Energy-efficient home remodelling
An interior designer or architect will guide you through your home renovation, ensuring a harmonious blend of energy efficiency and aesthetics.
An interior designer or architect can provide a holistic approach to your renovation project, seamlessly integrating energy efficiency to enhance your home's comfort, reduce energy costs, and ensure compliance with regulations and environmental standards. Take advantage of this energy renovation opportunity to explore a fresh interior design that maximises your space's potential and increases your property's value.
When Should You Consider an Energy-Efficient Renovation?
Energy-efficient home renovations address three key objectives: improving residents' quality of life, reducing energy expenses, and minimising the carbon footprint. Upgrading your apartment or house for energy efficiency enhances comfort year-round, with benefits in both winter and summer. By lowering energy consumption for heating and cooling, these renovations offer a medium-term return on investment and boost your property's long-term value.
Beyond regulatory constraints (such as the DPE, Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique) or budgetary constraints (like energy costs) that may require insulation work, window improvements, or new heating system, energy-efficient renovation should be considered a comprehensive project that can improve both the design and features of your property.
By incorporating these principles and working with qualified professionals in energy-efficient renovation and design, you can achieve significant improvements in both energy efficiency and the overall style of your renovated building.
Materials and devices to prioritise for an energy-efficient renovation
In this type of renovation, it's crucial to choose appropriate materials that help reduce energy consumption while also respecting the environment.
- High-performance windows and doors are pivotal for a building's energy efficiency. Choose double or triple glazing paired with frames crafted from insulating materials and featuring a thermal break.
- Heating systems: Selecting the right heating system is paramount in energy-efficient renovations. Options such as heat pumps, solar water heaters, and wood/pellet stoves provide eco-friendly and cost-effective alternatives to oil or gas boilers, particularly well-suited for individual homes. For apartments, consider options like thermodynamic water heaters or inertia radiators.
- Exterior claddings: Opting for exterior claddings such as reflective coatings, wooden claddings, or brick facings can enhance energy efficiency by mitigating temperature fluctuations and safeguarding external thermal insulation.
- Durable construction materials: Give precedence to sturdy and eco-friendly building materials like wood, natural stone, cellular concrete, solar tiles, and those certified by FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), or made from recycled materials for flooring.
- Ventilation and sealing systems: Guarantee the implementation of effective and regulated ventilation systems to uphold optimal indoor air quality while minimising heat losses. This includes options like double-flow mechanical ventilation and humidity-sensitive controlled mechanical ventilation.
- LED lighting and eco-friendly appliances: In addition to selecting sustainable construction materials, consider incorporating LED fixtures to decrease electricity usage for lighting. Likewise, prioritise eco-friendly certified appliances (Class A or A+) to lower the building's overall energy consumption.
Why work with an interior designer or architect for an energy-efficient remodelling?
To turn the constraints of an energy-efficient renovation into advantages for enhancing both the comfort and aesthetics of your property. An architect or interior designer can offer ingenious and aesthetically pleasing solutions to insulate your home while maximising usable space (such as converting lost attic space), improving circulation within your home, or optimising natural light.
The recommendations provided by an interior designer regarding renovation work can enhance the comfort of your house or apartment, consider the best possible return on investment, and increase the "green value" of your property.
The aesthetic, technical, and regulatory expertise of an architect or interior designer will help you avoid the pitfalls of this type of renovation when it’s done without a comprehensive vision: loss of space, installation of bulky heating devices, difficult circulation, insulation or joinery that does not harmoniously integrate into the structure, and energy performance that does not meet expectations.
By assigning your project to an accredited architect or interior designer, you collaborate with a trusted professional who can help you access public assistance for significant renovations of apartments or individual houses.
If you are considering external insulation and your property is located in an area subject to strict urban planning regulations (PLU - Plan Local d’Urbanisme or approval from the Architects of French Buildings), the architect will liaise with the relevant authorities to understand their requirements and suggest a solution that will pass the necessary administrative approvals.
Energy-efficient renovation: financial grants you may be eligible for
- MaPrimeRénov' is a fund available to owner-occupiers of historical homes to finance work aimed at improving the energy performance of a property (thermal insulation, installation of a heat pump, replacement of joinery, etc.).
- The Eco-loan at zero interest rate (Eco-PTZ) is accessible without income conditions to finance work to improve the energy performance of your home.
- Coup de pouce chauffage (Heating Boost) is an aid used to replace an old boiler (gas, coal, oil) with a low-carbon heating system (heat pump, combined solar system, highly efficient wood heating). Depending on the type of work carried out in your home, you may be eligible for reduced VAT rates for your renovation work.
- If you carry out renovation work on an older property as part of a rental investment, you may be eligible for the Denormandie tax reduction scheme.
- Additionally, there are local grants offered by your city, county (département), or region to help fund your energy-efficient renovation projects.
In collaboration with their partner Renovation Facilitator, an interior designer or architect will help you check which grants you may qualify for, as well as the eligible works under these grants for your energy renovation project. They also provide you with the necessary documents to submit grant applications and select RGE (Recognized Guarantor of the Environment) certified companies and craftsmen on your behalf.
Working with an interior designer specialising in energy-efficient renovation
The interior designer assists you in planning your interior energy renovation project in Nantes and its surroundings: from understanding your preferences (budgetary, style, and lifestyle) as part of a study, to overseeing and coordinating the renovation site.
1st step- Initial Interview - Analysis
- From the first on site interior analysis, your interior designer works with you at your home in Paris on your overall renovation project, including its energy dimension. He will listen to you to understand your needs and immediately provide you with design solutions.
- During the visit, they immediately share essential aspects to consider as part of a project that combines interior design and energy renovation.
- They highlight the technical aspects of your interior: insulation quality, sealing and joinery characteristics, heating devices quality.
- They comment on the results obtained within the framework of a DPE (Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique) that you have had carried out beforehand, and study the potential and constraints of the space.
- At the end of the visit, they will provide you with an initial budgetary approach to the energy renovation work to be considered. Rather than a quote from a general construction provider, this is an indicative range which will be refined throughout the study.
2nd step - Energy-efficient renovation specifications
- Based on the assessment of the existing situation and the potential of your interior, the interior designer makes different proposals for the layout of your interior, using sketches and drawings.
- Based on an energy audit conducted by a certified auditor, recommendations are made for necessary improvements and renovations to enhance the property's comfort and increase its green value, all without compromising aesthetics.
- Once your development project has been finalised, the interior designer will send you an estimate of the cost of the work (provided for information purposes only) and offer you a site description with all the technical elements that will be used during the energy renovation work.
- They will collaborate with you to select and source the materials and devices for the renovation, including high-performance insulation, new joinery, and an upgraded heating system.
3rd step - Monitoring and coordination of energy renovation works
- On the basis of the site description (DCE Business Consultation File), the interior designer consults the craftsmen or the general building company selected for you according to the specificity of your project. Their expertise and knowledge of the market allow them to obtain coherent and studied quotes.
- The interior designer monitors the progress of the development work and coordinates all those involved in the renovation project: general building company, heating engineer, kitchen designer, carpenter, plumber, mason, painter, etc.
- They ensure that your project is well implemented and controls the progress of the work, compliance with deadlines and decided design choices (plans, 3D renderings). They regularly set up meetings to inform you of the smooth progress of the energy renovation work.
- Their expertise in interior decoration, knowledge of your project and taste allow them to select furniture, decoration and colours to harmonise your future apartment or your future house and its surroundings.
- They let you benefit from his professional discounts from the suppliers and shops they have selected for your interior.
