A Rundown of the Various Sources of Renewable Energy
There are lots of disinformation out there regarding renewables, and there are also plenty of companies who will sell you a solar panel installation when it may not be the best solution for your property.
As a qualified energy assessor and a renewable energy installer I will go through the key things to consider when considering installing renewables in your UK properties.
Starting with heat pumps, there are two types: ground source and air source.
They use electricity to run and if you have the wrong size of heat pump installed for your property the can cost a fortune to run and end up costing more than a conventional boiler system to run.
Heat pumps are ideally suited to well insulated properties with under floor heating as the temperature the water in the system needs to get to is lower.
A heat pump will heat water to 35 - 45 degrees where as a traditional radiator system will heat the water to 85 degrees.
Solar Panels - there are general two types, solar thermal and solar PV.
Solar thermal (also referred to as solar hot water) is used for water heating and needs generally a 4m squared of roof space.
It will not work if you have a combi boiler system as you need to have a hot water tank, it may provide up to 70% of your hot water.
The costs of heating hot water for your home is typically 30% of your gas bill, so a solar thermal installation will save you approx.
70% of 30% of your current gas bill.
Solar PV (photo voltaic) are solar panels which produce electricity, these only really make sense because of the grants available through the government Feed in Tariff scheme which has bought the payback period to 10 years or less.
On a typical 3 bed semi a solar PV installation will give the home owner a bill saving on their electricity bills of between £150 - £200 but generate £800 - £1000 of income through Feed in Tariffs.
As a qualified energy assessor and a renewable energy installer I will go through the key things to consider when considering installing renewables in your UK properties.
Starting with heat pumps, there are two types: ground source and air source.
They use electricity to run and if you have the wrong size of heat pump installed for your property the can cost a fortune to run and end up costing more than a conventional boiler system to run.
Heat pumps are ideally suited to well insulated properties with under floor heating as the temperature the water in the system needs to get to is lower.
A heat pump will heat water to 35 - 45 degrees where as a traditional radiator system will heat the water to 85 degrees.
Solar Panels - there are general two types, solar thermal and solar PV.
Solar thermal (also referred to as solar hot water) is used for water heating and needs generally a 4m squared of roof space.
It will not work if you have a combi boiler system as you need to have a hot water tank, it may provide up to 70% of your hot water.
The costs of heating hot water for your home is typically 30% of your gas bill, so a solar thermal installation will save you approx.
70% of 30% of your current gas bill.
Solar PV (photo voltaic) are solar panels which produce electricity, these only really make sense because of the grants available through the government Feed in Tariff scheme which has bought the payback period to 10 years or less.
On a typical 3 bed semi a solar PV installation will give the home owner a bill saving on their electricity bills of between £150 - £200 but generate £800 - £1000 of income through Feed in Tariffs.