Renewable Energy

Heating our homes is increasingly requiring us to search for more benign and sustainable alternatives.

'Renewables' is a catch-all phrase that suggests that the energy supply is inexhaustible.

The sun is essentially the source of all our 'inexhaustible' energy and we can harvest this in various ways.

• Directly as with solar domestic water heating
• Indirectly such as from the wind, water or from the ground or air

Wood also in effect stores solar energy. All these are connected to the sun and store and release energy over a time spell that can be conceived within a human life span.

The standard indicator of "how green" is carbon dioxide since this is a 'Greenhouse Gas' closely associated with global warming. However, other atmospheric and water-borne emissions can also be considered along with disposal or recycling of appliances used in the energy cycle.

Although gas is available to over 80% of homes in the UK and will continue to be the most cost effective and least carbon emitting fossil fuel there are now a number of options for properties off the gas network:

These  include ground and air source heat pumps and biomass boilers.

In addition to this solar thermal collectors can be used to provide renewable heat for hot water needs.

The Governments Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) provides some financial support for these technologies.

The Governments Feed In Tariffs (FITs) provides financial support for micro generation technologies including Photo-Voltaic (PV), Wind generators and Micro Combined Heat & Power (CHP)

Further details on these technologies and how they may suit your needs are available from Green Heat.