Carrie Cockburn has a vision for her old stone house that has stood near the town of Tweed, Ont., for more than 170 years.
An artist, she pictures hosting photography workshops in the great room, a wood-burning fireplace crackling in the background as light streams through large glass windows. Or perhaps a classic BnB. The house is meant to be bustling with people, she said.
However, after one winter spent in the cold, stone house she realized there was work to do before she could confidently call the house comfortable. When Ms. Cockburn moved into the property in 2022 she was drawn to its beauty. It had a propane heater but Ms. Cockburn was being frugal. Ms. Cockburn’s winter days were filled with hours in the woodshed, chopping, hauling and loading the stone fireplace in greatroom that provided much of the home’s heat.
“It was like I’d gone right back to pioneer days,” said Ms. Cockburn.
Sometimes – when she has guests – she’d turn on the propane heater but, in a 3,400-square-foot, two-floor, four-bedroom house, the expense quickly added up.
Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. Ms. Cockburn in front of her house.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The northeast corner garden.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. Kitchen flowers.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. Entrance to the garden. "Close to earth".Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The attic. One shot shows the bat guano - before the bats were relocated to bat boxes outside. Other attic shots to show the insulation before and after insulation was added to bring it to R60 standard.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The home facing south with solar panels.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The greatroom with fireplace.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The home facing south with solar panels.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. A view of the back of the house showing the Hydro One meter (Ms. Cockburn is still connected to the grid) and Growatt inverter that converts solar power from DC to AC for use in the house.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. View to the screened porch.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The kitchen.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The dining room.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. A view from the screened porch.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. Deepset windows.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. Parking and entrance to the greatroom.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. A shot of the hallway to shows the ductwork installed to create a cold air register to the top floor to increase air circulation in the house. Key to making the house more comfortable and even out the temperature. Prior to the heat pump and air circulation changes, the top floor was very cold in the winter and hot in the summer.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The heat pump in winter.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The east garden.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The attic. One shot shows the bat guano - before the bats were relocated to bat boxes outside. Other attic shots to show the insulation before and after insulation was added to bring it to R60 standard.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. Ms. Cockburn in front of her house.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The attic. One shot shows the bat guano - before the bats were relocated to bat boxes outside. Other attic shots to show the insulation before and after insulation was added to bring it to R60 standard.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The woodshed, with about 1 bush cord of wood. Before installing a heat pump, Ms. Cockburn said she used about 2.5 bush cords to heat the house over winter.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Carrie Cockburn's home, which dates back to the 1850s, in Tweed, Ont. Ms.Cockburn struggled to find ways to make the old house more energy efficient while keeping its heritage elements intact. The living room.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
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Ms. Cockburn therefore began a long and arduous process of bringing some warmth – and energy efficiency – to the old house. There were many stops and starts along the way. For example, Ms. Cockburn’s first instinct was to add wall insulation. But stone walls are “designed to breathe,” she said. Heat and cool flows through the walls. Insulation only forces the moisture to cling.
Ms. Cockburn also discovered she had bats in the attic.
“It was kind of a ridiculous project and a ridiculous scenario” she admits, adding that the bats were humanely relocated with the help of a local wildlife centre.
In all, Ms. Cockburn invested around $60,000 over the next year transforming the home into somewhere she could feel at ease. One of the most sizable investments was a $7,000 heat-pump that both warmed the house in the winter and cooled it in the summer. But this investment also came with costs. The month after she installed the heat pump, her electricity bill tripled.
The next step was a $36,000 investment in solar panels, a cost that would pay off in 10-years. The total included the costs of a site visit, engineering drawings, the design and installation of the panels, adding an inverter and the costs of connecting to the grid.
At every point in the process, Ms. Cockburn was aware that the investments would only increase her insurance costs and that the rapid development of better solar panels and heat pumps would soon make her models outdated.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
At every point in the process, Ms. Cockburn was aware that the investments would only increase her insurance costs and that the rapid development of better solar panels and heat pumps would soon make her models outdated. She also knew that an energy-efficient home, one that could be switched off-grid – did not necessarily increase the value of her home.
But Ms. Cockburn is confident she made the right moves and is looking for more ways to improve the energy efficiency of her house. She thinks the next stage will be measuring the power required by her appliances and finding ways to cut back. This also means looking at data on how much solar energy she’s gathering, measuring the temperature of the house and setting it to work optimally with the temperature outside.
Ms. Cockburn feels that there is a different mindset to living in an old home versus a new house.Carrie Cockburn/Carrie Cockburn
She also plans to add a number of bat boxes around the property, to help the endangered species deal with the hotter climate.
Ms. Cockburn feels that there is a different mindset to living in an old home versus a new house.
The house was built by Irish immigrant Joseph Elliott and his wife and they raised 14 children there. Since then, many other families have left their marks. Ceiling beams have been covered and uncovered, doors opened and vanished. Thirty years ago the structure was derelict before a string of new owners brought it back to life.
Ms. Cockburn said she doesn’t feel like she really owns the house; how can you fully own a place that has been a home to so many? But she is hoping to leave her own mark. When she walks outside and sees solar panels on the roof of house more than a century old, she likes the contrast.
“That, in a sense, is going to be, I hope, my legacy.”
