Ardenham Energy and Sun and Soil offer fully funded ground source heat pumps for rural businesses.
A new capital funding solution for rural businesses to install ground source heat pumps is being launched by Ardenham Energy in collaboration with Sun and Soil Ltd.
Large, heat-intensive businesses such as care homes, country house hotels, golf clubs and leisure centres which are off the gas grid and are currently using oil or LPG boilers or electric immersion to generate heat and hot water for their premises can make dramatic savings in energy costs by using this renewable energy technology.
Through finance offered by Sun and Soil’s investors, businesses can have a ground source heat pump installed and maintained by Ardenham Energy for free.
In exchange, businesses sign a long-term lease agreeing to use the heat generated by the system. The business pays for the electricity to operate the system and a small amount per unit of heat generated, which combined amounts to a running cost significantly below expensive fossil fuel prices. Part of the cost of the system is recouped from the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.
Neil Lawson, head of renewable heat at Ardenham Energy, says:
“Ground source heat pumps are an intelligent solution to heating and hot water requirements for many large businesses, especially those off grid. However they can be expensive to install. Through this finance option now on offer, we can remove any high upfront capital cost and ensure permanently lower fuel bills for many energy-hungry businesses.”
Andy Allen, director of Sun and Soil Ltd, says:
“We know we can bring fuel bills down from about 7 pence per kilowatt hour for oil boilers, and 10 pence per kilowatt hour for LPG boilers, to about 4 or 5 pence per kilowatt hour. This creates an immediate saving in energy costs. An example being a care home which currently operates two oil boilers costing over £30,000 per year to run*, where we estimate savings of more than £9,600 can be made in the first year alone, and rising to £20,000 a year by the tenth year of operation. The savings continue upwards from there.
“But the true value comes from the fact that businesses can become largely self-sufficient, almost entirely isolated from the huge costs of fuel, which is likely to keep on rising. According to BP, at current production rates oil reserves shall last for only 54 years longer, and as all fossil fuel prices follow the oil price this is extremely bad news for businesses using oil or LPG.
“Whereas with a ground source heat pump 75% of the heat energy required will be extracted from the ground for free, saving money and locking in the cost of heating. The installations are the most high tech, top specification heating systems available. Our role is to bring green energy within reach of many more organisations.”
Ground source heat pumps work through pumping fluid through a network of pipes usually installed in boreholes or ground loops in trenches across land next to a building. The fluid circulates and collects low temperature ambient heat from the ground, and the heat from this process is transferred and intensified via a heat pump inside the building. The technology is particularly popular as it has a proven long lifespan, is very low maintenance, highly efficient, makes no noise, produces no other emissions and creates no fire or safety risks.
Ardenham Energy offers a full heat pump design and installation service to customers throughout the country, with offices in the South, South West, Midlands, East Anglia and the North.
Businesses and property owners interested in exploring the new funding options should contact Ardenham Energy on 0800 3698 980.
Notes
* The financial illustration is based upon a real example of a 50 bedroom care home which operates two 200kW oil boilers for heating and hot water, costing £32,950 per year to operate. The existing boilers cost the care home 7.5p/kWh to operate and also require £800 maintenance per year. Working on the assumption of a conservative efficiency level (coefficiency of performance) of 3.8, the new funded ground source heat pump would cost the care home about 2p/kWh to operate. In addition, the lease terms would require the care home to ‘purchase’ the heat generated by the system at a cost of 2p/kWh – a fixed price over 20 years subject only to RPI. This model generates savings of £9,600 in year one, rising to £20,331 per year by year 10 and £42,700 a year by year 20, assuming a 6% annual increase in fossil fuel prices.
BP Statistical Review 2012, available here: http://www.bp.com/sectionbodycopy.do?categoryId=7500&contentId=7068481
