By Monica Jones and with Better Planet
Advertorial
With soaring energy prices, we are having to look at either putting on extra layers, or find-ing an alternative way of heating our homes in the long term. Furthermore, as govern-ments across the world have committed to making changes to help stop and reverse cli-mate change, including the reduction in use of fossil fuels, we as householders have to do our bit and make changes. We are being in-centivised by the government to do so.
From 2025 you will no longer be able to in-stall a gas boiler. We need to start to explore alternatives and change our heating systems. This will not happen overnight. Arguably it should happen faster than it is likely to. But for now, let’s explore what those heat sources might be and how you can start making changes in your home.
Better Planet is a renewable energy supplier. They launched in 2004 with a vision to make it easier and more affordable to use renewable resources for heating and electricity. They are well versed in the changing landscape of al-ternative energy, and the government incen-tives that are available. As well as solar pow-er, which most of us have heard of and under-stand, Better Planet offer heat supply solu-tions using air, water and ground. These sources of heat are a new concept to many in this country, although they are widely har-nessed in other countries around the world.
Better Planet take pride in offering clients honest advice on what is the best solution for their property, both from a technical and fi-nancial point of view. They will visit your home and discuss which source of heat would be best suited to you, based on your environ-ment. If you have lots of land, a ground source pump might be the best choice. If you live by water, then why not use that as your source? For most of us, we will be choosing air source heat pumps. Think of this as a re-verse fridge. The pump will take air, extract the heat and redirect it to your home. The system can use existing radiators but you will need new elements installed too, including a cylinder, buffer tank and control panel.
Better Planet use high performing products from well-established manufacturers. Over the years they have developed relations with preferred manufacturing partners supplying high quality products at preferential prices and warranties. They will always recommend products with solid performance at competi-tive prices.
For most heat pump projects, they specify units manufactured by Nibe. Nibe were estab-lished over 70 years ago. They are based in Sweden and are the leading manufacturer of heat pumps in Europe with over 50,000 heat pumps installed every year. Better Planet is Nibe’s leading installer in the South East of England.
WHY CHOOSE A HEATPUMP?
1. Saving running costs
Although heat pumps use electricity, the run-ning cost is usually significantly lower com-pared to traditional alternatives. The potential savings depends on several factors such as replaced fuel, age of the replaced boiler, type of heat pump and quality the heating distribu-tion system. Savings can be up to 70% if the heat pump replaces electric storage heaters.
2. Environment – reduce CO2 emissions.
Replacing a gas or oil boiler with a heat pump reduces CO2 emissions and it contributes to fight climate change. The CO2 reduction is even higher if some of the electricity used to run the heat pump is generated by solar PV on site.
3. Benefit from government incentives
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) will launch in spring 2022 to aid the decarbonisa-tion of buildings. It will provide upfront capi-tal grants to support the installation of heat pumps, and in some circumstances biomass boilers, in homes and some non-domestic buildings. The BUS will be open to properties located in England and Wales.
Vouchers of £5,000 for air source heat pump installations and £6,000 for ground and water source installations. 90,000 vouchers are to be allocated on a “first come, first served” basis.
4. Future proof your property
At some point in the future, it will no longer be possible to heat properties with gas or oil. All such boilers have to be phased out before 2050 according to the government’s climate commitment. A heat pump installation is a long term investment in your property. This is especially true for a ground source heat pump system. The ground collector, boreholes or horizontal loops, will support several genera-tions of heat pumps. It is an energy well with a life similar to that of the property itself.
There are several types of heat pumps availa-ble. They all share the same function of col-lecting energy from outside the property and moving it inside for heating, hot water and also for cooling.
See which might be right for you and call the team for a chat:
GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPS
Collects energy from the ground collector, either by vertical boreholes or horizontal loops
WATER SOURCE HEAT PUMPS
Collects energy from pipes submerged in wa-ter, for instance in a lake, pond, brook, river, moat or a canal.
COOLING WITH HEAT PUMPS
Heat pumps can provide cooling, distributed either through underfloor pipes or fan coil units.
AIR SOURCE HEAT PUMPS
Collects energy from the atmosphere air out-side.
EXHAUST AIR HEAT PUMPS
Extracts heat from the exhaust air of a build-ing and transfers the heat to provide energy.
MULTI SOURCE HEAT PUMPS
Achieve higher efficiency with a system that combines ground collector source with other source, for instance air or solar.
There are case studies on the Better Planet website (www.betterplanet.co.uk) if you would like to find out more detail. One Sun-bury resident who recently installed a heat pump said “I found Better Plant to be respon-sive and professional. They performed when they said they would and left me with, I hope, a good fault-free system”
So with the energy price cap going through the roof and with a new grant scheme launching in April 2022 to encourage new installations now is the time to look at re-newable energy. So if you are looking to do your bit for the planet and want to get ahead of the game, now is the chance to look to make the change.
www.betterplanet.co.uk
Call to find out more 01707 662408