Vision 2030 for the estate 

Upgraded housing stock within the estate that achieve low energy ratings, lower running costs for residents, benefit the overall community & help to achieve climate reduction goals

Why even try to define a 2030 vision for the housing stock in the estate 

• 325 houses in the estate are nearly 60 years old since they were built

• The vast majority of the original houses in the estate still have an open fireplace and the associated chimey stack. This type of solution within the house fabric is going to become less desirable and decrease the overall value of your property due to carbon related ruduction measures and current building regulations that discorage the installation of these types of solurions in newer build properties

• Even well maintaned houses require upgrades at some point in there lifetime e.g electrical wiring and plumbing 

• How can residents future proof their properties for the next 50 years, increase there property desirability and increase capital value in line with newly developed properties that are of similar size, cheaper to run and cheaper to finance

• In my opinion unless a property owner of a 60 year old house makes some decisions to sell there property at current market value or make a capital investment to upgrade and enhance there property they will get to a tipping point where there  property will start to decrease in value compared to newer build homes of similar size and location (however the desirability of properties in the estate and there value is primarily based on location and plot size), however, I believe we will get to a point were these factors will start to change and start to decrease the desirability and value of the overall housing stock within the estate. 

How and why to embark on this journey for the residents of the estate 

• Increase the value of existing individual housing stock within estate (current total housing stock in the estate would be worth 300 million plus)

• Leverage community buying power to achieve lower retrofit costs

• Leverage community grants, county council grants, SEAI grants etc

• Leverage lower funding rates for whole community and identify free funding oppurtunties for older house holders 

• Lower running costs and energy usage 

• Increase value of individual housing units 

• Prepare the housing stock within the estate for the next 50 years of usage and occupation 

Issues with a substantial amount of the current housing stock within the estate 

• 1960's housing stock will need to be upgraded sooner or later for wiring and pipework etc 

• High overall running costs due to low levels if insulation and inefficient heating systems etc 

• Low BER ratings, average E1, thus high C02 emissions etc 

• Low levels of insulation

• Electrical and plumbing components within houses getting to end of life 

A set of solutions that could be implemented for individual housing units & the overall estate 

• Community heating solution & investigate heating as a service (which would be a new initiative in Ireland)

• Ugrade from gas or oil to air source heat pumps 

• Individual solar & battery storage solutions

• Community solar & battery storage solution with any excess being sold back to grid 

• Utilise Solar as a service in certain cases 

• Community high speed charging units for electric vehicles 

• Various retrofit options for residential housing units tailored for each householder utilising all relevant grants available 

How could this type of vision be achieved 

• Engage with SEAI & DLRCC

• Identify all related community and individual grant options 

• Implement a set of mechanisms to review the requirements for each housing unit and the cost benefit analysis 

• Identify  and cost a diverse set of solutions using best of breed components that would suit infividual householders requirements 

• Identify an implementation partners that could facilitate a large scale project 

What changes should you make to a house to lower costs first (what is the biggest bang for the buck)

• Insulation within the house building fabric (walls, floors, roof & ceiling gaps) and heat loss (windows, doors etc)

after insulation and heat loss upgrades, you should look into the other types of solutions that will help to lower running costs and carbon emissions 

• Obtain a BER assessment, find and talk to people in the estate that have made changes to there houses and get their opinions on what changes worked best for them

• Heating controls i.e seperating the heating radiator circuit from the hot water tank circuit 

• Upgrade your radiators to the latest efficient models (low cost if you do not need to re pipe. The houses within our estate were installed with gun barrell pipes which will need to be relaced at some stage in the future as the are now in some peoples opinions end of life)

• More efficient heating system, look at a move from oil or gas to air source heat pump or similar (However a heat pump can end up costing more to run than gas or oil if your house is not well insulated or your heat pump is over sized for the overall house heat requirements)

• Solar panel for power / hot water and battery  storage solutions, which can reduce costs but are limited to roof space, house orientation 

• Low energy usage appliances, lightbulbs etc 

Is it possible for a home owner in our estate with a house with an E1 BER rating to get to a B2 rating for 30k plus grants ?

• I believe the answer is yes, however there are a number of hurdles that need to jumped and a lot of hard work is required by the home owner

The basic fabric of the 325 house built by park developments

• External block concrete wall with no insulation

• Internal non load bearing internal concrete walls on the ground and first floor

• Raised ground floor with no insulation (floor board on top of rafters)

• First floor with no insulation (plasterboard on underside of rafters and floor board on top of rafters)

• First floor ceiling minimal insulation between rafters and plasterborad below rafters 

• Single glazed windows 

• Boiler and electrical distribution in garage, hot water tank / imerssion in airing cupboard and cold water tank in attick 

• Electrical distribution board, power sockets for rooms and kitchen on seperate breakers, lighting circuits and and switches on seperate circuits 

• Radiator, hot water cylinder and cold watet tank all gun barrell back to boiler and all on one single circuit

Upgrades a home owner can do themselves but these upgrades take time, hard work and you live in a building site 

• Insulate the raised ground floor with 100mm insulation between the rafters and remove old electrical pipework and replace with new electrical wiring and pipework 

• Dry line internal perimeter house walls with 100mm insulation (downside you lose overall room size)

• Remove and replace non load bearing concrete internal walls with stud walls that include high levels of insulation / sound proofing (this also allows internal room changes, electrical changes etc

• Upgrade and refit all glass windows and doors to 1.2 u value units or below 

There are many different solutions that are available but in my opinion, insulation is the number one solution that should be considered

Note: Above are only  a set of thoughts and my personal opinions and would need to be fully investigated to verify if any of the points above would be achievable and beneficial to the overall residents within the estate.