Microgeneration

I'd write to 'call me Dave' if i were you for a start.

David,

Email on the way. Thanks.

For other forum members:

This type of technology is installed in less than 100,000 UK homes, despite a housing stock of 21 million homes. If you are one of those individuals, please share you experiences. As far as I am aware, they do not have any effect on your systems!

Regards

Nic

I had a Ground Source heat pump installed this summer. Too early to judge the running costs yet until we have been through a winter. Early signs are that it is incredibly efficient at heating water. In the first month of running I estimate our hot water was costing about 10p/day. That is for a household of just two people though. GSHP are starting to take off in the UK. The company I bought mine from (Ice Energy) are importing IVT units from Sweden and they are starting to get very busy.
It replaced an aging oil boiler (we have no mains gas in the village) I was getting very fed up with the ever spiralling cost of oil, plus I seem to be developing green tendenecies in my old age and am concerned about the environmental aspects.

The installation costs for an older property such as ours were very significant and I can't see a payback in less than 10 years based on todays oil prices. For a new build, it makes much more sense.
We had to change all our radiators and convert both hot water and central heating from vented to unvented systems. Due to the small size of our garden we went for collector panels and have 3 rows of 4 panels 2m x 1.5m buried 2m deep. This as you can imagine totally trashed the garden! One benefit was that we also had a cooling system installed. This provides coooling in the summer, by passing the warm room air through ducting and a heat exchanger. The heat extracted is used to "recharge" the ground loop increasing the efficiency of the system.

For those of you with Naim systems which I guess will be 99% of those reading this. The heat pump does start quite dramatically. It has a 1.75kw compressor which although slow start still draws 25Amps on startup. The contactor comes in with a real audible clunk and the lights dim somewhat! I can't say I have yet been listening to CD when it cuts in, but it certainly has no noticeable effect on my TV or AV system. It is wired via a dedicated circuit which taps off the meter tails and doesn't pass through the the standard consumer unit. This is down to high earth leakage current characterics of the pump. The maximum it will start is 4 times per hour, but currently it is only running for about 30mins/day. This will change once the outside temperature drops though.

SB,

Thanks for the excellent feedback.

Agreed, starting from scratch with a new build is probably far easier in terms of disruption, especially is the installation is feeding underfloor heating rather than radiators. However the better insulation in a more modern house, required under Part L of the Building Regulations, would actually extend the payback further because of lower consumption.

According to cumulative DTI figures for 2005 there were only 546 ground source heat pumps installed in the UK, although there are over 400,000 worldwide, so you can be proud of being in the vanguard of what is sure be be a growing trend.

Regards

Nic

Nic,

Thanks for the complement. I got interested in heat pumps on the back of another person in my village, who has had various generations of the technology installed for over five years, so I am not as much a pioneer as him. The installation was a first for the plumber I used and he was very keen to get up to speed on the technology. I already have another friend who has signed up and will be installing soon and several others playing "wait and see" to see how our system runs. The number of installations is increasing rapidly. I know Ice Energy who installed my system are running flat out with 3 commissioning teams, so that is about 15 installs a week.

Not quite the same thing, but this was running a system from batteries at the Heathrow show last weekend.

I'd guess this might make it possible to power the system off intermittent power (solar, wind).

cheers, Martin

PS system sounded pretty OK, I thought - I just don't remember which one. Next to the Densen room, I think.

Martin,

Did you get an indication why they were using a battery fed sytem? Presumably they did not trust the quality of the mains.

Returning to the issue of microgeneration, I think that for me I would prefer any electrical generation system (As opposed to heat) to be grid connected via an inverter, rather than the battery route. As much as anything because of the maintenance and the space space taken by the batteries. For a grid connected system, the cost of metering is an issue, and the the rebate for the value of electricity exported to the grid is also not great.

For a wind operated generator any excess could be generated during the night when your power consumption is low, or during the day if no one is at home. With Photovoltaic, an excess can only be generated during daylight hours, so obviously it depends on what is being consumed during the day. Horses for courses as ever.

An interesting subject, which I suspect we will all become more familiar with in due course. The government have set an ambitious target for power generated by renewables, 10% by 2010 and 20% by 2050, so expect a lot more wind farms.

The Energy savings Trust estimate that the potential for domestic microgeneration is as much as 30-40% by 2050 and that this would reduce household carbon emissions by 15%. There is every possibility that a lot of us will stil be around then, listening to our sytems via our own power generation. Imagine the threads on power supply issues then!

Regards

Nic

quote:

Originally posted by nicnaim:
Martin,

Did you get an indication why they were using a battery fed sytem? Presumably they did not trust the quality of the mains.

Nic,

it wasn't just a special for the show - they were trying to sell it to punters.

cheers, Martin