The following homes took part in our third Open Eco-homes Weekend on 7 and 8 October 2023.  There will be no open eco-homes weekend this year but the energy group has teamed up with Transition Chesterfield and Wirksworth Community Land Trust to offer three online eco-homes events on 17, 22 and 29 October 2024. See HVCA’s homepage under ‘Events’ for further details: https://hopevalleyclimateaction.org.uk/   

Quaker Community

Water Lane Bamford
S33 0AD

This is the final year to view the insulation/ retrofit at the Quaker Community.  The tour will include the principles of domestic retrofit including avoiding unintended consequences.

Tradional old stone building, built in 1903 as the Derwent Water Board offices of solid walls of stone and brick.  The building has been insulated piecemeal over many years.  It now includes

  • Internal wall insulation
  • many types of double glazing and secondary glazing
  • loft insulation done in an unusual way to provide for loft storage
  • Internal rather than external porches to avoid needing planning permission
  • And much more.

Car park beyond the house.  Handout about the insulation of the property provided.

8 Ashopton Drive

Bamford
S33 0BU

1978 detached house with cavity wall construction. Thermolite blocks inside and Derbyshire gritstone outside.

  • Bonded EPS bead cavity wall insulation
  • Ground floor insulated to Passivhaus standard
  • Wet underfloor heating throughout
  • MAN Heiztechnik condensing boiler specifically designed to work with UFH.
  • Weather compensated feed-forward UFH water temperature control.
  • 130L thermal store.
  • Solar panels  4kW photovoltaic panels.
  • Eddi solar power diverter.
  • Zappi EV charger.

Not suitable for visitors with limited mobility owing to very steep drive & steps. On-street parking  available nearby

Leveret Croft

Hathersage
S32 1BR

A five bedroom timber chalet built 1900 and renovated in 1998-2000, featuring:

  • 6 inch Rockwool insulation and wood wool slab in walls, 6  inch in floors and 14 inch in roof
  • High perfomance windows and doors,
  • Solar panels
  • Immersun solar power diverter
  • Spring water
  • Wood stoves and coppiced timber
  • LPG condensing boiler

Contemplating heat pump and battery storage

Wheelchair accessible slope up to house; staircase to first floor.  Adequate on-site parking

7 Cliffe Lane

Hathersage
S32 1DE

A four bedroom detached house built 1978, featuring:

  • internal insulation,
  • solar panels
  • air source heat pump (2020)

No difficulties for disabled visitors.  Parking available in the driveway and also on the road.

Springwoods

Thornhill
Bamford
S33 0BR

Total rebuild in 1998 on foundations of a 1930’s asbestos clad, timber frame bungalow, using recycled and local timber Featuring:

  • Passive Solar design
  • Warmcell insulation
  • South facing conservatory
  • Rainwater collection
  • Heating by woodstove
  • PV panels

Springwoods website

Good disabled access in garden & on ground floor. Steps up to first floor. Parking space in entrance for 1 car.

12 Main Road

Bamford
S33 0AY

Rendered brick and gritstone semi-detached house built in 1908. Renovations on-going since 2019 with the aim of:

  • making the house warmer and more comfortable to live in
  • reducing energy consumption and costs
  • reducing carbon emissions

Key improvements to date:

  • interior insulation of all outer walls on ground and first floor 
  • triple-glazed windows on first floor and in kitchen
  • energy efficiency upgrade of existing gas central heating system
  • installation of zoned electric underfloor heating in kitchen/dining area, lobby and cloakroom + main bathroom on first floor
  • wood fibre insulation of cellar ceilings (work in progress)

3 steps to front & side doors, steepish staircases to cellar & 1st/2ndfloors.   Parking outside house on Victoria Rd. (Entrance to house on same road)

Leveret Barn

Hathersage
S32 1BR

A barn built about 1940 and renovated 2003-5 and 5 acres of ‘rewilded’ wildflower meadow woodland, ponds, orchard and allotment.

Featuring :

  • Kingspan and Actis Triso Super 10 Insulation
  • Scandinavian high perfomance windows and doors
  • 4kw Solar panels
  • rewilding
  • compost making
  • orchard
  • wildlife ponds

Wheelchair accessible slope to barn. Staircase to first floor.  Adequate on-site parking

Middle Ollerbrook Cottage

Edale
S33 7ZG

Typical, stone-built Peak District cottage within Edale conservation area. Moved in January 2019. Hoping that this will inspire more of our neighbours to upgrade their homes and to raise enthusiasm and interest with neighbours outside of the HVCA group who’re not already  responding to the climate emergency.

  • air source heat pump
  • Eco 22 ready wood burning stove
  • loft and internal wall insulation with PIR Cellotex backed plasterboard to a high level
  • heat recovery unit

Happy for people to make arrangements to visit at any time outside of the weekend.   Call/email beforehand to arrange a visit.

Parking available but steps may create difficulty for disabled visitors. Uneven steps everywhere but most have good handrails. Disabled/wheelchair access difficult – old cottage.

17 Swift Close

17 Swift Close
Bradwell
Hope Valley
S33 9AE

New build 5 bedroom (214 sq mt) detached house, highly insulated with energy rating B, on smart meter for gas & electricity supplemented by 8 x PV panels. The owners aim to reduce their energy use and create a wildlife garden with zero mowing, etc.

Read more

Croft Head

Croft Head
Aston Lane
Hope
S33 6RA

We moved into Croft Head in the spring of 2012.  It is a stone built former farmhouse. Work undertaken to date consists of:

  • Internal wall and ceiling insulation using Kingspan in the barn conversion, undertaken when it was converted in 2013/14.
  • Installation of solar PV panels on the south facing barn roof in 2013.
  • Internal wall insulation in the kitchen using 10cm cork insulation panels, and lime plaster, in 2015. The kitchen is on the north side of the house and has three external walls.  Heating it became a real challenge when we took the gas fired Aga out!
  • Internal wall insulation in two of the upstairs ‘bedrooms’, now used as home offices, using 10cm woodfibre and lime plaster.
  • Additional insulation in the attic.

We have been deliberating about how to improve the insulation in the rest of the house for some time.

Email or ring to arrange.

No difficulties for disabled visitors.   Parking available in the driveway.

Goosehill Hall

Goosehill Hall
Buxton Road
Castleton
Hope Valley
S33 8WP

Late 18th Century Grade II Listed country house, barn and cottages.

A house in limestone with gritstone dressings, quoins, and a stone slate roof with coped gables and moulded kneelers.Two storeys and basement on an L-shaped plan. Some of the windows are sashes, and others are two-light mullioned windows.

Featuring:

  • GSHP Underfloor heating + low temperature radiators
  • Insulation
  • Solar PV panels
  • Rain water harvesting
  • EV charging point
Read more

Hope Road Edale

Hope Road Edale
S33 7ZF

1910s End of terrace, stone-built, solid-walled, 3 bedroom cottage.  Featuring:

  • Photovoltaic panels
  • Solar thermal panels
  • Some internal insulation
  • Double glazing
  • Insulated doors
  • Air source heat pump

Saturday 7 October & Sunday 8 October:  any time after 12.00.   Ring or email to arrange a visit.   Max 4 people per visit.

No flights of steps externally.  Happy to explore wheelchair access if required. Parking in front of house.

30 Brentwood Road

30 Brentwood Road
Bamford
S33 0AG

1950’s end Terrace ex Council House. Cavity wall Insulation when built – not renewed

Over time we have added:

  • Loft Insulation
  • Solar Panels
  • Air Source Heat Pump
  • EV car charging port

In the last year – old outhouse which housed downstairs loo / utility with conservatory attached has been replaced with fully insulated kitchen extension with underfloor heating and properly insulated “double glazed” patio doors

Fully accessible. On-street parking.

Read more

Chaplefields

Chaplefields
Foolow
HOPE VALLEY
S32 5QR

Chapelfields is a converted Wesleyan dated 1866. Bought in 2013 and completed 18 months later.

Our Architect James Darwent designed a imaginative open plan dwelling.
  • All the widows have sealed units
  • the external walls are insulated and lime plastered.
  • We recently installed a air heat source pump and the heat is through under floor heating.
  • We have backup radiators down stairs that have never been required.
  • We wanted to instal solar panels, but we’re turned down by Peak Planning because we are in a conservation area.

2 two steps into house. Parking available around the green and on road next to chapel

Read more

The Forge, Bamford Mill

The Forge
Bamford Mill
The Hollow
Bamford, Hope Valley
S33 0AU

1800 detached cottage, mostly solid gritstone.

  • all renovated stone walls insulated & plaster-boarded
  • wet underfloor heating in kitchen & extension
  • conventional condensing gas boile
  • individual heating zones with gelocating app to control heating
  • 2.7 KW PV panels

Property on one floor.  Wheelchair access at rear of property. Parking at Bamford Mill

Read more
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What can Increase Retrofit in Hard to Fit Old Homes: A case study
by Miranda Cumberbatch CEO of Nottingham Energy Partnership Insulating old houses, while avoiding the pitfalls, is challenging, especially if you are restricted in what you can do because your home is in the Peak District National Park, a listed building etc. So up to now only very small number of committed  climate pioneers have attempted […]
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HVCA online talk – Hydrogen: Use and Abuse
Hope Valley Climate Action hosted an online talk by Professor Michael Corcoran examining the role of hydrogen in decarbonisation, with particular reference to UK policy debates and implications for the East Midlands. (Video link to recording below) The presentation drew on work undertaken for the EMCCA Climate Coalition Energy Sub-Group. It addressed the growing gap […]
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HVCA Annual General Meeting – Monday, April 7th, Sir William Pub, Grindleford, 7.30 PM
This event is for everyone – whether it’s your first meeting, or you’re a long-time supporter. The group discussion will be facilitated by Imagine Hope, a new Hope Valley community interest company, supporting creative, intergenerational responses to the climate crisis. Imagine Hope is led by Matt Laurie and Sophie Hunter, social learning practitioners and community […]
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Regenerative Hope Valley
Download the Prospectus Our vision is to develop a sustainable energy system that contributes to a cleaner, healthier, and more resilient community. Village by village we will bring people together in search of solutions to energy. We will make our homes warmer, healthier and cheaper to run, we will produce electricity locally to heat our houses […]
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10 Top Tips to make a stone home more energy efficient
It’s always a good time to think about ways to make your home warmer in winter. And stone built houses need a bit more thought and planning. Our expert Jon Whitley shares his tips for short and long term ways to make your stone home more energy efficient. Affordable quick wins: Stop drafts and keep […]
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Edale Energy
The first public meeting of Edale Energy was held in Edale Village Hall on 28 March 2023. 30 Edale residents attended. The following is a summary of Joanna Collins’ minutes and Tom Noel’s survey of public opinion in Edale. Chair’s Introduction Sarah Eldridge described how the group had begun informally to discuss the possibility of […]
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Check your home with our infra-red camera
Thinking of insulating your home to improve energy efficiency and want to check where you’re losing heat, HVCA’s energy group is offering a new thermal-imaging service conducted by Jon Whitley, an Edale homeowner, who has taken part in the group’s last two Open Eco-homes events. Jon is a mechanical engineer currently studying for a master’s […]
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Retrofit References
Advice People are beginning to ask us for advice about installing a heat pump, insulation or other energy efficiency measure. We asked people to report their experience and to tell who they would recommend.  The following list is work in progress. Some of the traders and products we have used ourselves and can attest to […]
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Retrofit One-Stop-Shops
Advice about retrofit Warm and Eco Homes High Peak is a useful forum for advice. Preamble A “one-stop-shop” can be a physical or a virtual place where homeowners can get advice and services to help retrofit their homes. Home assessments will naturally have to be based on site visits and meetings with homeowners in their […]
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Retrofit Question Time
September General Meeting Many people are interested in saving energy and making their homes more sustainable, but often don’t know where to find impartial information. so September’s general meeting was dedicated to answering your questions about retrofitting and sustainable home improvements. Panel The question time panel of four included: Nick Parsons (javascript:secureDecryptAndNavigate('52s/a9n6zI/ElZ4opVIQnIruvVwWbVdH7nVFPjHyTqtIocSSnL9DixcIhFOPKy0plniSN+1wxHclCBA6vPK+NU1eMx16D68uBqXwK5PECml1GtJS7ucvsqTAT+98GQ==', '21f541da875de9f11ef7b5b7060361c959f5f144b2a02b56b51860876e5bb063')) an experienced […]