How to save energy and money in your home

Saving energy in your home is also a great way to save money – and in winter time, what could be better? There are plenty of options available to you, for you to save energy all throughout the year.

Here are a few tips from the Renewable Energy Advice Line to help you save money and energy in your home.

Heating

Heating is probably the first thing which comes to mind when you think about saving energy and money. Throughout the winter months, households begin to use their heating more to keep warm, dry washing and to keep everybody comfortable.

Of course, the more the heating is used, the more money spent and the more energy used. Heating our homes and places of work accounts for approximately one fifth of the UK’s total carbon emissions.

With this in mind, it is important to find efficient ways to heat your home and tackle climate change.

What heating options are available to you? Well, what about:

Heat pumps
Biomass boilers
Solar thermal solutions
‘A’-rated gas boilers

Of course, you must also consider how you’re going to keep the heat inside your home once you’ve heated it up

Insulation

It’s important to ensure the heat within your home isn’t escaping. The more insulated your home is, the less time you will need to spend heating it and therefore the less you need to spend on heating overall.

Heating becomes very expensive when escaping through the roof, windows or walls. How can you stop the heat escaping? Let’s review:

Loft insulation
Wall insulation
Double or triple glazing

You can also control the amount of heating used, with simple thermostat and heating controls.

Saving extra heat in your home

Using a timer to ensure your heating only comes on when you need it, you can ensure it just stays on as long as you need. Installing a smart thermostat means you can control your heating remotely via your smartphone or tablet, so you can switch your heating on while you’re travelling home, or make sure it remains off while you’re out.

You could also reduce the maximum temperature in your home. While it may be getting colder outside, you don’t need to crank up the heating. Reducing the temperature by even 1degrees, could save you as much as 10% off your energy use per year. You’re also unlikely to notice the difference.

The experts at the Renewable Energy Advice Line are able to speak with you to discuss your options for heating your home and how you can save money. We’re also able to inform you how you can make use of Government-backed schemes to fund your new project.

1st December 202119th December 2021

The Renewable Heat Incentive – everything you need to know

RHI – otherwise known as the Renewable Heat Incentive – is a financial incentive, designed to encourage more households to install renewable heating solutions within their home.

Promoting the use of renewable heating solutions, the scheme awards those who install the solutions and who meet set criteria with as much as £12,000 cash back over 7-years.

While a popular scheme, it will come to a close in Spring 2022. Therefore, it has never been more important to assess your options for installing a renewable heating system and making use of the Renewable Heat Incentive.

In this article, we’ll provide you with everything you need to know about RHI and how we can help you access it before the scheme comes to a close.

How does the Renewable Heat Incentive work?

Following the payment and installation of a qualifying renewable heating solution, such as an air source heat pump or a biomass boiler, the system can be registered with Ofgem. Should the installation meet the requirements of the application process, Ofgem will then deem you eligible to receive quarterly payments for up to 7-years.

How much your payments are will depend on a few factors. These factors include:

The amount of heat generated
Type of solution used
Inflation

Payments from RHI are designed to cover the difference in costs between installation of a conventional heating system and a modern, renewable heating solution.

Once the incentive period is finished, the cost of the system should have been fully reimbursed to you.

Who is RHI for?

For homeowners – and even for commercial property owners – the Renewable Heat Incentive is available to domestic and non-domestics.

To apply, you must be the owner and have an eligible renewable heating solution installed – which is MCS certified. You must also be able to prove that the property is considered domestic, by having a qualifying Energy Performance Certificate.

So long as you’re the owner, private landlord or social landlord and have an eligible MCS-certified installation, you qualify. It also doesn’t matter whether you’re on or off the national gas grid.

How much can you claim?

Domestic customers can claim quarterly payments for up to 7-years, while non-domestic customers can receive payments for up to 20-years.

The payments are designed to cover the difference in costs between installing a non-renewable system, and a renewable one. How much you can claim depends on the amount of heat generated by your solution, as well as the tariff rate for your specific solution.

Using the UK Government’s Domestic RHI Calculator, you are able to calculate an estimate amount you can receive.

We’re also able to help you out – get in touch with our experts to find out more.

Hurry – it ends soon!

The Renewable Heat Incentive will be closing at midnight on 31 March 2022. Of course, payments will continue to be made for any installation approved, completed and commissioned before this date.

After 31 March 2022, new installations will not receive any such payments from the Renewable Heat Incentive.

The process of applying for RHI payments will vary depending on whether you’re applying the for domestic or non-domestic scheme.

In order to apply for the scheme, or to have any questions answered, contact our team of experts at the Renewable Energy Advice Line.

10th January 20202nd December 2021

Forget Oil Heating, Thousands of Households are Now Opting for Air Source Heat Pumps

Renewable energy options for your home or business

If you’re thinking of ditching the oil heating, we don’t blame you. Oil is expensive and for anyone who’s been targeted, oil thefts cause inconvenience and upset. Using oil also has a detrimental effect on the planet and as we become ever conscious of the environmental impact we’re having, people are looking for more sustainable alternatives to oil and gas.

With more than 27 million homes in Britain, each one using energy all day every day, as a country we spend a whopping £13.5 billion a year on heating our homes, that’s a staggering amount of money and a huge amount of energy.

The rising costs of fossil fuels like oil and gas means millions of families are looking to reduce their energy bills. But more worryingly, rising energy bills are pushing some households into fuel poverty.

The technologies we’ve used for decades for our energy consumption in the UK also produce too much carbon dioxide which is something the UK government are keen to change to help us met our climate change targets as a country.

We just can’t keep using oil and gas like we have been. We must switch to clean renewable energy sources.

The good news is there’s proven technology already being used for thousands of properties throughout the UK. It’s a renewable, super-efficient and affordable solution, but it’s one you might not have heard of – an air source heat pump.

As architect and TV favourite George Clarke explains in this video, you’ve been using the technology for years in your fridge. Only this works in reverse.

The air source heat pump unit sits outside your property, and simply needs electricity and water connections to work. They have a low sound output so won’t have a negative impact on neighbours or your enjoyment of your garden.

It takes free renewable heat energy from the air and upgrades to provide all the hot water and heating that your property needs, even when it’s freezing cold outside or there’s snow on the ground.

So, what makes an air source heat pump so good? Well it’s all about the energy efficiency. For every kw of electricity it uses, it can create over 3kw of heat energy, making it 300% efficient. Compared to oil and gas, which at best can only achieve around 90% efficiency, you can see just how efficient air source heat pumps really are.

Unlike other heating systems that give short bursts of heat into your property, an air source heat pump can be used to maintain a constant temperature throughout your home. That way it’s always cosy and warm! It can be controlled by wall mounted displays, handheld remotes or via an app on your smart phone.

And just like a convention heating system, an air source heat pump works with a cylinder that distributes the hot water throughout the house.

Air source heat pumps are classed as renewable technology so they qualify for payments from the Renewable Heating Incentive. The UK Government’s financial incentive to promote renewable heat. You could expect to get back more than £7,000 over a 7-year period for an average 4 bed semi-detached house, so it virtually pays for itself.

Accredited installers have fitted thousands of air source heat pumps over the UK in the last 10 years, it’s tried and tested technology that is clean, efficient and low maintenance.

The great thing about this technology is that is that it can also work in conjunction with other renewable energy solutions, such as solar panels.

So, if you’re using oil or LPG to heat your home, the benefits of switching to an air source heat pump really do stack up. You can add an air source heat pump or replace your current heating with one.

With almost 75% of the energy we consume being used for hot water and heating, you can save money on your heating bills whilst reducing your carbon emission with an air source heat pump, but more than that, you’ll be future proofing your heating for generations to come.

There’s no smell, no risk of oil theft, no price volatility or inconsistency of supply and no issues due to political unrest. It’s a clean, low maintenance, proven technology and with the Government’s Renewable Heating Incentive payments, it’ll virtually pay for itself.

If you’re interested in knowing if an air source heat pump would work for your home, contact us on 01603 552311 or drop us an email today.

Source of stats: Mitsubishi Electric