Judith Leary-Joyce, 75, has become a social media sensation with her eco-friendly renovation tips, including a viral video of her unloading a dishwasher at waist height—now viewed nearly six million times.
Together with her husband, John, 82, Judith has transformed their Victorian home in St Albans, Hertfordshire, into a model of energy efficiency, reducing energy consumption by 75%.
As a long-time environmental activist, Judith has shared her retrofit journey, which includes solar panels, sustainable insulation, and an air-source heat pump, all of which have boosted their home's value by £90,000.
Judith's Instagram and YouTube channels, where she educates others on eco-renovations, have garnered tens of thousands of followers.
Her book Beginner’s Guide to Eco Renovation helps others replicate her success. With her focus on sustainability, Judith is determined to create a legacy for future generations.
Together with her husband, John, 82, Judith has transformed their Victorian home in St Albans, Hertfordshire, into a model of energy efficiency, reducing energy consumption by 75%.
As a long-time environmental activist, Judith has shared her retrofit journey, which includes solar panels, sustainable insulation, and an air-source heat pump, all of which have boosted their home's value by £90,000.
Judith's Instagram and YouTube channels, where she educates others on eco-renovations, have garnered tens of thousands of followers.
Her book Beginner’s Guide to Eco Renovation helps others replicate her success. With her focus on sustainability, Judith is determined to create a legacy for future generations.
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FunTranscript
00:00I'm Judith Leary-Joyce. I've been an eco-warrior since the early 70s and I
00:06manage my concerns about climate and environment by getting as active as I
00:11can, become the warrior. We were building an extension on the house and we had an
00:17eco architect to design the extension but we soon realised that actually it
00:23was great having a real eco new room but the rest of the house was a right leaky
00:29bucket because it was built before 1930. It's a 1901 Victorian terrace and it was
00:34freezing and very dark so we decided we have to go back through the house and
00:42what I now know to be retrofitted. We didn't have eco builders, we didn't know
00:48what we were doing so it was a massive learning curve. The end result is we now
00:54have a house that is insulated, it's as airtight as we could make it, it's all
00:59breathable which is something that you need, vapour permeable in all old houses
01:04must be vapour permeable. We've got solar panels and we've got an air source heat
01:09pump. We did some comparison of our usage of kilowatt hours. We were using
01:1525,500 kilowatt hours a year that was to heat and use the house and also our car.
01:22Once we'd done the renovation we were using 6,000. That's a 75% reduction in
01:31energy usage. We've also discovered since our EPC, the energy performance
01:36certificate, has gone from a D to a B we've been told that the house is worth
01:4190,000 more than its equivalent house without a retrofit and if you set that
01:46against the fact that 21% of UK emissions comes from leaky homes, this is
01:53climate action that anyone would want to do even if you don't believe in climate
01:58change because you'll be warm, you'll be saving a shed load of money, you'll be
02:03increasing your investment in your house and you're helping the planet. It's a no
02:07brainer really. We spent about an extra 24,000 pounds so 24,000, 90,000 it all
02:15adds up. I don't understand why all new builds are not passive houses which
02:20means they don't have any energy bills at all and I don't think they're
02:24particularly any more expensive to build. But imagine the difference that would
02:29make to people and how quickly they'd sell. But they should at the very minimum
02:34have a good amount of insulation, at least 80 mil of insulation. They should
02:39be airtight, have good ventilation, an air source heat pump and solar just
02:45automatically because why are we putting in gas boilers now when we're fast
02:51approaching the time where we're not to have them anymore anyway? You can see the
02:55heat coming off gas boilers, those sort of mist that comes out of the side of
02:58your house. That's energy you're losing. You need to keep it all in the house and
03:02it's obvious with new builds make them as energy efficient as you possibly can
03:08and cut people's bills. As homeowners we need to inform ourselves and that was
03:14that's the other reason for doing this because you need to be able to question
03:21the builders assumptions like which insulation will they use. This is the
03:25level of build that I want and stay in touch with what's happening then you can
03:29really make a difference. So we just need to become part of the team, we need to
03:34get in amongst it now. Once I'd written the book I had to work out how am I
03:38going to let people know it exists so I started doing Instagram but I was pretty
03:44half-hearted. I did a TEDx talk how you and your builder can help save the
03:48planet and I was talking to another speaker and she said Judith you've got
03:52to do reels and for some reason it struck me well I could film myself empty
03:57in the dishwasher. My grandson was coming around and as we were chatting my phone
04:01started going bing bing bing bing. He said granny what have you done? So I went from 311
04:08followers to 30,000 followers in a month because of the dishwasher and then again
04:14chatting with my grandson I was saying well if they like the dishwasher they're
04:17gonna lose it at the stairs so we did a video of the stairs and that's gone to
04:23about 35 million. They like the fact that we built built up the level of a
04:28concrete floor with recycled glass beads instead of concrete. They like
04:33hearing about all the different sorts of insulation we're using so it's given me
04:37an audience to talk about the things that matter so much to me and that I
04:41think are so important at the moment. So now I'm what have I been called?
04:46Instagram queen of insulation. Somebody called me the green guru.
04:53Retired Instagram.