The orientation and arrangement of the rooms in a house is an important part of making a house comfortable and energy efficient.

All the living spaces in this stone built cottage are on the cold North side and the utility spaces on the warm and sunny South side. The rooms were cold and dark and there were very poor links with the garden. A previous proposal had been to extend into the lean-to shed on the end of the cottage, but this didn't do anything to resolve the problems.

We suggested putting the Kitchen and Utility room at the end in a new structure with lots of light and very good visual and physical links to the garden, and we added more openings in the walls internally. The rest of the house was also improved with additional insulation to the roof and the ground floor, under floor heating and thermostatic controls, well sealed doors and windows, a large rainwater harvesting tank, and Solar PV.

The house is now much lighter, thermally comfortable, and costs a lot less to run and heat. Unfortunately for us it's so nice that the intention to sell this house and build a new energy efficient home has been dropped!