Bristol house wins Home of the Future makeover
The Grand Designs Great British Refurb/1010 Campaign Competition has been revealed and work on the Home of the Future has started in Totterdown, Bristol this week.
The lucky winner of the ultimate house eco-makeover, worth in excess of £23,000 is Bristol couple, Will Homoky and Catherine Beswick. Their house will be transformed from a draughty Victorian three bedroom end-of-terrace in to the ultimate eco-friendly, energy-saving home, becoming the envy of their street.
The prize includes a combination of the latest energy-efficiency measures, as advised by community regeneration experts, Keepmoat and donated by Knauf Insulation, combined with solar electricity from us here at Solarcentury. Local solar energy company, and Solarcentury associate, Solar Sense will be installing a 2kWp Solarcentury 'Sunstation' on Wills home next week.
The couple had a double celebration this week as not only has he won a fantastic make over, but thanks to the newly announced 'Feed-in tariff, his solar electric system will generate an income of nearly £700 a year in addition to the savings he will make on his electricity bills from generating over 1,600 units of electricity from daylight each year.
This eco-makeover is expected to save Will and Catherine a staggering 123 percent on their annual energy bill and will cut their carbon emissions by 85 percent.
As the workmen moved in on Monday morning, Will and Catherine were moved out to temporary accommodation for the duration of the makeover, which is expected to take three weeks. By lunchtime floors had been ripped up, the bathroom ripped out and BBC radio and television crews had been to down to capture the exciting start.
On receiving news of their win, house-owner Will said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been chosen. Environmental issues are important to us both; and we make conscious efforts to conserve energy by choosing to cycle, recycling our waste and reclaiming furniture for use at home. But this really does take it one step further. As new homeowners, we could not have afforded to make such radical eco-changes for a long time, but thanks to the Great British Refurb Campaign and 1010, we will be drastically reducing our carbon emissions, almost overnight!”
Watch the BBC Bristol footage.
Listen to Will talk about his big win.
For further info visit the Great British Refurb site.