Case Studies
“The Whole House Solution”
Mr and Mrs Dore live in this 3 bedroom detached house near Skipton. They initially enquired about a solar pv system but during the survey they mentioned they were planning to replace their LPG boiler with an electric one. I pointed out that an electric boiler would be even more expensive to run than their LPG boiler and asked if they had considered an air source heat pump – more expensive to install but much cheaper to run.
Understandably they were very cautious at first – they had never heard of air source heat pumps before and were very unsure about how one could work – especially during the extreme dales winters. However, after much careful consideration they decided to take the plunge and go for the “whole house solution” – a heat pump to provide space and water heating and solar pv on the roof to provide income through the feed-in tariff scheme and to provide electricity to off-set the additional electricity required to run the pump.
We selected black pv panels so as to make the least visual impact on their dark slate roof and an 8.5kW Mitsubishi Ecodan air source heat pump renowned for its quietness in operation and its ability to perform even at very low temperatures. Being less than a meter square it was much smaller than the LPG tank and sat unobtrusively at the rear of the property.
The total cost of the installation for both technologies was £13,700 but the impact on bills and income has been astonishing. Here are the figures for the first complete year from January – December 2013 compared to the previous year:
Annual Costs Prior to Renewables Annual Costs and FIT income 2013
LPG £2400 £0
Coal £450 £0
Electricity £950 £1453
Total costs £3800 £1453
Less solar income £0 £540
Net total costs £3800 £913
NET SAVING = £3800 – £913 = £2887 per annum
In addition to this substantial fall in costs Mr and Mrs Dore will now be eligible for the Renewable Heat Incentive towards the cost of the pump from this spring for 7 years. This will be worth approximately £850 per annum giving them £5950 in total.
Over 7 years the Dores will achieve savings of £20,209 + £5950 from the RHI netting them a total of £26,159 for an outlay of £13,700 and savings of over £2887 a year thereafter.
Moreover to quote Mr and Mrs Dore “the house is now always warm and we are so pleased with the lower outgoings. We are also delighted with the way the system performs so quiet and efficient. We would recommend this to anyone! and there are no more unsightly tanks and boilers and no more worrying about LPG deliveries.”