The sun’s been shining warm and bright recently. Not only heralding summer, but reminding me of how much heat there is to be taken for nothing every time the clouds part…
Being green is a noble pursuit, but at what cost? Sometimes it is difficult to maintain the eco-enthusiasm when hard earned money is needed for the more essential things in life, but supposing it actually paid money to be green?
The government has signed up to reduce carbon emissions…substantially. We’ve all heard about the controversy of “zero-carbon” homes – constructing a complete new building allegedly without any additional carbon being added to the environment through the entire process.
New building regulations make construction methods more and more complicated and more and more expensive. And for what? At the end of the day the proportion of new buildings – whether domestic, commercial, industrial or retail – is a drop in the ocean against existing buildings. And those older buildings are all far less efficient in retaining heat than any building constructed in the last couple of decades.
The government wants us all to insulate as much as we can. It’s sensible advice. Not simply for the planet, but for strained wallets too. But preventing heat from being lost is only half the story. The other is how it is made. Mostly as a nation, we heat our homes and work places using convenient natural gas. Electricity is still popular via storage heaters, underfloor heating or, for many modern offices, air conditioning units that can also blow warm air. Plus, generally in the rural areas, there is a substantial minority using gas oil – and didn’t they ride a financial roller coaster last winter as prices went into orbit?
All of these burn hydro-carbons, so all produce massive amounts of carbon dioxide. And that’s why the government wants us all to go green by using renewable energy such as wind, solar, biomass or heat from the ground. The accepted term is “micro-generation” meaning small scale and local to where the power or heat is needed.
Unfortunately all of these have fairly hefty up front costs for installation. Just like spending £10,000 on a new car that does 5 mpg less than your old one, you are going to have to drive a LOT of miles to justify the expenditure, so green energy only really works for your pocket if you consume a lot of energy. Our mainstream energy costs are still too cheap. (For now).
We would all like to do the right thing, but few have the luxury of the available free cash to do so. And that’s where the government’s idea comes in.
Think of two aspects of energy use in a building.
Firstly, there is that for heating the building and producing hot water. There are green ways of doing this and the most common and understood are: using solar thermal panels (that use the sun to heat water), biomass boilers or heat pumps that extract heat from the ground.
Secondly, there are methods of generating electricity for local use for whatever reason, but also where any surplus can be sold to the national grid.
These two aspects roughly define the difference between the government’s two ideas to help more renewable energy micro-generation systems to be installed across the country. For the first there is the R.H.I. (renewable heat incentive) and, for the second, the F.I.T.(feed-in tariff).
RHI gives a regular agreed amount of money in return for a fixed amount of energy generated. So not only do you reduce your reliance on the electricity or gas supply to your home, but you also get paid for what you generate for yourself!
FIT sets the the amount of money that can be earned for the electricity sold to the national grid. So, for example, if you have a roof that faces within 90 degrees of south, an electricity producing solar panel will be earning you money whenever you are not consuming electricity yourself. And generally, unless a listed building, there is no requirement for planning permission – even in National Parks. Wind turbines qualify too, although you will definitely need planning permission for one.
There quite a few companies now offering to install solar panels for nothing. Please remember though that there is no such thing as a free lunch. They make their profits by selling all the excess electricity produced. This could be your profit and not theirs. You still get the reduction on your electricity bill either way though, so if you cannot afford the £8k – £14k installation fee for solar panels, this could still be a good option to take.
Regardless of which route or scheme is chosen, the equipment and installer both must be certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) to ensure that everything is as it should be and keep the tricksters, con men and rogue traders at bay.
The FIT scheme was introduced last year and on the 10th March this year, the government announced what the tariffs would be for the RHI scheme. Unfortunately, they also announced that domestic buildings would not yet be eligible for consideration. That will come with the Green Deal next year and if the tariffs are similar to those now available to businesses, then it will be well worth keeping a close ear to the ground. (or by subscribing to this blog)
In the meantime, these websites make for good reading: Which? RHI PVFit
The government is funding these schemes, so essentially they are being paid for by the taxes of everyone. It makes a lot of sense to have a slice of that pie!
Until the next blog, take care and enjoy the sun!
