HEADLINE NEWS: 

CO₂ EMISSIONS CUT by 5.79 tonnes in Year 1

ENERGY USE 42.93% of previous consumption

CASH BACK if feed-in tariff applied, Apr09-Mar10 £810.25

On our retirement, we decided to invest our savings in greatly improved insulation and the installation of renewable energy systems at our home during extensive alterations and extensions.  This decision was taken in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint, and that of the country, and to promote these ideas both locally, to our friends and neighbours, and to a wider audience via this website.  It is our hope that the cost of installing renewable energy systems will fall over the coming years and that they will become available to others, for example via social housing schemes and government initiatives, following the Energy Bill of 2008.

An oil boiler, over 40 years old, was the source of heat for our domestic hot water and also provided heat for the radiators throughout the house. There were 3 cold water "header tanks" and 2 separate hot water cylinders with immersion heaters. The oil boiler, oil storage tank and all the plumbing have been removed and we started again from scratch!

The house is in Lincolnshire and is a mixture of 350 to 400 year old stone cottage, 100 year old alterations, 40 year old extension and partial re-build and the latest extensions and changes during 2008/9. It had been suggested that we demolish the house and build afresh, but we decided to keep the property largely the same and retain most of its history intact.

The heat for our home is now provided by a Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) which collects energy from under the front lawns of the house which act as a large solar panel.

Two loops of pipe, each 260 metres long, are buried around a metre deep in the ground. These pipes contain an antifreeze solution which collects heat energy from the soil, which has been warmed by the sun, and this then passes to the GSHP which raises the temperature of the fluid to provide heating for the house. We use Under Floor Central Heating (UFCH) now, no radiators, not even upstairs as is sometimes the case.  The lower temperature required by UFCH compared to radiator systems means that the heat pump can operate much more efficiently, giving around 4 units of heat for every unit of electricity which it uses.