The Grumpy Environmentalist: Failed escape from oil heating

The heating system at Priory Farm has been commissioned and I regret to say that we’ve failed to incorporate any significant aspect of eco design.

Greenbang readers I have failed you. But let me explain.

The farmhouse is a grade two listed building and is located within the Northumberland National Park. There has been very little innovation incorporated into the fabric of the building during the past 300 years or so.

Our bid to renovate the building around eco principles was never going to be easy.

Solar: planners say no

Solar technology was dismissed at the outset. Panels on the roof might reduce the environmental footprint of the building but aesthetically they’d be a dog. That’s the view of the planners, by the way, and not my view.

Ground-source heating would be a good alternative but would require us to make the building airtight. Old buildings need to breathe to stop the ancient timbers from rotting. Besides, the historical listing meant that double glazing was never going to be a possibility.

Planning law in the UK favours historic significance over any other design consideration. We even had debates about the appropriate level of roof insulation so as not to cover some of the timbers.

Making fire

Biomass seemed like a worthwhile endeavour and resulted in several late-night debates. It is undoubtedly a laudable heating solution but in my view it simply isn’t ready for the domestic market.

The boilers are almost 10 times the cost of their oil or gas counterparts and look like the back end of a tractor. They take up a significant amount of physical space, especially with the storage of pellets or logs.

Wood-burning stoves have proved to be our most promising eco technology and we’ve installed three. They are beasts of machines, and each is able to kick out several kilowatts of heat energy. Fortunately, we have a local supply of wood.

Seeking skills

What’s really disappointing is that we have failed to combine any of the stoves with a back boiler system to feed into either the central heating or hot water system. Technically, it’s possible but we didn’t manage to find a plumber or heating engineer who could incorporate a system within the fabric of our building.

And so I regret to say we still have an oil boiler. It’s ruthlessly efficient and works solely on demand but it burns oil nonetheless.

Editor’s note: Two years ago, Stephen Waddington moved with his family from Ealing, London, to rural Northumberland. He joins the Greenbang team to write an occasional feature about his family’s attempts to renovate a 300-year-old farmhouse and live by eco principles.

Stephen is the managing director of Speed, a London-based multi-sector PR firm. He splits his time between London and his home in Northumberland. You can follow him on Twitter at @wadds.