article in The Times6 Mar 2020 12:24
“The difference between high and low rates is not enough to offset the cost of a battery. If we move to more intelligent pricing, it might be,” John Palmer from the Passivhaus Trust says. A Passivhaus is an ultra-low energy building with such good insulation that very little heating is needed.
Adding a solar water-heating system (£4,000-£5,000) can halve your need for hot water from a compatible boiler. It uses the sun to warm liquid in rooftop thermal panels that in turn heats water stored in a hot water cylinder (tank). This could save a two-person household about £50 a year, and earn a further £200 in grants from the government’s renewable heat incentive (RHI), according to Which?, a consumer organisation.
Electric boilers may be cheaper to buy than gas equivalents and need no flue or gas pipes, but you will also need a hot water tank — and perhaps a second boiler — if your home is bigger than a one-bedroom flat. Paired with solar panels to keep costs down and in a well insulated home, an electric boiler could be cost-effective but the added power load could also melt wiring. Ask an electrician whether you need thicker cables from the boiler to the fuse board (£500) or to the mains (£1,500), says Chris Keri-Nagy, the director of Gastrax Gas and Heating in Surrey. He had to abandon plans to fit eight electric boilers in new flats in Croydon when mains cabling in the street could not cope with the extra demand.
“I wouldn’t put an electric boiler in unless you absolutely have to,” he says.
You could add infrared heating panels instead. Infrared heating differs from normal convection heating in that infrared waves heat any objects they hit. If you are standing in front of a panel, you will be warm, but you will block the heat from getting to anyone behind you. Convection heating warms up the air it travels through, so everyone near the heat source will be warm.
Slim infrared panels (from £200) can be fitted on walls or ceilings and be invisible or disguised as mirrors. They have a heating range of about 10ft.
“It’s a bit unproven whether you get the same comfort level; they would heat your front, but not your back, for example,” Price says.
Without high levels of insulation, infrared heating will still push up your bills, Palmer says.
Heat pumps
By reversing the process that cools a fridge, heat pumps absorb warmth from the air or ground. For every 1kWh of electricity, they create 3kWh of heat, so have less than half the emissions of a gas boiler for about the same running cost.
Britain sells 20,000 heat pumps a year, compared with 220,000 in France. For most UK homes to get a heat pump, electricity generation would have to double and cabling be upgraded, according to the Policy Exchange, a centre-right think tank. “The grid would melt down,” Palmer says.
For an air-source heat pump (£5,000-£8,000) you need space away from windows and neighbours to place the humming air conditioning-sized unit on an exterior wall.
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