It’s a funny thing isn’t it? As long as the biggest benefit to using renewable energy was cutting your carbon emissions, take-up was relatively slow. But a cost of living crisis driven by the energy supply fallout from the war in Ukraine has changed all that.

Now, renewable isn’t just about saving the planet. It’s about cutting your energy costs and protecting your energy supply too. But if those are the big, headline benefits of renewables, what are the individual benefits of the most popular technologies to achieve it?

In this post, we’ll look at the benefits of air source heat pumps and the benefits of solar PV.

Air source heat pump benefits

You can find out more about what an air source heat pump (ASHP) is and how it works here. Of greater importance, though, is the difference an ASHP can make. The benefits of an air source heat pump include:

Cost savings

It does depend on what your ASHP is replacing, but according to E.On, you could save around £1,100 per year switching from old storage heaters and about half that (a still very worthwhile £510) by switching from an old gas boiler.

Long-lasting savings

It’s not just that your ASHP will lower your bills; it will keep them lowered. An ASHP benefits from durability and high reliability (as long as you keep it well maintained). So whilst a gas boiler will never be as efficient as it was in year one (and keep deteriorating in efficiency every year thereafter), an ASHP will keep performing.

Because it’s a really efficient way to heat

According to the Energy Saving Trust, an ASHP is efficient because the electrical energy it uses to power itself is far less than the heating or cooling energy it creates.

Think of it this way. According to British Gas, an old boiler is around 60% efficient. That means around 40% of the energy your old boiler uses is doing something other than creating heat. It might be lost powering the boiler. It might simply be wasted. Even a new boiler isn’t 100% efficient, and it will become less efficient as it gets older.

But an air source heat pump is 300% efficient – that is, it produces around three times more energy than it takes in. It’s one of the biggest benefits of an ASHP.

Because it doesn’t just heat

It’s true that we spend most of our time with clients talking about an air source heat pump’s ability to heat. But when it’s hot outside, one of the biggest benefits of an ASHP is that it effectively becomes an air conditioner, transferring warm heat from inside your home to the outside.

Solar pv benefits

Like ASHPs, solar PV (that is, solar photovoltaics – or solar panels in simple terms) save you money. E.On estimates about £713 a year from a  12 panel, 5kW installation.

Simple to install

A heat pump may offer bigger savings and deliver those benefits year round, but installation is more involved. It’s fair to say that accessing the benefits of solar PV involves rather less effort.

Low maintenance

It’s not just installation that offers solar PV benefits. There’s very little involved in maintaining a solar panel installation, save from ensuring the panels are given a clean every once in a while and you replace the energy inverters once every decade or so. Few renewable energy options are quite so low effort.

Sell the energy

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is a government initiative that allows you to sell excess electricity back to the grid. Your energy provider sets the price, but it means that you can benefit twice from the electricity your solar panels generate, once by lowering your energy bills and again by getting a quarterly payment from your energy provider.

Power your heat pump

Want to double down on the benefits of an air source heat pump and solar PV? With the right size solar array you could use the electricity generated by your panels to power your heat pump.

Do that, and the 300% efficiency of your ASHP becomes even greater.

Why Green Improve?

Because we match real expertise with the very best products. So if you want to explore how best to benefit from ASHPs or solar, talk to us.

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