Clipperstorch wrote:
It’s not the climate, it is about what people spend their money on.
That may also be the case, but certainly climate plays a major role. The average minimum temperature in winter is –10°C lower where I live compared to south England. Of course that determines what is considered standard insulation/heating, which in turn determines what would be considered super efficient.
AF wrote:
LED lights are an instant must.
Not really. Today there is no other option though, or the best option for other reasons. If your house already is all electric, then all those old bulbs will simply add to the heating. As a heating source, they are as efficient as anything else. Outdoor lightning is obviously LED.
Put a jumper on. You are easier to insulate than the house!
You make a lot of sense @Graham even if perhaps you intended it tongue in cheek.
Insulation is one of the best ways to cut your energy bill. However you should not over insulate. You may have noticed lots of adds during Covid about opening the windows to let out the bad air and let in fresh air. But this doesn’t just apply in times of Covid. A house or apartment needs at least 2 complete changes of air a day for the health of both the house/apartment and its occupants.
It is the reason air bricks were invented back in tje 1930’s I believe.
LeSving wrote:
As a heating source, they are as efficient as anything else.
Yes and no. They heat the air at the ceiling (usually) which is not where you want it. It is more efficient to heat near the floor – both because it helps air circulation and because your feet are more sensitive to low temperatures.
This is a major tradeoff: air quality versus energy conservation.
It can be solved, but at a substantial cost (heat recovery from exhaust air) which almost nobody (except fancy grant funded stuff) is going to do. It is done commercially, and it is done in indoor swimming pools (well, the properly done ones) but it won’t see a widespread rollout.
LED lamps are always worth doing because in the summer, or where you get plenty of solar input through windows, you don’t need the heat.
This is where it gets controversial because planning restrictions (here, the stupid busybody dicks who run the “conservation” boards, pushing “English Vernacular” and “light pollution → must have small windows, because we are too stupid to know about c-u-r-t-a-i-n-s” crap), combined with bulk housebuilding done to minimise costs while meeting “energy targets”, conspire to make windows small, and patio doors and other large areas of glass are discouraged. Meeting “energy targets” is not connected with achieving solar gain, which is dumb. So a lot of housing has much less solar gain than it could have. We have lots of patio doors and if there is sunshine in the winter, the heating is not needed.
These things help a lot with heating costs.
Peter wrote:
It can be solved, but at a substantial cost (heat recovery from exhaust air) which almost nobody (except fancy grant funded stuff) is going to do.
Again, it depends on the market which in turn depends on the climate. Most (non-commercial) houses built in Sweden the past 50 years have forced ventilation and a substantial number of these have heat exchangers. I don’t have figures but it is certainly far from “almost nobody except fancy grant funded stuff”.
Sure, however you are recovering low grade heat (max ~ +20C) so you need another heat pump to recover that. If one is looking at what one can in an existing house, not a new build (an option for almost nobody, even if rebuilding an existing house – I see such a project 100m from where I am sitting) this doesn’t readily fly. If one lives in Sweden in a super efficient house, then this question is of no relevance 
I bought solar PV panels with inverter from a reputable firm in 2018. Between the subsidy for home improvement work in Sweden, the fact that I absolutely hate working at heights (and way too many falling accidents in my family/friends/work-colleagues), my limited knowledge (and lacking willingness to spend time to acquire said knowledge TBH) in how to install and wire such things, complete turnkey installation was included in the job. The silverlining of this hot and dry year has been very good production so far. We have net-metering in Sweden, I have not paid for electricity since May and still have some credits. Next I’m looking into getting a storage battery installed, to go fully positive over a longer period and help with charging my BEV.
Other than that, the previous owner had insulated the whole house, except some areas between the ground floor and the cellar (need to look into that). Since buying the house I have changed all windows to triple-glass, changed the roof tiles and redone the roof insulation in some places, changed my air-to-air heat-pump to a modern one with a good COP (5.2 down to -14°C), the water heater is still electric but modern and well insulated, changed most light bulbs to low consumption or LED. This fall I will have work done on my wood stoves and chimneys.
How much has all that cost – That doesn’t sound particularly cheap.
What is your payback time?
One thing not mentioned is that if you don’t plan on staying in a house long-term, often the case in the UK “housing ladder” system, there isn’t much incentive to do any improvement that doesn’t really add value to the bottom line market price of the property. Easier and more financially viable to do a loft conversion/extension.
