Energy Sharematch Project Update

It’s been a very busy year managing the installation of our decarbonisation measures. The short version of the update is that the internal wall insulation (IWI), windows, roof, solar and batteries have all been installed successfully for a fraction under budget, with just the heating system changes being more complex than planned. If you’d like a more detailed version please keep reading!

First in was the IWI, in the “cottage” and front wall of the Café. We went with the breathable ‘SWIP’ product. It was very messy work, creating a lot of dust, and also required a bit of monitoring as our installers were not so familiar with the breathable option (something to watch for if you go for IWI yourselves). Now it’s completed everyone is delighted with it. We even managed to re-install the original Victorian skirting over it.

Next up was the main Warehouse roof replacement (funded separately from our reserves), solar and batteries. The roofing work inevitably and perfectly coincided with September’s huge rainstorm at end of the summer dry spell, and a very stressful weekend was spent? running around with buckets while tarpaulins were in place. The new insulated industrial roof has made a huge difference to the thermal comfort and soundproofing of that area of the building, which was an unexpected benefit. It’s also, without wanting to go into details, more critter-proof – but don’t worry, there’s still plenty of critter habitat in the garden.

Then our solar panels, batteries and inverter were fitted with the minimum of fuss, and are functioning well on the meagre minutes of sun that we’ve seen so far in 2026

Relatedly, the roofing firm that won the tender are practically family now as they’ve also undertaken a couple of small jobs for us outside the Sharematch project and are about to re-roof the ‘cottage’ – probably for the first time since it was built, and well overdue as it has recently started leaking in several places.

The window work has also been completed: a new double glazed unit in one of our offices, and in the cottage full restoration of the beautiful original sash windows and secondary glazing.

In combination, the IWI and windows have made a huge difference to soundproofing and draughtproofing which we believe will be reflected in energy reductions, and the whole Warehouse community is delighted.

It’s too early to tell the combined effect on our energy consumption but we will aim to get data on that after a year.

So far the planned work has come in fractionally under budget, at £33,522 against a budgeted £36,471; the additional re-roof spend was also on budget.

The final and more problematic element of the project (£10,191 was budgeted for this) is the changes to the heating system. As we mentioned when raising the funds, one reason we didn’t go for a heat pump in the share offer project is because of conflicting specialist advice at the point in time where we needed certainty for costings and energy savings for potential investors. That situation has continued to some extent, and after speaking to a number of trusted advisers we’re confident that we need more scoping/design work to be done before we are ready to go to contractors, even just for changes to our radiators, as it’s likely that we’ll need more than one heat source for this larger and more complicated multi-use building. We’re now commissioning that scoping/design work and it should be completed within a few weeks. After that we should have clarity on optimising the remaining Sharematch spend and proposals on which to fundraise for future installation.

This process has highlighted how difficult it can be for non-experts to navigate the complexities of heat pumps, although obviously it’s more straightforward in a smaller, domestic setting. Good independent advice for householders on the installation process is available from the Energy Saving Trust.

We have held one “green doors” event (where people can see and hear about our energy saving measures) so far and hope to hold more in the future so do watch out for those.

We hope that was an interesting and positive update but do get in touch if you have any questions. Our biggest thanks, as always, to all those who have invested, enabling these decarbonisation measures to take place. It’s fantastic to have been able to take these steps for both the immediate benefits and those of seeing our energy use reduce and decarbonise over the coming years. They are much appreciated by our whole community.