, and worked well alongside other the other trades to make sure that their work was compatible with the plumbing and electrics elsewhere in the house.”
“Because our home is effectively airtight, the Good Energy team were extremely careful with the fabric of the building while they were installing our air source heat pump.
They managed this by predetermining entry points into the home so that we could mitigate the impact to the airtightness.”
Remote monitoring to improve efficiency
“I’ve been very impressed with Good Energy’s after care. After monitoring my heat pump’s performance remotely, they suggested some changes they could make to improve efficiency. This involved remotely adjusting our heating curve to provide a more constant, lower level of heat.
“Our heat pump works really well, keeping our home comfortable, just as we like it.”
