Renewable Energy
Home renewables, and low-carbon microgeneration, are good for the environment and good for your pocket too. Low-carbon technologies such as solar panels and biomass boilers let you generate your own energy, saving money and reducing your carbon footprint in the process.
With government financial incentives available, such as the Green Deal, there has never been a better time to install.
You can make energy-saving improvements to your home or business without having to pay all the costs up front through the Green Deal, including loft and cavity wall insulation, heating, draught-proofing, double glazing, and renewable energy technologies such as solar panels and heat pumps.
Renewable energy covers more than solar panels or wind turbines. It is energy from any source that is naturally replenished when used. Often called ‘renewables’, ‘green energy’, ‘microgeneration’ or ‘sustainable energy’. The main sources of renewable energy for the home are energy from sunlight, heat from the earth, the air or water sources, plants grown for fuel (biomass or biofuels), waste, and the movement of water and wind.
There are many good reasons to use renewables. You will be making use of secure, local resources, reducing your dependence on non-renewable energy, helping to keep the air clean, helping to reduce the production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, creating new jobs in renewable energy industries, and saving and even earning money.
Services include:
- Complete survey, design and installation package of
- Air source heat pumps
- Ground source heat pump systems
- Solar thermal systems for hot water and heating
- Servicing of renewable technology systems
- Unvented and open vented thermal store cylinders
and heat banks - Biomass boilers and stoves
- Under-floor heating systems
- Rainwater harvesting
- Greywater harvesting
- Support and advice for gaining the government’s Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) and Green Deal scheme
- Free and without obligation quotes
- All electrical services to support the renewable technology installation
Trident Plumbing, Heating and Electrical offer a complete package, including survey, design and installation, of the following:
Ground Source Heat Pump
Your energy consumption for heating could be lowered by up to 75% with the use of a geothermal heat pump. Ground source heat pumps are stored in the ground. During the summer solar heat is stored in the soil. It is then either absorbed as insulation or as heat from rain and the air. The highest yield can be obtained from the soil with high water content. The heat is then extracted from the soil by means of plastic tubing buried in the soil.
Air Source Heat Pumps
If you were looking to install an air heating system, it could lead to your energy consumption for heating being reduced by up to 50% in comparison to conventional heating systems. Air heat pumps utilise the heat energy of the outside air. The heat pumps are designed for outside placement and transform an existing radiator system into an excellent, complete heating system.
Rainwater Harvesting
Rainwater is a precious resource. Unpredictable rainfall in the UK due to climate change has seen large flooding during winter and drought during the summer months. Harvesting rainwater can help to overcome both problems. It can provide a constant supply of water during dry conditions and divert excess rainfall, relieving the pressure on local drains that leads to flooding. Other benefits to harvesting water are reduction in mains water consumption and in mains water bills, together with a reduction in your carbon footprint.
Greywater Harvesting
Another source of harvesting water is from your grey waste. Grey waste is waste water from your home other than toilets. It is collected and treated and reused in your home for sources other than drinking water. For example it can be reused to flush toilets, water gardens and sometimes even your washing machine.
Solar Thermal Hot Water Systems
A solar thermal system can deliver up to 70% of your hot water requirements, based on government figures. Even on a cloudy day and temperatures as low as -28c, your solar panel is effective. Solar water heating systems use solar panels, called collectors, fitted to your roof. These collect heat from the sun and use it to heat up water which is stored in a hot water cylinder. A boiler or immersion heater can be used as a backup to heat the water further to reach the temperature you want. Larger solar panels can also be arranged to provide some contribution to heating your home as well
Thermal Store Cylinders and Heat Banks
A thermal store is a way of storing renewable heat until it is needed, usually stored in water in a highly insulated cylinder. A thermal store can take inputs from a number of different technologies depending on design, it might store heat from a wood-fueled boiler, solar water heating, or a heat pump. For example, it will allow excess solar harvest to be used for space heating and heat pump pre-heat to be used for hot water.
Biomass Stoves
Log stoves are more fuel efficient than open fires and burn much more cleanly, so if you want to heat your home with wood fuel on a limited budget this may be the best value option.
Biomass Boilers
Pellet or log fired boiler systems are the next step up from log stoves and can run both heating and hot water. Pellets boilers are a be the more convenient option for commercial and domestic apoplications. Also, compared with logs and chips, pellets have a high energy density which means that less storage space is required than other types of biomass fuel like logs.
Biomass is a renewable, low carbon fuel that is already widely available. Domestic applications focus upon the generation of heat and hot water using either pellets of dry wood (<12% moisture content) with the added bonus of renewable heat incentive (RHI) payments that make this installation very attractive indeed for both domestic (7 years of RHI) and commercial customers (20 years of RHI).