10 Reasons To Use The Green Deal

By Chris Chambers

The Government's new Green Deal Scheme has launched this year - this scheme aims to improve the energy efficiency of homes via grants to homeowners and landlords to fund, or part-fund, the fitting of performance enhancing measures such as modern boilers, insulation or even solar panels. Response has been luke warm and critics are waiting to pounce on any opportunity to prove that the government scheme is a flop and a failure... what a shame - we think this scheme, employed correctly and with correct financial safeguards in place, has excellent potential to contribute to the EU directive of reducing CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. 

Here are 10 good reasons to use the scheme:
 
1) It will save money for the consumer: Ultimately, using less energy will cost the consumer less money. Who wouldn't want to save money?! Yes, you have to wait for the grant to be paid off... but during this period you'll be no worse off than if you hadn't taken the grant.

2) It could make you money! Feed-in tariffs for photovoltaic solar panels and for Micro-CHP systems pay homeowners for surplus electricity that is fed into the National grid.

3) It will more than likely improve the value of your home. Buyers of homes are becoming more savvy and more choosy about what they spend their money on. For example, most customers these days, given the choice, are not even going to consider a home without double-glazing or a modern >90% efficient boiler. 

4) It's great for landlords: By 2018, any home in the private rented sector needs to score in Band D or above on an energy performance certificate. The letting of a home in Band F or G will be banned! The Green Deal is the obvious way to improve a property's energy efficiency and since the energy savings are measured and recouped through the utility bill the tenant would be paying back the grant.

5) Job creation: Green Deal funded measures must be installed by approved Green Deal Installers - this has the potential to create more jobs in the building trade. Plumbers, electricians, roofers, construction, and gas engineers will all be required which could be a timely rejuvenation of these industries. 

6) It's good for the economy: Large scale uptake of new technologies and their associated installation requirements can only be good for the economy. There are hundreds of industries affected both in the UK and abroad - think of all the components in a boiler, or the inverters and electrical components in a PV system, the turbine technology of wind power generation... all those unseen parts need manufacturing and assembling and transporting. The scaling up of these industries, whether it's in the UK or Europe can only be a good thing.

7) Advances in technology: It is true that some of these energy efficiency measures are expensive. Photovoltaic panels for an average house cost between £7,000 to £10,000 and a micro-CHP boiler could be a similar price. Economies of scale and uptake of the technology will drive the costs down and progress advances in technology to further improve efficiency.

8) Building Standards: there is still a problem in the UK with rogue traders and unregistered tradesman. These tradesman are often not qualified nor trained in what they are doing and risk serious danger or death to themselves and their customers. Green Deal Installers will have to be registered, checked and inspected by a Government approved scheme such as NAPIT or APHC. 

9) Avoid Fines: Should the Government not reach its target of 80% reduction of CO2 by 2050 then it will incur serious fines by the EU. These fines will be funded by the UK Taxpayers money! That's bad for taxpayers, bad for the economy and bad for the Government that is in power at the time.

10) The Environment: There is now no doubt amongst the climatologist of the world that global warming is taking place and there is no doubt that human activity is a significant cause. In May 2013 the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere reached 400parts per million; this is a depressing milestone and the highest concentration of CO2 for 3 million years. We need to act. That's what the Green Deal is really all about - an effort to do something.

You might think the Green Deal doesn't apply to newer homes. This Barn conversion is only 14 years old but would still benefit from increased loft insulation, draft proofing around all doors, improved double glazing and an upgrade of its oil fired boiler. Rural locations could also be suitable for wind turbines.

Any homeowner, landlord or person with a professional interest in the property industry, environment or economy should be backing the Green Deal all the way. Whether to use it or not is a no-brainer frankly. But to sit back, do nothing and gleefully wait for it to fail is lunacy. 

See this link for the Department Of Energy And Climate Change's page in the Green Deal:
https://www.gov.uk/green-deal-energy-saving-measures/how-the-green-deal-works

Chris Chambers is the owner of Proudhouse Property and Wigglies - Electrical Services. Creating innovative and sustainable homes in Somerset and the South West of England.

"Save The Incandescent Lightbulb"... Really?!??!

By Chris Chambers

Apparently, in the U.S, Green labelling of products is turning people off purchasing energy efficient lightbulbs - there is even a political "save the incandescent light" lobby! A study has found that many consumers would rather buy an incandescent lightbulb than a cheaper-to-run energy saving equivalent - clearly "Green" is still not cool in the U.S.

I thought I'd share some thoughts on this. In the photo below from left to right:

1) Old style incandescent bulb: These are only about 5% efficient! The design has not changed in about 120 years. Really, honestly and truly, get rid of these if you have them - most of the electrical energy is converted to heat.

2) Incandescent halogen (GU10): About 15-45% efficient. The filaments last longer as the halogen gas deposits tungsten back onto the filament which prevents it getting weaker over time. They also reach a higher temperature and are brighter than standard incandescent. Tall people watch your heads, especially if you're bald - I really have seen a scalded scalp from someone standing on a chair whose head touched a halogen downlighter!

3) and 4) CFL Lighting. These use about a fifth of the power of a standard incandescent lightbulbs. Their efficiency more than makes up for their purchase cost over time. The tubular ones (4) are a bit more efficient. When these were first introduced people were put off by the long warm up time and the very harsh colour - more modern ones have addressed these issues. They contain mercury - a tiny miniscule amount - nonetheless, they should be recycled. If you break one then do some sensible stuff like ventilate the room, keep pets and children away until it's all cleaned up and discard any clothing that may have been contaminated.

5) LED (GU10) - these use about 90% less energy than a standard incandescent bulb! They're cold to touch. They're expensive but coming down in price. If you upgrade to these then consider the lumens rating; as a rough guide you need about 150 lumens per square meter (for general domestic illumination). They last up to 25,000 hours possibly more. As they don't get hot they are inherently so much safer - especially when installed in downlighters in ceiling voids/lofts.

If you read this far then thank you! Check out this really cool website:

Light Bulb Savings Calculator

For my home these were the (gob-smacking) results:

You have 3 more light bulbs than the average U.S. household.

You use 35.6 more efficient bulbs than the average.

You are likely saving about $112.45 more than the average U.S. household eachyear on lighting energy, due to your choice of bulbs.

If every household in the United States took the same steps on lighting efficiency: 

 - It would save $12,706,495,632 in energy costs.
 - It would be like shutting down 18 coal power plants.
 - It would be like taking 13,753,910 cars off the road.
 - It would reduce CO2 emissions by 70,144,945 metric tons
 - It would cut emissions equivalent to 381,949 railcars of coal

 
Chris Chambers is the owner of Proudhouse Property LLP and Wigglies - Electrical Services. Creating and developing innovative homes in Somerset and South West England.