- Direct link to products
- Downloads
- Article: Be your own power station
- Clean electricity
- Keeping the lights on
- Save energy
- Complying with the new Building Regulations
- Be your own power station
- Make it Air-Tight
- Heat Recovery
- Time to go solar
- Mother earth will provide
- Blowing in the wind
- Towards a low to zero carbon economy
Low to Zero Carbon Technologies
Despite the demand for energy beginning to outstrip supply, the global community is still reacting slowly to address the issues of energy efficiency and climate change. Fossil fuels are not only finite but their burning has a detrimental impact on our environment through global warming and therefore on long-term economic sustainability. Coal, Oil and Gas will eventually but inevitably run out and in the meantime their burning releases deadly greenhouse gases.
Renewable sources of energy are inexhaustible, clean and carbon free. Solar, wind, wave, biomass, geothermal and nuclear are all renewable sources of energy. ‘Low to Zero Carbon Technologies’ both in the home and at a national level are the long term solution to climate change, combined with energy efficient behaviour changes from us all . At a national level increased use of LZCT’s produce ever cleaner electricity, which modern Electric Heating & Hot water products can utilise. Used directly in the home it’s possible to produce low carbon and bill free heating and hot water; not in the future, but today, from Applied Energy.
If you have any comments or questions, please use our forum to ask our team.
Direct link to products
- Digitemp- From our Xpelair range comes Digitemp; an air-source heat pump that cools, heats and dehumidifies all from a single wall hung unit. A co-efficient of performance of 3 means it can generate up to 3 times more heat energy than it consumes.
- Credanet- Credanet by Creda is the intelligent ‘learning’ electric central heating system for the 21st century. By more closely matching heat supply with demand it can exceed the requirements of proposed building regulations (Part L) 2006. Used with green electricity tariffs this becomes the leading low carbon electric solution.
- Whole House Heat Recovery - Our Xpelair range offers the solution to wasted heat leaving your home. Outgoing heat energy is hygienically transferred to incoming air, invisibly and silently lowering your overall need for central heating; lowering carbon emissions and your heating bill!
- Eco-Response - Creda has launched a brand new product that will directly challenge and meet the Part L demand for low carbon emmissions with domestic heating.
Downloads
Part L documents from the Government:
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L2B Work in existing buildings that are not dwellings Building Regulations Part L1 (2006)
Be your own power station
As the effects of climate change strike across the planet and energy prices rise inexorably; Applied Energy suggest a technical solution to economic sustainability that’s available today! “Become your own power station”
Despite the demand for energy beginning to outstrip supply, the global community is still reacting slowly to address the issues of energy efficiency and climate change. Fossil fuels are not only finite but their burning has a detrimental impact on our environment through global warming and therefore on long-term economic sustainability.
Only the self delusional or culpably self-interested now doubt that carbon dioxide emissions are driving the devastating and sometimes lethal effects of freak weather patterns and climate change.
But a solution is at hand. The technology already exits to build houses in such a way that not only are they energy efficient, they are almost self sufficient. The zero carbon building produces no Carbon Dioxide and by combining all the available innovations can actually export carbon free energy back into the electricity grid.
The life time cost savings to the house-holder are obvious; the impact on climate change if replicated across the industrialised world could be nothing short of revolutionary.
Clean electricity
The generation of electricity has traditionally been based on burning fossil fuels. Coal, oil and natural gas are finite resources which will eventually but inevitably run out. Burning fossil fuels generates carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions. Across the world, the demand for energy is growing and placing greater pressure on both the availability of scarce fossil fuels and therefore the sustainability of the industrialised economies and the natural environments they are built upon.
Renewable sources of energy are inexhaustible, clean and carbon free. Solar, wind, wave, biomass, geothermal and nuclear are all renewable sources of energy. The technology and the readily available products now exists for average households to harness these carbon free and often operating cost free sources of energy. But before we look at how to turn your house into its own power station, we need to ask why it’s necessary.
As we move quickly towards global ‘peak oil’, the phrase used by specialists to describe the point at which the peak of supply is reached; after which supply falls and prices inevitably rise. And towards the UK becoming a net importer of gas, there is a recognised need for a dramatic shift in UK energy policy. The Energy White Paper of 2003 clearly laid out challenges for the UK that will lead to cleaner and more efficient forms of energy generation and distribution. The long-term security of energy supplies is often cast in a geo-political light. Both our oil and gas supplies are now increasingly sourced from some of the least politically stable parts of the world; although it’s a truth that dare not speak it’s name, security of energy supplies now dictates much of our foreign policy and that of other major industrialised countries.
Keeping the lights on
But security of supply has other dimensions. The physical distribution of oil and gas are clear and surprisingly easy targets for terrorism for example. The distribution of energy also remains hugely wasteful, which is perhaps the key environmental advantage to becoming your own power station, more of which later. Internal energy policy is another dimension, in particular the decision to recommence a civil nuclear power generation programme, which could boost carbon-free domestic energy supplies but has the intractable problem of nuclear waste and the risk of disaster.
Many environmental campaigners have now publicly switched camps to support civil nuclear power, swayed by the climate change benefits, great advances in safety technology and the fact that new ‘passive safe nuclear reactors’ generate only 10% of the radioactive waste of current reactors.
Save energy
However, perhaps the key dimension to security of supply is energy efficiency in the form of behavioural change from us all and technological advances. The Energy Saving Trust provides excellent and simple advice we should all be compelled to follow. Their ‘Recommended’ logo is becoming a well recognised endorsement for energy-saving and therefore bill reducing products. A visit to www.est.org.uk can be a profitable experience.
But what of the technological solution much vaunted by the United States. Although it should never be considered in isolation it does present real opportunities. Nuclear we have mentioned and others would point to large scale tidal schemes. More still would point to the latest generation of power stations. Integrated gasification combined cycle power plants (IGCC’s) coupled with carbon sequestration and storage, which ambitiously plans to pump the damaging carbon dioxide into the space under the sea left by the gas. These are all serious contenders in a balanced energy policy, but require massive capital spend and take years to build. Nonetheless it will probably require all of them to stop the lights from going out!
So what of your personal balanced energy policy? Technological advances are affording us more practical opportunities much closer to home. Combined Heat & Power (CHP) plants which use gas to both produce hot water and electricity are already a common fixture in progressive designs for hospitals, schools, blocks of flats and larger public buildings. Domestic or micro CHP is just a few years away from commercial availability to the average household. It is dCHP that holds out the prospect of householders exporting electricity back into the grid, but before then we need to ensure we don’t need it all for ourselves and, however efficient these appliances may be, they still use a finite, carbon dioxide producing fuel at their heart.
When fossil fuels do run out, heating and hot water appliances, often the single largest energy user in a home will no longer be able to be powered by coal, oil or natural gas. Clearly an innovative solution is required in the long-term, but the effects may well be felt long before the final breath of natural gas is guzzled by the last gas-fired power station.
The effects of so called ‘Peak Oil’ are upon us now. World markets are pricing-in the anticipated falling supply; many experts now confidently predict that oil and gas prices will continue to rise. In response to all these issues the UK is introducing legislation and regulation that promotes energy efficiency either through stick or carrot.
Complying with the new Building Regulations
In April 2006 the aspects of the buildings regulations in England & Wales which are concerned with the conservation of fuel & power and ventilation are being completely revised. These are parts L & F for the uninitiated. Part L incorporates the enactment into law of the European Performance of Buildings Directive which aims to improve energy performance of all buildings across the EU.
Together they set out some demanding yet achievable challenges for anyone concerned with constructing or refurbishing buildings. The focus for new buildings is an improvement in design and materials used, to reduce heat losses. The office of the deputy Prime Minister which is responsible for Building Regulations is targeting a 25% improvement in the energy efficiency of new buildings as a result of the changes. They also gave notice of future changes, perhaps as early as 2010 that may require a further similar level of improvement.
One striking aspect of the new building regulations is the method of demonstrating compliance with them. Each building will be set a Target Carbon Emission Rate or TCER which it must not exceed if it is to be granted building control approval. This applies equally to a single house or a large block of flats. Although in the case of the latter, so called ‘block assessment’ will promote the inclusion new technologies like solar thermal collectors on the roof, or ground source heat-pumps underground.
Since 2004 it has been a legal requirement for Local Authorities to comply with Planning Policy Statement 22 (PPS-22) which requires that renewable energy developments such as these should be accommodated and promoted; regardless, it has yet to be widely embraced.
With the alternative electricity from renewable sources, and the rapidly growing availability of domestic low to zero carbon products, the long term future for heating our homes and providing us with safe hot water must rest with appliances that can utilise renewable energy in the form of electricity. In the short term, electric has a significant role to play in the UK. Surprisingly at least 10% of the UK population does not have easy access to a gas supply. The more rapidly the production of electricity moves to renewable sources the better. Of course eventually the long term demise of gas will dictate that all our heating and hot water is either produced utilising appliances powered by electricity from renewable sources or directly from low to zero carbon technologies in the home.
Be your own power station
The first step to becoming your own power station is ensuring that your requirement for power or ‘energy’ is as low as possible. You will of course be helped in this endeavour (whether you requested that help or not) by a plethora of new regulations. Changes to the building regulations we have mentioned, but look out for the Energy Using Products Directive amongst others.
Make it Air-Tight
The tighter your home is the less heat loss occurs. As heating and hot water are the biggest energy users, in your quest to become a net exporter of energy you will not want to be wasting heat through the roof.
Cavity wall insulation and Air-Crete blocks will help significantly. Watch out for something called thermal-bridging though. This occurs where the design of a building allows heat to transfer through the structure and out into the environment. Global warming is concerning enough without you adding to the problem. Technical solutions to thermal-bridging include using split lintels, low thermal conductivity brick work, setting doors and windows into the plane of a wall and using modified roof trusses to ensure adequate thickness of insulation at the eaves. Of course don’t forget about correctly insulating lofts and lagging pipes and tanks to the latest standards.
Glazing requires careful consideration in your new suburban power station. Triple glazed, gas-filled specifications will reduce heat losses and provide excellent sound proofing.
The controllability of heating and hot water appliances in your house is another factor. When supply more accurately and more rapidly matches demand, there is an overall reduction in energy use. Modern, sometimes intelligent or ‘learning’ controls for both gas and electric heating systems will reduce your energy output.
Heat Recovery
As your home becomes tighter and requires ever-less energy input to achieve the same comfort levels, you will begin to resent losing any heat at all. Whole-house heat-recovery systems are the answer. Correctly specified ducting throughout the house leading to a heat-exchanger with incoming fresh-air will solve the problem of ventilation and possible condensation in your air-tight house. Crucially it also ensures that the energy used to create the otherwise wasted outgoing heat is hygienically exchanged to the in-coming air.
Time to go solar
There are two types of solar power. Photo Voltaic cells often referred to as Solar Panels generate electricity. On a small scale these are the little fellows last seen on 1980’s calculators. These days they are much more effective than they used to be, and on large industrial scale have a role to play. However, rising raw material prices have currently put them outside domestic viability on a strictly economic analysis. Nonetheless as we shall see later than can still play a role.
Your first choice is a solar thermal collector, either as a flat-plate design or vacuum tube variety. Solar thermal collectors generate free hot water from the sun. Contrary to popular opinion they do not require direct sun-light to operate but work across the light spectrum ensuring that hot water is produced even on cloudy days. An intelligently controlled circulation unit pumps water around the collector, heating it up in the process and then storing it in a highly insulated tank for future use. Modern solar collectors from reputable companies are extremely efficient and can provide the majority of a families hot water needs across the year.
Mother earth will provide
Geothermal energy is perhaps the most bountiful after that of the sun. At depths greater than two metres the temperature of the earth is higher than the surface temperature and remarkably stable throughout the seasons. Ground- source heat-pumps can efficiently make use of that free energy. The process is quite simple; they pump a refrigerant through an underground pipe network transferring the heat under the earth into the liquid, which in turn transfers it to the water in your heating system.
This hot water could be stored in much the same way as a solar thermal collector or used for space heating. But as you already have stored hot water the installation of an under-floor heating system will now afford you an almost carbon and bill free central heating system. It’s almost because both solar thermal collectors and heat-pumps require a small amount of electricity to power the pump, although this could be solved with a photo-voltaic solar panel.
Heat-pumps do not have to rely entirely on the ground for a source of free geo-thermal energy. Water, brine and air-source heat pumps are all commercially available, working to slightly different principals and degrees of efficiency. It’s also worth remembering that Heat-Pumps currently qualify for just 5% VAT on installation.
Blowing in the wind
Next you need a micro-wind turbine for your 4-bed detached power station. A windmill to you and I, these are just becoming commercially available in the UK and can be mounted on most roofs. Very small micro-wind turbines will produce as little as 0.5kW, but the larger the better for our purposes. It is surprising how much energy our houses are using even when we are not home. Electronic equipment on standby, refrigerators and freezers and poorly controlled heating systems are major culprits.
In addition to all the simple tips we got from the energy saving trust, a micro-wind turbine will help negate the small amounts of ‘base-load’ electricity required in modern houses.
So there you have it; from free renewable sources we are producing heat, hot water and electricity. We have built our house in such a way as to reduce our energy needs and recovered the little we may have wasted.
Towards a low to zero carbon economy
The link between economic development and environmental sustainability was first recognised at a UN conference in 1972. It took until the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 for Governments to agree concrete actions and targets to achieve sustainable development world-wide. And yet another five years before the Kyoto Protocol was approved in 1997. This mandated industrialised nations to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide. The UK is obligated to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2012. To their credit the UK government set itself the tougher target of 20% below 1990 levels by 2010, although it now seems clear that this target will be missed.
In January 2000, the DTI announced aims for Renewable sources to account for 10% of electricity generation by 2010 and that by 2020, despite growing demand for electricity, energy efficiency improvements should reduce demand overall. The vision is for new homes to be designed with little requirement for energy, with progress being made towards low or even zero carbon emissions. The Energy White Paper of 2003 set four goals for future energy policy:
- To cut the UK's CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050
- To maintain the reliability of energy supplies
- To promote competitive markets in the UK and beyond
- To ensure that every home is adequately and affordably heated
To a large extent these goals are intertwined and the actions required to achieve them possess a degree of commonality. Energy efficiency reduces CO2 emissions and preserves supplies. Moderated demand for energy will moderate the price; or at least slow the rate of increase, promoting competitiveness. An Energy efficient home is easier to heat and costs less to do so.
Energy efficiency in the form behavioural changes from us all may not be the silver bullet that saves us, technological advances and Government policies around the world are crucial; but without it we will fail to combat the devastating impact of climate change.
A range of innovative products and solutions are becoming readily available from reputable manufacturers. Applied Energy is just one company providing professional Specifiers with an advantage in meeting the soon to be required Target Carbon Emission Rates and householders with bill reducing technologies. Innovative products combined with improved air-tightness and reduced heat losses will make a major contribution to the UK’s targets on reducing CO2 emissions.
