SAVING ENERGY AT HOME
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With the increasing need for us all to reduce our carbon emissions and the costs of fossil fuels continuing to rise, many of us are looking at the various ways of doing this. To give residents more information on the subject in February 2023 we invited John Moore of NZCS to a meeting to talk to us. John runs his own company advising organisations and companies working towards net zero carbon and is one of Norwich’s Climate Commissioners. He gave us an excellent overview and much useful advice about what we can do at home to save energy - his presentation is below.
John was followed by 3 Eaton Rise residents who talked about their experiences with the various energy saving devices they’d had installed. Notes from their talks are also below. |
From John Moore, NZCS – Brief Introduction to Saving Energy in your Home
Click here to view a PDF of John Moore's presentation
Residents Experiences
From Richard Bearman, Constable Road
Solar hot water tubes were installed in 2007 shortly after we moved here as part of a roof extension over the garage. The roof insulation was also increased to 270mm in the new and old loft spaces, wherever accessible. These tubes provide plenty of 60deg. hot water in summer, but only up to about 40 deg C in winter so need a boost from the gas central heating system.
Solar panels were installed on our south-east facing roof in 2010 as soon as the Feed in Tariff (FIT) was announced. A total of 12 x 215w panels were installed, together with an inverter located in the garage (at a cost of £11,732) and have performed very well so far. The major benefit is the FIT which was 40p/unit generated when we started getting our quarterly payments in 2011 and goes up by inflation each year so is now 60p/unit. Based on a 5 year average the FIT yields approx. £1060 income per year, depending on sunshine levels, and the last year’s income up to October 2022 was £1349, above average. As our annual energy consumption bill was about £1049 until 2019, it was well covered by the FIT income. Following the major price rises in both gas and electricity over the last 2 years, this is no longer true. But if the FIT guarantee lasts for 25 years, as was advertised, then it provides a really good buffer to offset increasing fossil fuel prices.
Rainwater recovery – we also have a 3,000 litre rainwater recovery tank under the patio which takes the rain from our house roof. The water (which is not potable) is used to flush the toilets and in the washing machine. This saves us approx 40% on our metered water but in long dry periods without any rain the tank runs out after about 6 weeks.
From Toby Harris, Constable Road
Our 4 Kw set of 14 panels at 35 Constable Road cost us £9,676 back in 2012 and face South towards the golf course, though in winter their massive oak trees and Scots pines at the back of our garden are tall enough to shade the panels. Total income so far £8,693 so they are nearly paid for, bringing in around £870 per year. Since that is free of income tax, it is worth £1,450 a year to me. We wondered about installing batteries but the payback time was about 20 years, which did not really seem good value at our age.
From Stephen Spouncer, Lowther Road
In 2014, we gutted, refurbished and extended our bungalow, trying to make it warm, efficient, airtight, cosy and as green as possible. We didn’t go about it in an overly scientific way in that we haven’t calculated every penny or every unit we could save or have saved since. We did what we could for the money we had.
We looked at lots of energy saving schemes. Some things were out of our reach, eg. a ground source heat pump was priced at upwards of £10k. An air source pump came out at between £5k and £10k but there was nowhere to site the fan unit on an exterior wall within regulations, or on our patio and aesthetics was a factor. So we had to opt for a traditional combi boiler.
Insulation & MVHR - we stipulated to our architect that we wanted good insulation so our small extension is a timber construction with insulated roof, double-glazed windows and triple-glazed at the north facing front.
We didn’t want ‘trickle vents’ in the windows as previous experience had found these to be draughty so we opted for a Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery System which is very common in Scandinavian homes and we’d seen it in operation. It’s a ducting system thatgives a constant supply of fresh air into the house and extracts the old air. Heat from the extracted stale air is recovered via a heat exchanger unit in the loft. This warms the incoming air slightly which means the central heating system starts heating our home from a slightly higher temperature base. Other benefits: the air is regularly changed throughout the house, has pollen filters and there’s no need to open/close windows. So in the bathroom after a shower for example, there’s no need to open the window to get rid of steam because the damp air is constantly ducted away. Sourced from ADM Systems. https://admsystems.co.uk/heat-recovery-ventilation/what-is-an-mvhr/
We also installed underfloor heating provided by gas and hot water under the extension, and some retrofit and low-consumption electric under-floor systems in the two bathrooms which is cheap to run and creates very pleasant environment.
Solar panels - we installed 8 solar panels (at a cost of £3000) bought through Norwich City Council’s Solar Together scheme, a council-led energy scheme where residents and businesses could save up to a third on solar and battery installation. They were installed in less than a day and positioned on the south facing roof down the side of the house, invisible from the road. We also received a 10-year warranty and a Generation Smart Meter and have had no issues since.
The council now has a new scheme providing free energy efficiency improvements working with E.ON. This covers loft insulation, underfloor insulation, air source heat pumps, and solar panels for homes across Norwich at no cost to residents with 100% government funded grants. There are eligibility rules, more information at: https://tinyurl.com/bd2tjkr
Feed in Tariff - some of the electricity we generate goes back to the grid for which we get paid by the Government. They pay for 50% of what we generate in the form of Feed in Tariff (FiT) payments which are set nationally and index-linked. It’s a few pence per unit generated. The other 50% it is assumed we are using ourselves.
Has it paid off?
Since 2015, when they were installed for £3000, we have earned a total of £2205.57 in FiT payments. To recover our investment, we have £795 left to pay. In 2022 we generated £368 in FiT payments, so we’re on course to pay off in 2 years.
Click here to view a PDF of John Moore's presentation
Residents Experiences
From Richard Bearman, Constable Road
Solar hot water tubes were installed in 2007 shortly after we moved here as part of a roof extension over the garage. The roof insulation was also increased to 270mm in the new and old loft spaces, wherever accessible. These tubes provide plenty of 60deg. hot water in summer, but only up to about 40 deg C in winter so need a boost from the gas central heating system.
Solar panels were installed on our south-east facing roof in 2010 as soon as the Feed in Tariff (FIT) was announced. A total of 12 x 215w panels were installed, together with an inverter located in the garage (at a cost of £11,732) and have performed very well so far. The major benefit is the FIT which was 40p/unit generated when we started getting our quarterly payments in 2011 and goes up by inflation each year so is now 60p/unit. Based on a 5 year average the FIT yields approx. £1060 income per year, depending on sunshine levels, and the last year’s income up to October 2022 was £1349, above average. As our annual energy consumption bill was about £1049 until 2019, it was well covered by the FIT income. Following the major price rises in both gas and electricity over the last 2 years, this is no longer true. But if the FIT guarantee lasts for 25 years, as was advertised, then it provides a really good buffer to offset increasing fossil fuel prices.
Rainwater recovery – we also have a 3,000 litre rainwater recovery tank under the patio which takes the rain from our house roof. The water (which is not potable) is used to flush the toilets and in the washing machine. This saves us approx 40% on our metered water but in long dry periods without any rain the tank runs out after about 6 weeks.
From Toby Harris, Constable Road
Our 4 Kw set of 14 panels at 35 Constable Road cost us £9,676 back in 2012 and face South towards the golf course, though in winter their massive oak trees and Scots pines at the back of our garden are tall enough to shade the panels. Total income so far £8,693 so they are nearly paid for, bringing in around £870 per year. Since that is free of income tax, it is worth £1,450 a year to me. We wondered about installing batteries but the payback time was about 20 years, which did not really seem good value at our age.
From Stephen Spouncer, Lowther Road
In 2014, we gutted, refurbished and extended our bungalow, trying to make it warm, efficient, airtight, cosy and as green as possible. We didn’t go about it in an overly scientific way in that we haven’t calculated every penny or every unit we could save or have saved since. We did what we could for the money we had.
We looked at lots of energy saving schemes. Some things were out of our reach, eg. a ground source heat pump was priced at upwards of £10k. An air source pump came out at between £5k and £10k but there was nowhere to site the fan unit on an exterior wall within regulations, or on our patio and aesthetics was a factor. So we had to opt for a traditional combi boiler.
Insulation & MVHR - we stipulated to our architect that we wanted good insulation so our small extension is a timber construction with insulated roof, double-glazed windows and triple-glazed at the north facing front.
We didn’t want ‘trickle vents’ in the windows as previous experience had found these to be draughty so we opted for a Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery System which is very common in Scandinavian homes and we’d seen it in operation. It’s a ducting system thatgives a constant supply of fresh air into the house and extracts the old air. Heat from the extracted stale air is recovered via a heat exchanger unit in the loft. This warms the incoming air slightly which means the central heating system starts heating our home from a slightly higher temperature base. Other benefits: the air is regularly changed throughout the house, has pollen filters and there’s no need to open/close windows. So in the bathroom after a shower for example, there’s no need to open the window to get rid of steam because the damp air is constantly ducted away. Sourced from ADM Systems. https://admsystems.co.uk/heat-recovery-ventilation/what-is-an-mvhr/
We also installed underfloor heating provided by gas and hot water under the extension, and some retrofit and low-consumption electric under-floor systems in the two bathrooms which is cheap to run and creates very pleasant environment.
Solar panels - we installed 8 solar panels (at a cost of £3000) bought through Norwich City Council’s Solar Together scheme, a council-led energy scheme where residents and businesses could save up to a third on solar and battery installation. They were installed in less than a day and positioned on the south facing roof down the side of the house, invisible from the road. We also received a 10-year warranty and a Generation Smart Meter and have had no issues since.
The council now has a new scheme providing free energy efficiency improvements working with E.ON. This covers loft insulation, underfloor insulation, air source heat pumps, and solar panels for homes across Norwich at no cost to residents with 100% government funded grants. There are eligibility rules, more information at: https://tinyurl.com/bd2tjkr
Feed in Tariff - some of the electricity we generate goes back to the grid for which we get paid by the Government. They pay for 50% of what we generate in the form of Feed in Tariff (FiT) payments which are set nationally and index-linked. It’s a few pence per unit generated. The other 50% it is assumed we are using ourselves.
Has it paid off?
Since 2015, when they were installed for £3000, we have earned a total of £2205.57 in FiT payments. To recover our investment, we have £795 left to pay. In 2022 we generated £368 in FiT payments, so we’re on course to pay off in 2 years.
From Paul Donnachie, Lowther Road- Air Source Heat Pump Installation: To view Paul Donnachie's PDF presentation, click here
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