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This three-bedroomed terrace house on an Oxford estate
was built in 1982 and doesn't look much different from its neighbours.
But it's had an eco-renovation makeover,
although many of the changes are hidden.
What fuel is used for heating the house?
That would be mains gas.
Mark Luntley and Alice Brander started renovating this house
soon after moving here in 2002.
They wanted to reduce their carbon footprint substantially.
Now they're using a carbon calculator
to see if there's more they could still do.
This is the average electricity that we use.
Mark and Alice are concerned about climate change
and want to reduce their energy use and waste.
They don't want to preach but they do want to show people what can be done.
Al Gore talks about people going from denial
right the way through to despondency
without actually stopping off in the middle to do something
and we really wanted to say we want to do something about it
and do something practical and influence others to do the same.
I can't think of any sacrifice in having our particular lifestyle.
On the contrary, I've gained more because of the greener lifestyle.
We're five minutes from the shops and central Oxford.
As you look round the house you'll see it looks a very ordinary house.
It feels a very ordinary place.
It just so happens that it uses about half the energy that it used to.
Reducing environmental impact
was a high priority in the choice of this house.
The house was a trade off.
We deliberately chose somewhere that was potentially energy efficient
in the centre of town.
That cut down our transport costs
but it meant that it wasn't as large as it might have been
if we'd have chosen a house in the middle of the country.
One of the advantages of this house is that it's a mid-terrace
so it doesn't lose energy on either side and it also faces south.
The house was built to pre-1982 regulations
which had poor standards for energy efficiency.
So Mark and Alice commissioned an energy audit
to find out how best to improve its performance.
High on the list for energy saving was replacing the old boiler
with a new energy-efficient one.
It's in the loft to save space.
This is one of the first things that we did.
It's our condensing combination boiler.
This one's the smallest that we could find.
It provides the hot water and the heating for the house.
The old model was just about broken.
Solar water heating panels were installed on the roof
at the same time as the boiler was put in.
They heat water and feed it into a heat store.
This is the 100-litre heat store.
This collects the heat from the solar panels and stores it.
It either provides hot water directly
or it will preheat water that then goes through the boiler
and then out into the taps.
Good insulation is crucial to transform a cold house
into a warm and energy-efficient one.
Mark and Alice installed environmentally-friendly
sheep's wool in the loft over the existing mineral wool insulation
and then tackled the heat leaking through the walls,
windows and internal garage of the house.
We had the walls cavity insulated because there were air gaps
and that was one of the least expensive things that we did
and British Gas paid for part of the costs
but it made a noticeable difference within a couple of days.
You suddenly realised that the house was warmer in winter.
Adding new double glazed windows to the existing secondary glazing
reduced heat loss and made the house noticeably quieter.
Building a porch onto the front of the house stopped cold air
coming in in winter.
But the most expensive renovation was the addition of a conservatory
at the back of the house facing south.
It's a luxury not everyone can afford
but it does improve the energy performance of the house
as well as providing a light-filled, relaxing space.
We were interested in having a solar room
which would take the heat from the sun, store it within the solar room
and then release it into the house when it was needed.
There's no artificial heating in this room,
only the heat from the sun
absorbed by the tiles and the walls in spring and autumn.
But in winter it also helps to keep the house warm.
The conservatory acts as a buffer zone in the winter
so it can be very cold outside
but the conservatory itself will never get less than eight degrees.
These energy-saving measures
reduce the carbon footprint of the house itself.
Gas and electricity use dropped by about 50%.