A green facelift for Ashton Mill
Nestled amongst trees and green fields in the rural Wiltshire village of Steeple Ashton, is Ashton Mill, a beautiful detached stone barn conversion. This distinctive property is home to Dave Ruddle of Ashton Joinery and his wife, Lee.
The four bedroom two bathroom home has been undergoing renovation work for several months and part of the schedule includes a new heating system. With recent publicity on energy conservation and the uncertainty of fuel prices, the couple felt it was important to become as self sufficient as possible.
Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MSC) accredited, Midland’s based heating firm – New World Solar, were tasked with the design and installation of this venture. MCS certifies microgeneration products and installers against identified criteria to provide greater protection for consumers.
For domestic hot water and space heating, a Grant Aerona 13kW Air Source Heat Pump was combined with a south-facing two-collector Aurora Solar Thermal system, using a DuoWave Heat Pump Cylinder, which due to its larger primary coil enables better heat transference and efficiency from the technologies. As an additional back up, a Grant Vortex
12-16kW wall-hung condensing boiler was installed for situations, where demand exceeds the heat pumps output e.g. extreme weather. This arrangement was an effective way of allowing the heat pump to be integrated into their existing system, without the need to upgrade/oversize radiators, as it can be programmed to bring the heat pumps return water up to a more satisfactory temperature if desired.
After hearing about the Governments Feed-In Tariffs (FiT), the couple thought a means of microgeneration was also sensible and opted for Grant Solar PV to help offset their energy bills. With fourteen modules, the 2.52kW MCS Approved system is capable of producing around 1900kWh per annum. Being a retrofit application Dave and Lee are benefitting from an impressive 41.3p payback for every kWh they produce with the PV system, meaning they are not only getting electricity for free, but able to get a good return on investment, in a realistic time frame. Their FiT rate is guaranteed for 25 years, therefore as soon as the capital equipment cost is recovered, the system will be generating a healthy income.
It is important to note that both the installer and equipment must carry MCS Accreditation if the end user would like access to the FiT Scheme.
The Ruddle’s commented: “We are very pleased with our green heat and power and now as a result have far lower electricity bills and CO2 emissions. The installation proved ideal for us, as we were trying to retain as much of the buildings original rural character, whilst making it as energy efficient as possible”