Thanks for those details, it's never as simple as the Big Ideas make out when applied to individual circumstances. Sounds like you're making the best of yours (circumstances, that is). For now we're in the rental category, so the owner's problem though we have to get involved to a degree. The pattern seems to have been that they applied for grant funding for each new thing the govt was pushing, so the house we're in now, built around 100 years ago, stone walls, 2 up 2 down plus kitchen extended on the N side, has a solar array, a biomass boiler and underfloor heating.

The problem is nothing quite works as it should and of course funding doesn't cover maintenance, upkeep, repairs etc. So the solar has been on the blink since the winter, and we barely use it during the day anyway (excess power heats the boiler). And the boiler is an unfunny joke at this point. Hardwoods too expensive so we get spruce in a forestry lorry, which keeps tarring up the inside and appears to provide f* all heat. Needs chainsawing, barrowing, splitting, stacking, drying, restacking closer to the boiler then finally burning. And it just chews through wood for very little result. In Feb I weighed each log that I put in and it turned out we were burning 50kg per day, and if we wanted water hot enough to shower in it needed more. Sustainable it ain't...

The next big idea is insulation, though you can only get funding in our area for nasty internal plasterboard stuff, which would ruin the feel of the house (nice wooden panelling). External might work but they won't cover that. There was talk of the dreaded ground source heat pump, but they wanted to attach more solar to that, and the roof area was too small or something. The way electricity has been skyrocketing in price makes me think it's a v bad idea, but the only other option short of finding a fix for the boiler would be to get a large, efficient internal wood burning stove, maybe connected up to a smaller boiler. Or do what most other people have done and move out to a yurt, caravan or tiny home...

Anyway, I could moan on all day about it, so I'd better stop there.

cheers,
I