We have a great opportunity, as we are likely to have to replace the existing oil fired boiler, to install a renewable energy source to heat the Farm and its hotwater. However the options are not cheap! Even assuming they will pay back over a period of time, not something you even consider when buying fossil fuel boilers, they do require a size-able chunk of cash up front.
We viewed an Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) installation one evening this week which provided an excellent opportunity to see one ‘in action’. It really is quite amazing that eve down to 0 degrees C the unit can extract enough heat to get hot water to 45-50 degrees and heat a well insulated house. The installation is quite straight forward, with a box outside that looks like an air conditioing unit. Though you do have to consider the noise if you are planning for it to be close to a neighbours house in a quiet rural location.
The other alternative is a Ground Source Heat Pump. This works by laying pipes in trenches underground and extracting the latent heat from it. The heater box and cylinder are similar in cost to an ASHP, but laying the pipes is costly!
Both systems are however very efficient in terms of return on energy used. A typical oil fired boiler would give you a 95% efficiency, ie for every 1kw of energy in you would get 95% back. With an Air Source Heat Pump typically for every 1Kw of energy used you get 2 to 3Kw heat ‘energy’ out, making them 200-300% efficientt. Ground Source Heat Pumps can return 3 to 4Kw out making them massively efficient. With the cost of oil and gas at the moment returns on ASHP can be 5-10 years, GSHPs taking longer due to the costs of laying the pipes.
We are in a real quandry as it would be great to install such a system, but the costs are high. Grants are available, but don’t make much of a dent in the cost. It might be that we stick with an efficient oil fired boiler, and supplment this with solar panels for the hotwater, and back boilers on the wood buring stoves we plan to install. This way during the summer the hotwater would be free, and during the winter the stoves would reduce the need to use oil to heat the hot water.
Of course, we could go the whole hog and throw up a wind turbine to power the ‘heating system’ and be truly carbon neutral…but now my head, like the blades, is rather spinning…
As one song puts it, ‘it isn’t easy being green’! (Or cheap!!)
Tags: Air Source Heat Pumps, Carbon Neutral, Energy Saving and the Environment, Geothermal Heating Energy, Ground Source Heat Pumps, Renewable Energy Sources, Solar Powered Hot Water, Wind Turbine, Wood Burning Stove Back Boiler
Categories: Energy Saving and the Environment, Home Improvements, Living the Country Life, Self Sufficiency
It’s a shame being green isn’t easier or cheaper. How is the world going to go green with costs so high.