John Wort – Case study 

Background 

John Wort, aged 87, has lived in Blakeney in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire for more than 20 years. His home was selected to be part of a retrofit demonstrator project by local housing association Two Rivers Housing. The project used funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) to make improvements to the fabric of his home.  

Two Rivers had written to its tenants on the estate, including John, who was delighted to have received their letter, inviting them to volunteer for the project and explaining what the work would include.  

Measures 

This project was part of a Gloucestershire-wide big that said 46 homes, owned by Stroud District Council, Cheltenham Borough Homes and Two Rivers Housing full retrofitted. The housing stock was made up of a mixture of properties including bungalows, terraced houses, and flats. The properties were all rated EPC D or below, with the works seeking to significantly improve this by implementing a wide range of measures. These included: external wall insulation, new triple glazed windows and doors, loft insulation, air source heat pumps, solar PV and mechanical ventilation. 

The work undertaken on John’s house included the installation of an air source heat pump (ASHP), external wall insulation (EWI), and new triple glazed doors and windows. John’s home was 1 of 16 that were fully retrofitted by Two Rivers Housing. The homes that were part of the project are now EPC A-rated and are near carbon zero. 

Impacts 

John has felt considerable improvements to his thermal comfort: at 10pm, his heating goes off, and by the following morning the temperature has only just dropped by two degrees. “To lose that little heat overnight,” John said, “with no heating on at all is amazing”. He explained that alongside the visual transformation of his home, the improvements made to his home have made a huge difference. The EWI is like a “big, thick, warm blanket wrapped around you. The triple glazing dulls a lot of the noise; there is no condensation whatsoever and he gets fresh air all the time. 

As an ex-property manager, John has kept his energy usage records, including annual averages, in his home for the last 22 years: he confirmed that his energy bills are cheaper now the work has been completed. He also shared just how effective the measures have been in reducing the amount of energy needed to heat his home: he is well under his previous usage of 3,500 kW per year. 

John has also managed to calculate how much he has saved in energy costs since the work has been completed, including his home’s contribution to the National Grid. Having not yet completed a year since the installations, John has provided 2,000 kWh to the National Grid, amount to approximately £660 plus the money received from government subsidies. By the end of the year, John calculates that he will have broken even when taking into account the government grants. Even without those, he notes, he’s still paying considerably less than he would have been without the measures.  

These changes have taken John some getting used to: he previously used night storage users, and so has had to adjust to little to no radiant heat. However, he believes the results speak for themselves: “it’s lovely and warm, very comfortable. It’s like that in every room, and that’s why I leave all the doors open”, he says.  

When asked what he would say to anyone who wasn’t sure if they should have the work done, John explained that he had been speaking to some of his neighbours: initially, they weren’t interested in having work done, but John says now they can see the results most of them have changed their minds.  

John says that this is the best, and the cheapest, heating system he’s ever experienced, and he is able to watch his energy use with his smart meter. Without the funding from SHDF, this would never have been possible.