I transformed my house into an eco-home for free – and save £1,700 a year

When Dale Hudson, a 34-year-old sustainability consultant, bought his first home he knew he wanted to make sure it was as green as possible. What he didn’t expect was that his local council would fund all the work, and get it done within five months of moving in. Here he tells Hannah Fearn how he managed to secure a £30,000 renovation of his property, what it was like to live through a full retrofit – and just how much money he’s now saving on energy bills. When I bought my first house in February, I knew I wanted to make it as sustainable as possible. I work as an adviser to businesses on how to go green, so I wanted to make sure that I was living my values in my own home too. But what I didn’t expect is that I’d be plugged into the solar grid and saving money quite so quickly – or how little it would actually cost me. I’d been renting in and around York for about 15 years but, like many desirable cities, the rental market was getting more and more expensive. I thought I was still a long way off being able to afford my own place but, when my bills began increasing almost scarily, I started looking at my options, and buying made more sense. Shorts I found a two-bed, modern end-of-terrace property which was first built in 2001. This meant it had fairly modern building standards, including timber double glazing and cavity wall insulation. It had been rented out for quite a long time before I bought it, so it had very minimal decor and needed some painting, but I wanted something that I could move into quickly. While I was house-hunting, I had started looking into what support was available for me in that area to make green changes, such as installing solar panels. I had been keeping an eye on the news about government grants to support warm homes, which were introduced last year by the new Labour government, and I knew that York Council was running the scheme for local residents in my area funded through that policy. That meant that as soon as I had my offer accepted on the property late last year, I was speaking to the council and getting myself registered for financial support. I expected a council programme like this to take months, or even longer, but it’s all happened so quickly. Within the last four months, I’ve had almost £30,000 worth of retrofit work completed on my home – including solar panels, a battery to store solar energy, and complete heat pump installation – and the only changes I’ve had to pay for were minimal, like a new induction hob in my kitchen. Sustainability is a very important personal value for me, and it’s something I try to live my life by, but the cost savings were important to me, too. My bills have gone from an estimated almost £2,000 a year to just £300 – although I do expect to have to constantly adjust my heat pump heating system this winter to work out how to make the best savings. Filling in all the forms at the start was very complex because there are so many different eligibility criteria, depending on postcode, income and whether you claim any benefits. The form was long and hard to find the right section, and I had to contact the council to ask them to clarify. In the end, I was eligible due to having a household income below £36,000. When I first applied for a warm homes grant, they carried out an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) assessment and made recommendations on the potential possible improvements to the home. The EPC produced after officially buying the property suggested installing both solar panels and underfloor insulation, so that’s all I was expecting to be offered support with. I wanted a heat pump too, but I didn’t know if that expensive work was possible with a grant at the time. Once I was confirmed for the grant, they sent an EPC assessor and retrofit assessor over. I spoke to them about what I wanted and they recommended solar panels, battery panels, and a heat pump. They didn’t recommend any changes to the flooring. All the suggested work was covered by the grant – but I knew it would be more effective if we also added extra loft insulation and new ventilation fans. The performance of the heat pump would be improved if extra insulation was added. Dale spent less than £600 of his own money on the project, including an induction hob to replace the old gas one (Photo: Olivia Brabbs) So I told them, and they went back to have another look at the assessment. We had a few conversations and they sent me a second proposal which approved it. I think maybe they were trying to keep costs down, but as they were going for a heat pump anyway, it definitely made sense. I was living here the whole time and working from home while the work was carried out, so I could co-ordinate visits from the workmen quite easily. There were quite a lot of visits and pre-assessments, looking at my electrics, and then the council contracted out the work for the solar panels and heat pump to a provider who mainly covers social housing. The ventilation went in first. That wasn’t too much disruption, but it did mean drilling into my kitchen wall. The loft insulation was quick and easy, completed in only a couple of hours about a week later. The solar was the first big project: that took a couple of days to fit both the battery and six panels, three on each side of the roof. The heat pump was about a month later, and that meant putting in seven new radiators, as well as installing the unit. There were about six electricians and heating engineers, so they took over my house for a couple of days. The costs to me so far have been almost nothing, certainly compared to the benefits. I had my gas capped off and my meter removed the day my heat pump was commissioned, so before that I had bought an induction hob to replace the old gas one and that cost me about £300. Where I had my solar inverter fitted, in a cupboard, there was a crack in that wall so I spent about £150 for a builder to repair that, and there are some holes around the radiator piping that need fixing, but that’s just cosmetic. I’ve spent less than £600 of my own money on the project. So far it’s been amazing having the heat pump for my hot water. It’s connected to the mains, so I’m getting much better water pressure. Of course, we’re living through a series of unprecedented heatwaves, so I haven’t had an opportunity to test my heating properly yet, but I’m looking forward to winter so I can play around with the heating settings. It seems like it’s running really smoothly and easily. ‘So far it’s been amazing having the heat pump for my hot water. It’s connected to the mains, so I’m getting much better water pressure,’ says Dale (Photo: Olivia Brabbs) I’ve been keeping an eye on the app and seeing how much energy I’m generating from my solar panels. I’m only using 40 per cent of what it is generating this summer, and the rest will be going back to the grid. I’m still waiting for my certification to come through, but once I’m able to export energy, Fuse Energy has offered me 14p per kWh. That comes as credit into your energy account, so it comes off my own bills. Based on having solar for about two months, I think I could have made about £100 in that time. I’d love to be a zero bill home, but I think £250 for all energy bills is now looking realistic for this house – the closer I can get to zero, the better. I wasn’t offered air conditioning as part of my installation, but that is definitely something that ought to be considered by people thinking of installing a two-way heat pump in future. It wasn’t an option for my building. I’ve told all my friends in York about the work I’ve done and they can’t believe it was fully funded – but not everyone I’ve encouraged is having the same success. It all depends on where you live. My sister applied in a different council and was told there was no funding for similar work, so she hasn’t gone ahead. I advise everyone to ask. Do some reading up and contact your council. There are wage thresholds for most councils, but since I applied in York, that has been adjusted, so it applies to incomes post-tax and living costs. Even if you’re sure you wouldn’t qualify, I say it’s still worth putting an application in.