Installing Domestic Cleantech systems is good for you, your communities, the UK and the whole planet.
Climate Change is now an accepted problem that we all face. But ensuring we have enough energy to heat and power our homes, and that it is produced safely and sustainably is also very important.
Solar Water Heating systems are a proven and established way of providing hot water in the home. And they are very environmentally friendly.
Our households can make a difference
More than a quarter of the UK’s energy needs come from the home.
Homes use energy in lots of different ways: electricity for light and appliances such as TVs, energy for cooking, heat to warm our homes and hot water. Hot water in the UK takes up around 25% of our energy needs in the home.
So making hot water is significant to the amount of energy we use.But why should we change the way we heat our water?
Sustainable Heat
We are used to cheap energy. Much of the UK is used to having mains natural gas – but this was not always the way. When North Sea oil and gas was discovered in the 60s and 70s, our government rolled out the infrastructure for cheap gas around the country. This was a new concept.
Our energy mix – the sources of energy we use – will change again. Peak oil has moved from radical theory to established consensus over the last 5 years – saying that we are at or near the point of peak oil production, and that we will soon be producing less year on year, while demand continues to grow (the odd global credit crunch aside). It’s a concept that guarantees the inexorable rise of energy prices over the next years.
Take the complete process to fuel our domestic boilers with oil. From drilling platform, via pipeline and tanker, to refinery, to storage depots, by truck to your home – the journey of heating oil to your home is long and intrusive on our environment. Natural gas is similar. Finally, the fuel is burned, emitting fumes to the sky, by the complex ‘engine’ that is a domestic boiler.
By contrast, solar thermal uses endless energy from the sun, with the Earth receiving more solar energy in 2 weeks than the annual energy requirements for the whole planet
Solar panels providing hot water are very different to traditional heating methods. An established and mature production process provides the panels and pumps required. The sun and warmth from the sky provides the rest. Very easy, very unobtrusive, very low impact – and when we all get used to the idea, very obvious.
There are nearly 100,000 solar hot water systems in the UK, some 300,000 sq metres of panels or tubes – still some way to match Germany, with 7 million sq metres of solar hot water.
Climate Change and CO2
Global warming is big news these days, and very important for all of us.
Sometimes, it’s difficult to understand how to make a real difference – but campaigns such as 10:10 show the need for individuals and households to contribute directly by reducing emissions.
The average solar water heating system can reduce your CO2 emissions by more than 1 Tonne per year. This is a significant step in reducing your heating and hot water emissions, the largest contributor to household emissions. Regardless of government policy, individuals, households and businesses hold the key to making real reductions in CO2 emissions.
With 80% of our 2050 housing stock already built and in use as homes, improving the energy efficiency of our existing homes is vital in our move to a low carbon world.
UK energy policy
The UK has been dependent on North Sea oil and gas for some 40 years, and unlike countries such as Norway, we haven’t really saved much of the revenue for a rainy day.
Our dependency on foreign oil and gas is now a significant issue. Periods of shortage or political upheaval in the future may leave the UK exposed, often at the end of pipelines, or trying to negotiate with other countries that hold all the cards. This is not a good situation to be in.
Furthermore, our electricity production capability is also in a precarious position. With our nuclear power stations at the end of their lifetime, and coal power stations too dirty to pass EU regulations, the UK is at risk of failing to build enough capacity to keep the lights on over the next 10 years.
The 2009 Renewable Energy Strategy talks about large growth in renewables, and the need to reduce emissions from homes. It continues to fail to link the two.
Our homes provide us with the ability to make a real difference.
First through insulation and solar hot water, we can reduce our energy requirements.
Heat Pumps, in combination with solar hot water, can begin to solve our need for heat from oil or gas.
And finally, we can begin to turn our houses into power stations with solar photovoltaic (or wind turbines for some) providing electricity for our homes and to feed back into the grid for others.
Solar hot water systems make good environmental sense in many ways. UK households are set to make a significant difference to the UK energy production mix and our meeting of commitments for a sustainable and low carbon environment.