what is your Motivation?

Being honest about why you’re considering renewable energy is likely to lead to a more satisfactory solution. The most often quoted reasons include: to reduce energy bills, futureproofing and/or reducing CO2 emissions (otherwise, concern for the planet). This last reason is likely to lead to a greater willingness to invest, or maybe a willingness to invest more than you would otherwise plan to.

Around 30% of the energy that goes into a power station arrives at the house as electricity — the remainder being wasted and lost in transmission. So it can be argued that producing electricity on site does the greatest good.

But before specifying renewables for your home, it’s worth noting that reducing energy bills is best achieved by investing in the house itself. In the main, and as mentioned previously, this means improving thermal efficiency (typically through

high levels of insulation and airtightness), which

Mains gas is still relatively cheap – cheaper to install than renewable technology and fairly cheap to run – but obviously it is not renewable. If it is available in the road outside it cannot be ignored, and paired with renewable energy like solar thermal or an air source heat pump, it can be the best option. Such a combination provides some income from the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) (more on which later) and a degree of futureproofing. It also takes greatest advantage of the winter/summer dilemma — a condensing gas boiler works best in winter while solar thermal and air source heat pumps work best in summer.