Neighborhood Power

Buurkracht would like to put together a neighborhood team with residents who want to be actively involved and contribute ideas. Together we will look at possible measures to make homes in the neighborhood more sustainable. Quotations will be requested and compared. The offers will be presented in a second meeting. The entire process is expected to take several months (about 4 months). So residents who want to be involved in the neighborhood team are not stuck with anything for a long period of time.

Energy Advisor

Caspar Eras, energy consultant, gave an interactive presentation at the meeting using www.verbeterjehuis.nl(external link). Through this website of Milieucentraal you can create an improvement plan for your home. The site shows how well your house is insulated and what measures can be taken to make it more sustainable. It also shows how much needs to be invested, what can be subsidized and how much gas / energy / money you can save per year.

The website still calculates with old prices, the actual cost will be higher. On the other hand, energy prices have also risen. On balance, the payback period will not make much difference at this time.

Tip for residents who would like to get started with insulation measures themselves: Watch do-it-yourself videos from Gamma or Praxis. The videos explain step by step how to implement various measures. Also check out Energiehuis Slim wonen for useful tips.

Topics/questions discussed by Caspar Eras:

Floor insulation in the presence of a crawl space

• Possible if there is sufficient space (at least 35 centimeters).

(Collective) solar panels

• Many residents who attended the meeting do not yet have solar panels. So a collective offer for solar panels is a possible option to look at with Neighborhood Power.
• Discussion point: how to deal with shade when installing solar panels?

Neighborhood battery perhaps in the future?

Wall insulation with lots of glass

• Guideline for cavity wall insulation: full = good.
• Here it is also important to realize glass insulation.
• The standard for glass insulation is HR++
• Triple glazing also requires replacing the window frames. Caspar advises to do that only if the window frames have to be replaced anyway. Otherwise, it is very expensive and better to choose HR++.
• Glass insulation at the top of the house is also important, as heat migrates upward. Without insulation, you lose a lot of heat upstairs.

Roof insulation

• You can consider several options. For example, do you have an attic but don't actually use it? Then you might consider insulating the attic floor instead of the roof. If you do use the attic, for example as an extra bedroom, then it is better to insulate the roof.

When to buy a heat pump?

• A heat pump works best when combined with underfloor heating
• If you can continue to heat your home well with the current boiler at 50 degrees, then your home is suitable for a heat pump

When opportunities with hydrogen?

• This is likely to take many years and is not a realistic option at this time.

Am I going to invest / when / why?

• If you are confident that you will continue to live in your home for an extended period of time, it is always a good idea to invest.
• Also highly dependent on what measure(s) you want to implement and how cost-effective they are.

Advice solar water heater à Only purchase if you use a lot of water, otherwise it is not cost-effective.

Collective supply opportunities:

• Window Insulation
• Roof insulation (at many houses in the neighborhood, the roof is insulated by particle board with pur)
• Solar Panels

Continued

Buurkracht is first putting together a team with residents who want to actively participate and be involved. Soon a survey will also be conducted among the residents of Breugel to determine whether neighbors are interested in a collective offering and what for. Then we will look further and can make a time schedule. The total duration will be between 4 to 6 months.

Ongoing actions that residents can take advantage of:

Sonenergy energy scans - https://www.sonenergie.nl/sonenergiescan/(external link)

Energy Box - https://energiebox.org/gemeente-son-en-breugel