Heating your home for less
Energy prices are on the rise, but all is not lost. This page provides
a simple explanation of some options available. We’ll try and
show you how much the options cost, and how much you could save.
Reinstating a Fireplace
A log fire is a good source of green energy, and can be cheaper to
run than central heating. See our
Reinstating a Fireplace
page.
Ground Source Heat Pumps
The UK government offers grants of up to £1,200 off the cost
of
domestic heat pumps. So, what's a heat pump, and why would
you
want one?
Ground source heat pumps transfer heat into your home from loops buried
underground. The system works rather like your home
refrigerator
taking heat from one place and disappaiting it at another.
Even
though the ground may be colder that the home you're trying to heat,
the system can still use the heat out of the ground to heat your home.
In some cases ground source heat pumps can also be used to heat your
hot water supply.
Will it save me money?
Once installed, for every unit of electicity used to pump the heat out
of the ground, about 3 to 4 times that amount is produced in heat
output. The efficiency depends on the type of heat pump and
the
temperature of the ground, as well as your house.
Figures from the
Energy
Saving Trust
show that when installed in an electrically heated home, savings can
typically be as much as £880. They also state that
a
typical 8 to 12 kW system could cost between £6,000 and
£12,000 (not including the
price of distribution system).
That all sounds rather pricey, but if you're considering a complete
central heating repalcement, the cost might seem more reasonable when
you take a government grant into account. Especially if you live in a
remote area, not on a gas main.
High Efficiency Condensing Boilers
If you put your hand over the flue of a boiler, it will be hot.
That's energy that could be used to heat your house.
High efficiency condensing boilers recover some of that
energy, and therefore run at greater efficiencies than conventional
boilers. This can save you about 12% off your fuel bill when
compared to a conventional boiler. On a typical
£450 heating bill, that would be about £54 a year.
A gas fired combi condensing boiler (heating your hot water as well as
your central heating) typically costs around £550, and
fitting would cost an additional £500, giving a total
implementation cost of of £1,050.
In cost savings alone, it's probably not throwing out your old boiler,
unless it's really past its best already.
Solar Water Heating
Even in the UK, solar water heating systems can save you money!
Solar water heaters use energy from the sun to heat your
water and work together with conventional water heaters.
Figures from the
Energy
Saving Trust suggest that an average home would save around
£50 a year by installing a solar water heater.
So, how much do they cost? Hang on there! First you'll need around
3 square meters of South West to South East facing roof to put
the solar panels on. You'll also need a traditional low pressure
vented hot water system with most systems. Have you got
that? Then you should be looking at around £3700
for a complete, fitted Solar Water Heating kit, or £2,600 for
the DIY kit (source:
www.solartwin.com)
Wind power
Home wind turbines are not really a viable option for producing enough
energy to heat your home. In fact, it seems that domestic
wind
turbines in built up areas may not even generate as much power in their
life times as is used in their own production and installation.
However, if you have a big enough wind turbine to generate enough power
to heat your home, we'd love to
hear
from you!
