Chew Valley Home

Green Flare designed and installed a renewable heating and energy system for a homeowner in Chew Valley.

LOCATION

Chew Valley

HEAT PUMP

Mitsubishi Electrics

SOLAR PV

JA Solar

ANNUAL CO₂ SAVINGS

1.7 Tonnes

BATTERY STORAGE

Pylontech

SOLAR GENERATED (Aug23)

10,021 kWh

Overview

When building their own home in Chew Valley, the homeowners wanted to make the property as environmentally friendly as possible from the very beginning.

The house was constructed using ICF foam, creating a highly insulated and efficient building fabric. Green Flare was brought in to design and install a complete renewable energy solution that would support the performance of the home while helping the family reduce their reliance on traditional energy sources.

The result is a joined-up renewable energy system combining solar PV, battery storage, mechanical ventilation and an air source heat pump. Each part of the system was designed to work with the fabric of the building, helping to keep the home comfortable, efficient and ready for every day life.

Technology

Green Flare designed a complete microgeneration solution for the ICF home, bringing together multiple renewable technologies.

The system includes

Challenges

The main challenges was designing a renewable system that could replace the existing gas boilers while still meeting the property's wider energy requirements.

This was not only about heating the house and providing hot water. The system also needed to support the swimming pool, which has previously relied on two gas boilers. Swimming pool heating can create a significant and consistent energy demand, so the system has to be specified carefully to ensure it could perform efficiently.

This project also involved assessing the existing solar PV system and whether it was still delivering strong enough performance. Although the property alrady had solar panels, the older system was no longer as productive as it could be. Green Flare's assessment showed that replacing the panels made good economic sense, with the client highlighting an estimated payback period of three to four years.

By combining heat pumps, solar PV and battery storage, Green Flare was able to deliver amore complete energy system rather than treating each technology separately.

“We were very lucky finding Green Flare. We talked to a variety of people, and with Green Flare we found Tom and Matt, who really understand what they're doing.

Various schemes were proposed, and when we finally came up with the right solution, we were extremely happy with it. I have to say the analysis they providing was spot on.

We had existing solar panels, but we did wonder whether they were as productive as they could be. The new panels are about five times more productive than the 15-year-old panels we had, so it made good economic sense to replace them.

The payback period may be three, maybe four years, but very good. Green Flare have come good. I can recommend them. You can trust them. They're knowledgeable, experienced, and if you've got the money to invest, it's a good place to invest"

Homeowner - Wells