Kevin McCloud: ‘Heat pumps? I’d say get one now… and solar, too’ – Telegraph, 17 September 2022
The property designer discusses Britain’s new focus on efficiency and how to keep fuel bills down
Kevin McCloud: “I welcome invention and intelligence”
It’s the tales of woe, budgets blown and dramatic reveals that have sustained Grand Designs through 23 series. Or so presenter Kevin McCloud assumed. But back in March this year, he started to question what it really was that drew in the audiences, series after series.
A video had been uploaded to the Grand Designs YouTube page about one of the most eco-friendly projects ever featured on the show – an underground house with no heating, insulated by the earth surrounding it – designed by a couple called Smith: Andrew, a building engineer with a PhD in low-energy systems, and his wife, Margretta.
It scored five times as many hits on YouTube as any of the other houses in the series. “It was almost like we were plugging into something that was then untapped,” says McCloud, 63.
In spring, it began to dawn on many of us what lay ahead for our fuel bills; home renovators and builders started to tune into something McCloud and the show’s longtime director, Richard Morie, have been talking about for 20 years.
“Every year it’s like we cast the seeds out and hope that in spring there will be green shoots. And every year the crop comes and it’s OK. This year the crop has come without sowing it. It’s a tidal wave,” says McCloud of the sudden interest in energy saving and efficiency.
“The media are focusing on it very heavily, which is wonderful.”
Chances are you’ve already heard about McCloud extolling the virtues of throwing a bucket of water on your patio in the morning, to make like continental old ladies in hot, hilltop towns. His other heatwave solutions include planting trees near your house, or canopies to cover all that lovely glass you thought was a great idea.
As we move into colder months, heavy curtains and draught excluders loom large; the antithesis of Grand Designs’ airport-hanger vibes, but he doesn’t dismiss them. He may even own a few, but McCloud is famously tight-lipped: all we know is that his long-term family home was a 500-year-old farmhouse near Frome, in Somerset, so he presumably knows a thing or two about tapestries and rag rugs.
Whether it’s cooling or overheating, he says, history has plenty to teach us. “Of course the point about sausage-dog draught excluders at the door and big curtains is they work brilliantly in old houses, but the real issue is that if you’re building new, you shouldn’t have to have that,” says McCloud. “We should have super-insulated doors that are airtight; properly sealed buildings that are ventilated.”
Keeping warm this winter
Advice on how you keep warm this winter depends on where you live and your circumstances. “I don’t see the problem, if you have a house with five doors, of using one or two of them and taping up the rest with a slab of insulation behind a curtain. That would probably make a significant difference to the overall performance of the building. But it’s all about the individual circumstances and building,” he says.
You might feel the urge to go ahead and insulate for Britain, but the average Victorian house, says McCloud, was designed to be draughty: to draw air under the boards to keep the air moving through the building, and to use coal fires as a way of getting rid of stale air up the chimney. “Goodness me, try and zip up a building like that and you need to be careful you don’t create all kinds of problems with static air under floorboards and condensation problems.”
The average Victorian house, says McCloud, was designed to be draughty.
There are other issues to consider with older buildings apart from warmth, and these mainly revolve around moisture and lack of ventilation. These are complex matters, McCloud warns, that can require quite a bit of science and engineering to get right. He points those who live in older homes towards the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which publishes an excellent guidebook on this issue. The Carbon Trust also produced a volume with the Bath Preservation Trust called A Warmer Bath, designed as guidance on how to retrofit older buildings in a Unesco Heritage Site. “There is some very good guidance out there,” McCloud says.
One of the most interesting concepts that he has come across of late is the idea of managing warmth by controlling a building’s humidity. “It’s a really interesting retrofitted house in central London where they’ve achieved pretty well super-low carbon credentials,” he says. The argument runs that if you reduce humidity in a building it becomes more comfortable, so the inhabitants can then operate at a lower temperature. Not that he’s advocating we all run out and buy dehumidifiers – nor is he suggesting that those living in Grand Designs-esque open-plan homes build walls to create cosy spaces. McCloud says: “It all depends on the scale and the size. If you have vast vacuums that need a lot of warming and are inefficiently built, then that’s a problem, but if it’s super-efficient and energy efficient it matters less.”
In general, he thinks, we’re all still building our self-builds far too big. “I think if you could shrink most of the projects I’ve visited by three quarters overnight, most people wouldn’t notice. They might bang their head on the door, but you know,” jokes McCloud. “We still build our houses too big. It’s sort of a reaction to the fact that developers in the UK build our houses the smallest in Europe.”
Shift in attitude
The fervour for fast fixes to our current woes is such that Grand Designs Live, at the NEC Birmingham from Oct 5 to 9, has been completely revamped with energy saving in mind. An exhibition within the exhibition called Green Living Live will showcase the latest sustainable developments and products, everything from building materials to insulation heating, renewables systems and electric cars. In the Green Living Advice Zone, attendees will be able to quiz experts on their retro-fitting needs.
Where once people used to have questions about bungalow loft conversions and bi-fold doors, now they are focusing their energies on energy. How do I keep my conservatory warm in winter? How do I keep my house warm? Is there a way of retrofitting insulation? “And suddenly things like air quality, issues I’ve been banging on about for years, come to the fore,” says McCloud.
McCloud is happy about the shift in our attitudes.
“I don’t welcome recession at all, but I do welcome invention and intelligence,” he says. “When people suddenly find they can’t just borrow more money, they have to think their way out of it. And that is good design. That’s why it’s called Grand Designs, and not Grand Property Makeovers With Loads of Cash.”
However, for those who do have funds available to respond to the energy crisis, what’s worth the investment? Quick-fire, what does he make of today’s top tech?
Heat-pumps? “They’re getting more efficient, but I’d say get one now. They’re still a little expensive but the point is that it’s not complex technology and it’s not really going to change in terms of the offer. All that is going to happen over the next 10 years is that they’ll come down in price because they will be produced in vast volumes.”
Solar? “Everyone says the best time to get it was when there was a government grant. No it wasn’t – it was six-times the price! I’d get solar now. Nobody talks about it, because it’s the obvious thing to do. You can power your car with it.”
Hot taps? “Everything I’ve read about hot taps says they are more efficient than kettles – carbon-efficient, too.”
That said, he’s not a fan of overly complicated systems. McCloud has a collection of apps on his phone to control a number of things in his home, which he never uses. “I can only speak for the age I am and the game I grew up in,” he sighs.
How to make an old house energy efficient
By Douglas Kent, tSPAB Technical and rResearch dDirector, Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
Some work that may be suitable for a modern building can be extremely detrimental to an older one, especially if it inhibits the evaporation of moisture. This may include items recommended on an energy performance certificate (EPC) because the software inadvertently discriminates against older buildings.
Maintenance
Instead of focusing on expensive, high-tech solutions to make your home greener, start with practical, routine maintenance.
Regularly clearing out gutters will prevent your walls becoming wetter and, therefore, less thermally efficient, as will the use of “breathable” finishes such as limewash, rather than moisture-trapping plastic-based paints containing petrochemicals.
Keeping windows and doors in good repair will reduce heat loss, too, while rewashering dripping taps cuts down on the amount of water wasted.
Quick wins
It makes little sense to try to improve insulation levels in a building if draughts have not been addressed! But hermetically sealing an old building means problems of condensation and damp.
Draught-proof your windows, doors (covers can be provided for letterboxes) and floorboards. Chimney balloons can stop heat loss via flues that are not in use.
Add heavy curtains, shutters or secondary glazing. These are preferable to new, air-tight windows.
Ensure your loft is well insulated, including pipework and the access hatch. But avoid using spray foam which is inappropriate for older buildings.
Lag your hot water cylinder, fit thermostatic radiator valves and low-energy light fittings. Install a water butt for the garden and place water-saving devices in toilet cisterns.
If you have an old conservatory, look at ways to draughtproof it and insulate the roof if possible. Add cosy soft furnishings such as rugs, throws, cushions and blinds. Bigger investments include laying wooden flooring, triple glazing and underfloor heating.
SPAB runs a free Technical Advice Line with generous financial support from Historic England. It operates most weekday mornings on 020 7456 0916.
Kevin’s top 10 ways to save energy:
1/ Insulate your loft
2/ Install a heat pump
3/ Draught-proof windows and doors
4/ Install a smart meter
5/ Insulate your hot water cylinder
6/ Update your windows to triple glazing
7/ Add heavy curtains and insulate blinds around the home
8/ Use low-energy LED lighting
9/ Take advantage of solar-powered energy
10/ Use the shower instead of the bath
General low cost advice
Turn down your thermostat
Don’t leave things on standby; turn appliances off at the plug
When using the kettle only heat up as much water as you need
Turn off any lights you are not using
Wait until you have enough clothes to do a full wash