Are Renewable technologies worth it in a new build?

6 years ago

Does anybody install renewable technologies in their new build due to financial reasons these days? Due to the cost of these technologies, I cannot see how financially it would benefit a new build which is disheartening considering I was investigating installing solar, rain water harvesting, Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery (MVHR) and UFH.

In my current bungalow, we have black mouldy in the top corners of each room. After drilling holes and sending cameras into our walls, the report stated we don't open windows enough and we had over insulted our attic. Can't win. I was looking into a MVHR system to avoid this happening in the new build bungalow we are designing but the eco subject is a mine field which is spinning my head right now. Also, living in Wales, rain is something we have plenty of but I don't know anymore.

Any advice out there?

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Comments (5)

PRO
User
6 years ago
You may find this article helpful. It describes all the current renewable energies, their performance issues and costs.

Funnily enough, we were talking about this just the other day. I'm not a fan of underfloor heating, i'm sure there are arguments for it, however, each to their own. I cannot see, how it can beat being able to turn down the radiators in individual rooms. We have solar, and were lucky enough to get in before the first tariff drop, We earn 43p I think, plus another 3p from the Energy Provider - so 46p. We produce enough electric to cover all gas and electric bills combined, plus we make a bit on top. Yes it was expensive to start with, however, we paid for it within the first 5 years, so we're quids in. However, of course, although the price of the panels has dropped a little, you now get peanuts compared, so, I agree, is it worth it?

Anyway, here's the guide:- homebuilding.co.uk/renewable-technology-guide/

Stunning Bungalow by the way.
acew1234
6 years ago
I recognise your confusion..we have been the same for 18 months. The more we researched the worse it got!

Try reading Eco minimalism by Howard Liddell.
We eventually came to our conclusion then someone lent us the book..it could have saved us tearing our hair out!

We have spent the last year being completely confused by all the expensive options. It seemed very uneco to add so much 'stuff'.
We decided to stick with oil ( no gas here ) but then found as we are in Scotland and had the Saps report calculated...we had to counteract the oil boiler with so many pvs we had to re look at it all.
It was all getting very expensive for the energy requirements a highly insulated house would require. RHI payments we would receive would be low.
We are building highly insulated house with triple glazed Windows ( northern coastal facing) and mvhr.
Our heating /hot water will come from a back boiler from a woodburner ( very low output to the room and high to the thermal store). We have a plentiful wood supply and are in most days.
We will have UFH downstairs and I've insisted on a radiator in each of the bedrooms although we won't use them very much.
We are having a couple of solar thermal panels for hot water too.

We'll see how we go! If we need more options we will add it to the thermal store later but we'd prefer to keep it simple.
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Patrick Kavanagh
6 years ago
Hi Harri,
We put in MVHR, geothermal UFH and triple glazed windows when we built almost ten years ago. We have found the whole system to work amazingly. The house is a constant 21 C, we only open windows in the summer months, the house is highly insulated with an airtight membrane and we have never had mildew anywhere, not even in bathrooms. My advice would be price around, even the obscure small family run businesses. We had people quote us €16,000 for MVHR and we had it fully installed for €3,500 by a local medium sized family run insulation business. I hope this is of some help. All we can say is we are very happy with our energy bills & comfort levels.
Harri
Original Author
6 years ago
Great to hear that I'm not the only one confused by all these eco products. Even though we've got plenty of rain in Wales, the more I'm reading about rainwater harvesting, such as the 15-30 years payback time, the more I'm turning off it which is a shame as we would have been doing our bit by recycling water. Maybe stick to having water butts in the garden.

We'll have to have oil as we don't have gas here either and I was thinking triple glazing on the North side and I'm still undecided about the MVHR. I like the idea of it but... also, I know lots of people put underfloor heating downstairs and radiators upstairs but it should be possible to mix radiators and UFH on the one floor being a bungalow, shouldn't it? We also have to have a septic tank as we are too far from the main sewer.
acew1234
6 years ago
We have to have some form of ventilation for Scottish building regs, either trickle vents or a system of some sort.
We found the best prices for the septic tank were from Direct Drainage. We had to do perculation tests, I timed it to the second but planning insisted a surveyor to do it, £500 later he stood there chatting for about 40 minutes and said that's about right!
We also have to put in a water storage tank to maintain our water pressure as we are the last in the line?
We are having rain water harvesting..just something my partner was insistent on from the start for some weird unexplainable reason. We have so much rain here and we aren't on a metre .....anyway the tank has arrived..!

Are Renewable technologies worth it in a new build?

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Are Renewable technologies worth it in a new build?

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