HEADLINE NEWS:
Total CO2 reduced dramatically this year and Garden Room Solar PV saves over 1 tonne of CO2!
The solar PV array on the Garden Room roof has been working now since 8 November 2010. The data is now sufficient to start showing it in chart form etc on the website. In the 478 days (to 29 Feb 12)since it was commissioned it has generated 1962.4kWh of electrical energy and saved 1061.39kg of CO2. A milestone - its first tonne of CO2 saved! The household annual emission of CO2 has reduced from 13235kg for the house before alterations to 5854kg in the year to 29 February 2012!
YEAR 3 data are now complete for the energy use/cost
Total cost of energy in Year 1(Mar09/Feb10) was £1213.34
Year 2 total energy cost, 1 March 10 to 28 Feb 11 is £1032.24
Year 3 total energy cost, 1 March 11 to 29 Feb 12 is £1033.20
This cost is around the same as last year but the energy use this year has been reduced to 10821kWh from 13681kWh in 2010/11
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 continue to 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.
