The RedBook Guide: How to incorporate Green Energy to your home

Just as often, those buying an old house and refurbishing it want to swap from old-fashioned oil or gas-fired heating systems to sustainable energy solutions as soon as they can.

Some clients want to go further still and extend environmental enhancements to their gardens or to the re-wilding of their land.

We advise in every case that there is a huge amount they can do to boost the eco-friendliness of their homes. Just how much they do will be determined by the amount they wish to invest in materials, technology and equipment. And exactly what they do needs to be based on getting the best possible technical advice from a trusted source. This is a complex, fast-changing area so up-to-the-minute advice is essential.

With environmental issues growing in importance politically, and set to affect property owners more and more in years to come legally, this short guide will provide some timely pointers and questions to ask. A second Green Guide will follow in our next newsletter: the subject is too big to fit into a single bite.

(Sandy Mitchell, RedBook’s founder, was the environment editor of a well-known national magazine in one of his first jobs 20 years ago, so has always had a keen professional interest in this area. He has recently installed air-source heat pumps at his own 13th-century Grade II-listed country house.)

Where to start

Ways to think about improving a house’s environmental impact are usefully divided into distinct areas, ranked here in the order that our clients tend to put them:

• Energy use
• Design
• Planning
• Building materials and methods
• Future proofing
• Waste and recycling

So, in this Guide, we start with energy use.

It takes energy—building a new house

Nowadays every newly built house—or a property converted to residential use—has to meet strictly assessed ‘energy performance’ criteria by law.

As a result, new houses need far less energy to heat them than houses built, say, 20 years ago, because new ones are incomparably better insulated and sealed from chilly draughts. In fact, new houses can be so well sealed they can even be uncomfortably airless to live in.

But growing numbers of people want to go well beyond the minimum legal standard and to minimise the impact on the planet of the energy needed to heat and power their home. Choosing the right source of green energy is key.

How soon will I get my money back?

When choosing which green energy source is best for your home, you will want to compare the costs of different options and in particular look at how long it will take before the cost of buying and installing the new equipment will be paid back to you from the savings you make on energy bills. This is known as the ‘payback period’.

The cheaper the new equipment—an air-source heat pump, for example—and the more expensive the energy source you are currently using or comparing it with, the quicker you get your money back.

In the simplest terms, it is likely be quicker to get your money back if you are replacing an oil-based or electric system than a gas one because oil and electricity are more expensive sources of power than gas.

‘When will I get my money back?’

Energy sources

There are many different kinds of alternative energy-source and all are far better for the planet than burning fossil fuel. The right one for your home can depend on numerous factors as wide ranging as the geographical location of your home, the type of heating system currently installed, and the amount of open space you have around your home.

To take an unusual example, one of RedBook’s clients bought a home on a remote hillside in a National Park, heated by old oil-fired generators. They wanted a greener and cheaper alternative. In the end a combination of wind power and a small hydroelectric turbine, driven by a small stream close by, proved the ideal solution.

A sunny solution for reducing your home’s carbon footprint

Plus

• Air-source units can be neat and small
• The cost of equipment has come down greatly in the last few years
• They produce heat at low cost

Minus

• The fans used in air-source heat pumps can be noisy, especially in cold weather
• Planning consent or landlord’s consent may be required in townhouses, and may be refused
• When the outside air temperature falls in winter, the pumps quickly cease to be cost effective

Plus

• Reliable and low maintenance
• More energy efficient than air-source heat pumps
• Popular with planning authorities as they are silent and have no visible impact

Minus

• The earthworks needed to scrape back acres of earth and bury the ground loop or ‘slinky’ coils through which water flows (and antifreeze) are disruptive and expensive. The larger the house, the greater the length of coil and ground area needed.
• Radiators won’t feel as hot to touch in winter as ones heated by electricity, gas or oil
• Three-phase (high voltage) power may be needed to supply the ground-source pump, and installing this power can be prohibitively expensive if long distances are involved

Plus

• The efficiency of solar panels has increased greatly while costs have fallen steeply
• Panels can be fitted readily to many roof slopes or walls exposed to sun, or can be free standing
• Maintenance costs are low as there are no moving parts, unlike air-source heat pumps for instance

Minus

• British weather limits panels’ effectiveness at cold and dark times of year when energy is needed most in homes
• Planning consent can be required, and listed building consent is needed for fixing them to historic properties
• Panels can be ugly and, if free standing, take up large amounts of space
• Solar-panel technology is developing fast and today’s models may fairly quickly look outdated
• Expensive batteries are used to store energy produced by the panels during daytime so it can be used for hot water and light at nig

Plus

• Carbon neutral as the wood burned only releases as much carbon as it absorbed while growing
• Burns at a high temperature, producing heat levels equal to oil or gas-burning boilers
• Can be ideal if you own or live close to woodland producing biomass for burning

Minus

• Wood pellets and woodchips are bulky so a barn or outbuilding is likely needed to store the fuel close to your house. Frequent lorry deliveries of wood-fuel can also be annoying.
• Biomass boilers are often much larger than domestic boilers so require more space
• Burning biomass produces other pollutants apart from carbon

Plus

• Wind power combines well with other green energy sources to supply a house’s needs
• The price of turbines is falling and they are becoming steadily more efficient
• Wind power is a wholly free and ‘green’ energy source

Minus

• Impossible to hide given their size, so turbines are visually intrusive especially in sensitive landscapes
• Expensive to buy and install
• Their power output is unpredictable and fluctuates with the speed of the wind blowing on any day
• The blades of a turbine produce noise—a kind of ‘whoosh’—that can be loud and disturbing