First Published in The Lynn News, July 2nd 2021
Our business had an advert made last year. It starts with the words ‘Have you ever wondered why so many of your neighbours have had solar installed in recent years?’
Well, have you? After 14 years of listening to people who have approached our company to have solar & battery systems, I thought I’d use this month column to explain what they tell us & why they are going green.
14 years ago, it was all about hot water. Lashings & lashing of free hot water, heated by the power of the sun with Thermal Solar Systems. A tankful of hot water a day stopped the gas or oil boiler running in summer months, about 9-10 months of the year for most people. No more sitting in the garden listening to a boiler chugging it’s guts out & if they could save a few quid & reduce their carbon at the same time, then great.
Back in 2007-2008 when banks were toppling like dominoes & oil prices were going through the roof to fund the Oil wars in the Middle East, Thermal solar hot water was seen as one small but significant step in the right direction. Reduction in fossil use for a domestic convenience. And this was in the days before subsidies with feed in tariffs. People went for solar as it was the right thing to do.
In April 2010, when Labour introduced the Feed In Tariff Scheme that paid homeowners to generate electricity, the game changed. Generating electricity from thin air, is much harder than generating heat, and so the technology was much more expensive.
The UK were the 68th country worldwide and the 27th of the EU member states to introduce a feed in tariff and it was a winner. Worldwide, prices dropped & demand soared. And over the next few years, costs to install a residential solar system dropped significantly.
Feed in tariffs, whilst a reward for homeowners to provide quarterly meter readings, also muddied the waters as when many people first heard about solar, it was because of the feed in tariff & the money, not about the energy saving & environmental benefits which are huge.
Today, for the same cost as a 4kw residential solar system in 2010, you can purchase not only the solar which is much more efficient, but also automated water heating, a residential battery and an electric car charge point. Systems like these allow homeowners to save up to £750 a year in energy bills, and reduce over two tonnes of CO2 from an average West Norfolk household. And the feeling you get, when driving a car that has been filled up by the Sun is like no other.
Virtually every customer we meet, also tells us that the savings they make is greater than any interest they would get from saving the money in a bank of building society.
Clients go green for many reasons, and regardless of whether you’re trying to reduce pollution and carbon, do you bit to stop the next oil war, get one over on the bank or building society or show the family and neighbours that you’re committed to the cause, the results are all the same.
We save money, we reduce carbon, we clean up the skies, we take control of our own energy and end grid dependence.
And at the end of the day, when we slip into a free hot bath we can let others worry about power cuts and price rises.
Our clients don’t have those concerns…. Do you ?
So, have you?
Have you wondered why so many of your neighbours have had solar panels installed in recent years?