Economical and Eco-friendly heating options
Being warm in your home in the height of winter shouldn’t be a luxury, yet it is certainly starting to feel that way these days.
Gas and Oil Boilers are expensive to run costing a fortune in heating bills and these costs are set to rise again in the not-too-distant future. Heating a Terraced two up two down property, even with a well-insulated loft and modern boiler can produce around 2.5 Tonnes of planet warming greenhouse gases a year!
You can do something about it though. Eco-heating choices are out there which will help you reduce your carbon emissions.
I have a combi boiler and can't afford a new heating system
Combi Boilers heat your home when needed and provide hot water on demand.. Check your set up as by setting the heating control to 60-65C can really help. You can also set the water temperature to a lower setting. The exception to this is if you have a hot water tank. These should be set to 60c to prevent legionnaires disease, otherwise 40-50c is sufficient.
Heat Pumps
Installing a Heat Pump is a pricey idea carrying a price tag ranging from £6K for an Air Sourced Pump and at least £10K for a Ground Sourced Pump. However, their installation into homes could help the UK meet its climate targets.
What is it?
A Heat Pump is an electric pump that works like a fridge in reverse, extracting warmth from outside air, the ground or nearby water before concentrating the heat and sending it indoors. They look a bit like an air conditioning unit on the outside of your house. Maybe not the prettiest of heating systems but they will certainly save you some money in the long run and are much kinder to the environment.
Although costly to install, in the long term they will make heating your home and water much cheaper and will do so in a much more eco-friendly way.
The Government has plans to offer £5K grants to assist 90,000 households to install home heat pumps and other low carbon heating systems over the next few years. For more information on Heat Pumps take a look at our article that gives you all you need to know about this concept at https://www.housemovepro.co.uk/why-are-air-source-heat-pumps-making-news
Why not switch to electric?
Electric heating has its advantages, there is no pollution, it is easy to control the temperature, it is economical and there are no carbon monoxide risks. Electric radiators are 100% efficient at the point of use. Every Joule of energy that you pay for is converted into heat helping to save energy and in turn reduce running costs. If you compare this to wet (hydronic) radiators, that is an improvement of 20-40%. Quite a difference huh?
Installation is easy too; they are standalone units that are fixed on to an internal wall in the home. There is no need for them to be connected by a network of pipes which makes installing them really easy and also to replace when needed. There is no need for an Electrician if you do not plan to wire them directly to the mains but it’s worth consulting one if you are going to do this.
The majority of Electric Radiators rely on the output of heat to be controlled with an inbuilt thermostat. This means you can control the warmth of individual rooms helping to keep running costs down. Does that spare room need to be heated if someone stays in it once a year?
Do you have Solar Panels installed?
If you have solar panels, then electric radiators are compatible with renewable energy, so running this type of heating system could end up costing you absolutely nothing! They also work by running off batteries charged by renewable means.
Another pro for this type of system is that electric radiators heat up really really quickly as there is no fluid in the radiator, it heats up instantly but also stops releasing heat as soon as it is switched off.
Now I can hear you thinking “but the average cost per unit of electricity is more expensive than gas!!” but there is more to this. You must remember to factor in the other costs – installation and maintenance of Gas fuelled heating is pricey. An annual boiler service can range between £90-£130 and this is much kinder to the environment.
Lastly consider how many electric heaters you wish to install. If you want to replace your whole heating system with Electric speak to a qualified Electrician – you don’t want to overload and put a strain on your circuits You will reduce overloading by having an Electrician wire the radiators into fuse spurs, especially if replacing Gas for Electric in the entire house.
Hydro Genie Systems
If you really want to move with the times and invest in your future bills as well as what you are doing for the environment you may want to look into this relatively new idea of having a Hydro Genie System installed. These are a relatively new concept. They are a retrofit carbon reducing solution for fossil fuelled boilers.
Circulating water is the most inefficient part of a heating system. The water contains dissolved oxygen which when heated forms bubbles on the heat exchange in the boiler. This system acts as a bubble wrap, which slows down the heat transfer and creates a black substance that clogs up the system. Investing in a Hydro Genie will help with this problem as it works by dissolving oxygen to stop this clogging from happening. It uses fluid dynamics, applied physics and electronics to clean, enhance and regulate the heat transfer to the circulating water in the central heating system. This can create up to 20% more heat being generated across the radiators in your home. The Hydro Genie system can work on domestic and commercial systems by fitting to existing pipes and then wired to the control unit.
These systems are compatible with Gas Boilers, Oil Boilers, LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas), Electric Wet Boilers and Heat Pumps.
They cost anything from £1,900 for a low fuel user to £3,500+ for a property using more fuel.
This is a relatively new idea with maybe only 1000 or so installed in the UK. Do your investigations as there are not many reviews about these systems so may not be risk free. The idea is wonderful though.