A historic stone built building will have greater energy efficiency thanks to new heating technology installed by a Scottish company working in conjunction with two of Scotland’s leading conservation bodies. Infranomic Far Infrared heating will be installed at Scotstarvit Cottage – the first property in Scotland to feature the system as part of an energy efficiency project with the National Trust for Scotland who own the property and Historic Scotland who are funding the work.

Discussions between Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland, led to the Victorian cottage being selected to test how traditional built properties can be upgraded to make them more energy efficient with minimal impact on the fabric of the building.

Scotstarvit Cottage, located between Cupar and Ceres in Fife, sits adjacent to Scotstarvit Tower which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Category A Listed Building. The Cottage is to be let to a long-term tenant once renovation work is completed.

Bryan Dickson, Head of Buildings from the National Trust for Scotland, said: “As a conservation charity, the management of our large estate, held on behalf of the nation, is challenging and costly so we are always looking to ways to help improve our buildings efficiency. The cottage had recently been vacated, after providing a home to a long term tenant, and provided the National Trust for Scotland, with support from Historic Scotland, the opportunity to complete an extensive fabric upgrade to improve the energy efficiency of the property and bring it up to 21st century standards.
“The cottage is providing us with a test bed to explore a number of new innovative materials which will hopefully help lay the way for future upgrades across our building portfolio.”

The system, which has been developed using cutting-edge German technology, is said to provide highly energy efficient and versatile heating compared to traditional heating systems – with the added benefit of vast savings on energy costs as less energy is used.

Jessica Snow, Senior Technical Officer at Historic Scotland, said: “This is a very exciting project for Historic Scotland to be part of, especially with this being the first system of its kind to be installed in an historic property. We’re carrying out a range of ongoing upgrade trials to traditional properties of all types in Scotland to develop simple and cost effective upgrade solutions that are suitable for older buildings, including historic properties. Scotstarvit Cottage has been comprehensively upgraded, including wall, roof and floor insulation, and secondary glazing. To complete the refurbishment, we were keen to see the existing oil fired boiler and wet heating system replaced with a more energy and cost effective alternative.

“We have been looking for ways to deliver thermal comfort to building occupants without relying on convected air space heating. We are hopeful that the radiant heating will reduce the energy bills and allow thermal comfort to be delivered to the occupant without wasting energy by heating the air space.”

Infranomic heaters omit Far Infrared energy which floods the entire room with warmth, absorbing into all materials within the room, including the walls, ceiling and floor. The heat retention is far greater to that of warm air conventional systems. In addition, the actual operating time of the heater is greatly reduced and the heat spreads evenly throughout the room. This form of heating is particularly beneficial to the human body – the body is designed to absorb Infrared energy as it operates on the same frequency.

The heaters replace electric storage heaters and can be designed to look like art work or mirrors – or take the shape of a favourite picture or image. The heating elements are also completely maintenance free and require no annual servicing, saving even more money each year.

Scotstarvit Tower, which dates back to the 15th century, is renowned as the home of Sir John Scot, author of 'Scot of Scotstarvit’s Staggering State of the Scots’ Statesmen'. The upgrading works are now nearing completion and it is expected that they will be complete by the end of June.