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For photos, please look at the bottom of this entry.
About 18 months ago, my husband and I joined Transition Chichester, a group dedicated to transforming our city from one dependent upon fossil fuels to one that was free to create its own power, grow its own food, to educate, enhance and improve. The Transition Towns movement has spread out from its humble beginnings in Totnes in the UK, to all over the world. Please see http://www.transitiontowns.org/ for more details. We quickly became involved in the Energy Group and learnt how renewable resources and micro-generation were the way to go. What is the point in burning up fossil fuels at a faster and faster rate when we have unlimited resources available in the form of our ever-changing elements and weather?
We decided that we wanted to cut down on our electricity and gas consumption by whatever means possible. We already had energy saving bulbs in most rooms and only turned lights on in rooms if we were actually using them. Initially we started by measuring the power consumption of every single electrical device in the entire house, office and workshop. This involved plugging a hand held monitor into a wall socket and then plugging the electrical device (e.g. Computer, television, dvd player, lamps, etc) into the monitor, both on full power and and standby. The results were shocking. We had been leaving our PC and peripherals on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, either on standby or full power. That was the first thing to change. Our computer et al are turned off outside office hours, and if we need emails at the weekend we use my mobile phone. The measures we took immediately cut our electricity bill down by 33%. We also turned off any electrical appliance that didn't have to be kept on overnight. I know everyone says it over and over again, but we had ignored the general advice. Next our thermostats for heating and hot water were turned down. The water was changed to be heated just twice a day instead of all day. The household day time heating was moved to 16 degrees, evening 17 and night-time 12. We installed 3 woodburners and put on extra jumpers. My office is frequently only 15 degrees, but the woodburner and some passive heating from clear roofing in the 'orangery' boosts that up to 25 degrees when the sun comes out. We started cooking over and in the woodburners which further cut our fuel consumption. When our first year's figures of our new way of living came through we were delighted to discover that our electricity bill had dropped by 50% and our gas by a staggering 66% as the graph shows.
Despite cutting our bills by such a large amount we felt that we still had more to do, so we thought about Solar Power. Our house is too small to install Photo-Voltaic panels which generate electricity from the sun, but we had enough roof space to install Solar Water panels. We had a quote from a couple of companies and opted to go with the excellent Chichester Solar, a local environmentally friendly company run by Andrew Collenette www.chichestersolar.co.uk. He advised us that the Energy Saving Trust would give us a £400 grant towards our installation and that our local council would also contribute. Many councils offer a scheme so it's worth contacting your own if you are considering installing renewable energy systems, although I believe that our local one has stopped their grants. A real shame. We had to fill in various forms and make a few calls, but we ended up with £1,400 towards the £4,000 costs. We opted for a 3 flat panels Genersys system with a 20 year guarantee, but could've spent a lot more or a lot less with others. Monday March 15th Andrew and his loaded bright yellow Chichester Solar van pulled up outside our house, bright and breezy ready to get the show on the road! The curtains twitched up and down the street. My husband had already cleared space in the loft for Andrew to work and had emptied out the airing cupboard ready to take possession of the new 210 litre water tank! Goodbye little tank, hello new! The day was spent putting various pipes into various places and getting our gas-fired hot water up and running again. There were a few technical hitches with our elderly plumbing, but nothing a bit of intelligence and air pressure hose couldn't put to rights! True to his word, Andrew had the heating and hot water back into action before he left for the evening. Only to return an hour later for our Energy Group meeting. There's dedication for you! Andrew had left the stairs cleaner than they were before he arrived!
Tuesday March 16th I returned home from a day's work, to find erected scaffolding and installed panels on the roof. The panels had to be covered with cardboard until the wiring and electronics were in place. Getting the scaffolding up meant the sacrifice of 3 daffodils...
Wednesday March 17th another early start for Andrew who meticulously wired the system in place. Again one or two hitches with our quirky wiring, but Andrew worked his way through until all was right with the world and the system could be tested! Despite the cool cloudy day, we soon had our first hot water pouring from the taps. Great excitement to be had by all.
Thursday March 18th Andrew returned to sort out one or two bits of fine turning, but nothing major. We became the proud owners of our own hot water solar system!
Since then we have topped up the hot water with gas heating maybe two or three times. Even on most cold overcast days we've had sufficient hot water for our requirements. Our Miele dishwater now uses the hot water feed as does our Hoover washing machine. We are truly delighted with the service we received from Chichester Solar (who cover much of the south east of England, not just Chichester!) and with the results of our solar system. The system should pay for itself within a few years and with the promise of the heating feed in tariff from April 2011, it will be even quicker.
Solar, you know it makes sense. Planet Earth has been running off it for millions of years...
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