 With climate change, rising energy prices and uncertainty of energy supplies it makes perfect sense to be generating your own electricty. Not only will you be reducing CO2 emissions and helping to reduce the effects of climate change you will actually save money.
For example. If you have an annual fuel bill of £1,000, to pay the bill you will have actually earned in the region of £1,300 when income tax and national insurance is taken into consideration. Therefore if you become energy independent it would effectively give you an extra annual income of £1,300. Obviuously with fuel prices rising and set to continue rising the savings will become greater.
A typical house can be made energy independent for a cost, after grants, of around £18,000. With the above in mind after 13 years you will be profiting from your initial investment (great for retirement!). We should also not forget that any system installed to your property will actally add value, especially next year when Energy Certificates become compulsory and the value of houses will be partly calculated using its energy efficiency. When all this is taken into consideration we beleive that the payback period for the investment would be less than 5 years.
Near Zero CO2 Limited have worked with industry professionals in the renewable energy fields to develop technology that allow houses to be powered independently of fossil fuels i.e. 'Energy Independent'.
The first step is to reduce the energy required in the daily operation of a house i.e reduce heating and electric consumption. Reducing heat demand is acheived by using highly insulated building materials such as Structural Insulated Panels, triple glazed windows and by installing mechanical ventillation with heat recovery. Reducing the electric demand is acheived by installing low energy lighting, energy efficient appliances and using smart controls to maximise energy efficiently.
Secondly we install renewable energy systems that are efficiently integrated within the house design to provide the total energy requirements.
Ground Source Heat Pump. This technology drawns heat stored in the ground from the sun and transfers it to a storage device, normally in the form of water held in a well insulated storage tank. The hot water is then used for domestic purposes such as washing and bathing and can be used in an underfloor heating system to provide space heating. A typcal system for a 4 bedroom house would cost in the region of £8,000 installed and would qualify for a grant up to £1,500 once the system has been installed and commissioned.
Solar Electric (Photovoltaics) produce electric from daylight. A typical 2kWp system would cost in the region of £14,000 installed and would qualify for a grant up to £6,000 once the system is installed and commissioned.
Urban Wind Turbine. There are a number of wind energy generating devices on the market but only a few are avialable for use in urban environments. A typical horizontal axis system mounted on the gable of a house would cost in the region of £3,000 to £4,000 and would qualify for a grant of £1,000.
A vertical axis wind turbine is more acceptable in urban environments and can be used as an architectuarl feature. However, the cost of a vertical axis machine would be approximately double that of a more typical horizontal axis machine.
The performance of all the above systems is site specific and therefore need to be assessed with each individual site. |
