Green Homes Network

The owners of this house in Girvan installed a solar water heating system in January 2009. The system heats the water to 70^oC and Mr Sykes confirms that “minimal top-up is required from the regular heating system to boost temperatures.” The £4,000 installation by CEIBA Renewables incurred no disruption, however homeowner Mr Sykes advises increasing the number of evacuated tubes that your installer recommends. The recommended 20 tubes would have required “continuous topping up from the heating system” explains Mr Sykes.

This Ayrshire home also has 300mm loft insulation and mahogany floorboards which were reclaimed from a local school and installed to cover the stone-flagged floor. Moreover, all lights are energy saving and all white goods such as fridges and washing machines are A-rated for energy efficiency.

In May 2010, Mr Sykes decided to progress his renewable journey with the installation of solar photovoltaic panels. The ground-mounted 3.6kW system has an output of 3mW per year and the equivalent coverage of three quarters of the home’s roof. The panels were installed by Beyond Innovation at a cost of £14,000.

In April 2011, Bert’s wind turbine was upgraded from 3.6 to 6kW to have an output of 14.4mW of output annually. Neither installation incurred disruption. According to Mr Sykes, the original wind turbine was a “full-scale prototype micro-wind turbine”. The success of this installation allowed him to invest its profits in the subsequent technologies and now he has an electric AGA range which is fed by the wind turbine and solar panels.