Wednesday 16 October 2013

Is it time to put solar panels on your roof?


HOW WILL I EARN MONEY?

You’ll be paid a minimum sum for all electricity generated by your system, known as the Feed-In Tariff (Fit). You’ll currently get 14.9p per kilowatt hour (kwh) for each unit of electricity you create.

You get 4.6p for every unit sold back to the Grid. Together, these payments boost your savings because your on-site electricity reduces the bill from your normal supplier.

Sign up now and this tariff will be frozen for 20 years — and rises with inflation. The Energy Saving Trust estimates half of all the power created by homes with solar panels is sold back to the Grid.

WHAT SAVINGS ARE THERE?

About £800 a year, typically. For example, a family of four in a three-bed property who buy a 4kWh solar panel system will earn about £560 a year from their supplier just for generating the solar electricity.

On top of this, they will then make £90 from selling power back to the National Grid via their energy supplier.

And finally, they’ll typically knock £150 from their electricity bill by using their own power instead of buying it all from their supplier.

This works out as approximately £800 of savings in total.

To find out what kind of savings you could make, use the solar energy calculator on the Energy Saving trust website.

At these rates, you need to be prepared to stay in your current property for a minimum of eight years to make it worthwhile. The key to making big savings is to use as many of your appliances as possible in the daytime when you are generating your own power.

Your installer should show you how everything works and you must register the Feed-In Tariff.

A new meter then shows you how much energy is being generated — and how much you are exporting.


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Thursday 5 September 2013

5 live Energy Day 5th September


On Thursday 5th September we’ll find out, as we fill the public piazza at BBC North with solar panels, wind turbines, processed chip fat for biofuel and enough exercise bikes to keep Richard Bacon’s show on-air by pedal-power…if our guests and listeners can cycle fast enough!

It all starts at 7am when we switch on a specially constructed mini-grid. For the next 12 hours a temporary outside studio in the piazza will be powered only by renewable energy.


BBC 5 live Energy Day

Wednesday 4 September 2013

Save money and make your home more energy efficient. See what you can claim


The tool works via a questionnaire, which asks you basic questions about your financial situation and your home to fit you in to one of three categories - low income, living in a hard-to-treat home or potential Green Deal customer.

British Gas ECO tool

Energy Company Obligations

The ECO is split into three different schemes which are all funded by money from the 'big six' energy providers.

The Affordable Warmth Obligation funds improvements such as boiler replacement and repair, and insulation for those that qualify through means testing.

The Carbon Saving Obligation helps fund insulation on internal, external and hard-to-treat cavity walls where the costs would be cripplingly expensive.

Under the ECO there is also a Carbon Saving Communities Obligation, which aims to provide 100 per cent funding for insulation for the bottom 15 per cent most deprived and rural areas in the UK.

Thursday 29 August 2013

30 SECOND GUIDE: ECO

Ah, the green agenda.

Quite. ECO in this case stands for the Energy Company Obligation, a flagship government policy introduced in January to make big power firms help householders boost the energy efficiency of their homes.

How does it work?

In theory it cuts carbon emissions and supports people living in fuel poverty by funding energy efficiency improvements worth around £1.3bn every year.

Such as?

Insulation of houses and flats, affordable heating and solid wall or hard-to-treat cavity wall insulation are all included.

What’s the downside? As they are obliged to subsidise households the big energy firms complain it costs too much and is less effective than hoped.

Any examples?

Sam Laidlaw, boss of British Gas owner Centrica, yesterday added to RWE npower’s criticisms. He called for a sit-down with the Government to see if this is the most cost-effective way of reducing carbon emissions. Centrica reckons £1 in every £4 spent on heating bills is wasted due to poor insulation.

So bills could come down

Don’t hold your breath. Where energy is concerned, consumers are usually hardest hit. The ‘Big Six’ providers’ profits keep rising while average dual fuel bills are now more than £1,400 a year.


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