At the same time as electric cars are becoming more viable, the petrol/diesel engine is becoming less so. Of course it is a long way from dead but with rising forecourt prices, tanker driver strikes, congestion charges and critical shortages a real prospect within a generation it is time to look seriously at the alternatives.

Electric Vehicle Performance Levels

People tend to think of electric cars of being poor, performance wise, when compared to combustion engines. It is true that they cannot reach the same speeds but they can achieve the national speed limit of 70mph and a bit more so anything faster is just plain unnecessary. In other respects performance levels could actually be better, for example EVs have better breaking speeds due to a regenerative braking system, which uses braking energy to recharge the battery and full torque is available from standstill giving them a “nippier” feel. They are quiet too, with the only noise being wind a slight hum.

Range is obviously a factor and is the biggest hurdle that electric cars have to overcome before they can replace petrol engines completely. A conventional car can travel much further on a full tank of fuel than an EV can on a fully charged battery there is an abundance of petrol stations if you need to refuel but the gap is narrowing. The Nissan Leaf now has a range of 90 miles on a full charge and BMW claim their i3, due to be launched in 2013, will do 100 – 130 miles. Most people will very rarely drive this far in a single journey so the range is certainly sufficient for day to day use. The Tesla Roadster claims a range of 220 miles. It has a price tag of £90,000 so it is well outside most ordinary budgets but it demonstrates that the technology to go further on a single charge exists.

As well as the continual improvements in range, more and more public charging points are cropping up around the country allowing electric cars to go further still.

Charging Your Electric Vehicle at Home and Elsewhere

Most of the time you’ll charge your EV at home. An ordinary, so called “slow” charging point will provide a full charge in 6 – 8 hours, so if you put it on charge overnight it will be fully charged and ready for the next morning. All that is needed is a standard domestic 3 pin plug with a 13 amp fuse (the same as would be used in a large appliance such as a washing machine or something with a heating element). Alternatively a dedicated charging station can be installed for around £250 – £1000. This is recommended for older properties where the electrics have not been upgraded for a number of years for safety reasons. You will need off-street parking as naturally, trailing a power cable across a public footpath would not be permitted.

If you are away from home, you can still use one of over 2000 public charging points (many of which are free while Government incentives last) across the UK. Although you are likely to only have a slow charger at home, there are actually two other types, “fast” and “rapid”. A fast charger takes 3 – 4 hours to fully charge a battery and a rapid charger can provide 80% power in less than 30 minutes, perfect for refuelling on the road. Just plug in, grab a coffee at the services and when you’re done your ready to hit the road.

Low Road Tax and Refuelling Costs

The major economic advantage of the electric car is the low running cost. There are three things to consider, fuel, vehicle excise duty and maintenance costs.

Electric cars are zero rated for vehicle excise duty (road tax) so there is an instant saving. The cost of the electricity needed to charge the battery works out around 2p per mile (though admittedly this would be more if commercial charging points were regularly used) meaning that in a 10,000 mile year you could save around £800 compared with a petrol engine.

Although the cost of repairs to an electric car may be higher for a while as there are less mechanics with the necessary experience, there should also be less breakdowns because it has less moving parts than a conventional engine so there is less to go wrong and less to wear out. Batteries are expected to last around 7 years before capacity drops below 80%.

If you regularly drive in the London Congestion Zone you will find that an electric car is exempt from the charge, saving you as much as £10 per day.

Cost of Buying an Electric Car and the Plug In Car Grant

Electric cars are more expensive to buy than their petrol equivalents. The Nissan Leaf for example, essentially a small hatch, will set you back £24,000. This is simply a consequence of electric cars not being mass produced to the same level as conventional vehicles. To redress the balance, the Government has introduced the “Plug In Car Grant”. This is a grant toward the purchase of a new electric car worth 25% of the car’s value up to a maximum of £5,000. There are no applications to fill in, the paperwork will be dealt with by the dealership and the grant will be deducted from the purchase price at the point of sale.

Although even with the plug in car grant buying electric is still more expensive, prices are falling. In fact Renault, which will be launching its Z E range this year, has said it will keep electric car prices the same as equivalent diesel properties (after factoring in the Plug In Car Grant).

Related posts:

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2. Top Tips to Save Petrol

Having said this, what the events also highlighted was our dangerous over reliance on oil. Part of the reaction (of the public, there are no excuses for the Government or press) was understandable because the car has become such an intrinsic element of modern life and is for many a necessity. This is a very real and pressing concern. As oil supplies dwindle and global demand grows the price of oil will continue to rise. As well as increased prices at the pumps, tanker drivers will continue to be squeezed as distributors attempt to offset price increases which will mean that strikes or threats of strikes will become more common.

The Insanity of Oil Reliance

Of course when it comes to oil isn’t all about petrol. We use it to operate machinery and to fire many of our power stations. It is no exaggeration to say that were the oil supply to dry up today the nation would grind to a halt. And we are talking about a resource that it both finite and outside of our control. When supplies reach critical levels, there is no doubt that those countries which do control the oil won’t want to share it and if they do, the price will be high and may be measured in more than money.

Although there is basically peace between the Middle East and the West, the two regions have very different cultural and political ideas and it is fair to say that the various Governments tolerate each other simply because a delicate power balance exists and it would be dangerous to disturb it. As the oil dries up however the balance of power will shift to the East and we could be faced with a stark choice – do we trade our way of life for fuel? This might sound like the premise for a bad film but you only need to look at the way so many countries around the world have been forced by the West to change their way of thinking to avoid trade embargoes or acquire aid when the West has all the power to understand that the same could easily happen in reverse.

What Can We Do to Save Ourselves?

The good news is the future does not have to be bleak. There are alternatives to oil that we can control and that are not about to run out. Also, it is not all about replacing oil, there is plenty that can be done to ensure we need less and supplies last longer. All we need is a greater political will.

In Britain we have an abundance of wind, a surprising amount of useful sunlight and being an island, we are surrounded by waves. All of these natural phenomena contain vast amounts of energy. The trick is harnessing it, but the technology is there waiting to be fully developed. Like any new technology it needs investment to reach its full potential and the impetus must come in this case from Government, either in the form of direct investments or in the form of additional renewable energy incentives. You might read this and point to the feed in tariff scheme. Positive though this is, real change will only be effected when the technologies are developed on an industrial scale, so that energy companies are able to generate all of the electricity they produce without recourse to oil, gas or nuclear fuels.

Then there is the issue of the car. Can all petrol/diesel engine vehicles really be replaced by electric equivalents? There is a catch 22 here. Although the technology is here, sales of electric cars are hindered to a large extent by the lack of available charging stations. There is a lack of available charging stations because there are not enough electric cars to make them financially viable.

This is resolvable however. Temporary tax breaks could be introduced for petrol companies who install charging facilities on their forecourts for example or installing a charging facility could be a condition of the grant of planning permission for new petrol stations.

Whatever is done to loosen the grip of oil, recent events prove that action needs to be taken quickly.

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This warning follows a case of a Hampshire couple who have found themselves struggling to obtain a mortgage from two mainstream, CML member mortgage lenders, the Skipton Building Society and the Nationwide, who both state that the reason for refusal is the existence of a 25 year solar panel lease.

How Do Rent a Roof Schemes Operate?

Under feed-in-tariff scheme, designed to boost the domestic scale renewable energy generation market, those who install solar panels on a property are able to claim the tariff, currently 21p for every kilowatt hour generated, as well as benefiting from the free electricity produced by the panels. The tariff payments can be lucrative and on the right property with the right solar panels can be worth upwards of £1000 per year for 25 years.

There is no requirement however for the claimant to own the property upon which the panels are installed; he only needs to own the panels. As the free electricity is a real benefit on its own this has led a number of companies to offer to install panels free of charge in return for keeping the tariff payments. The home owner gets the free electricity with no outlay and the solar PV installer gets the guaranteed income from the tariff payments.

To ensure that they are allowed to keep the panels in place even upon a sale of the house itself a system has been devised whereby the homeowner grants the installer a 25 year lease of the roof space. This is then binding on future owners and, crucially, future mortgage lenders.

CML Guidance on Solar Panel Leases

Mortgage lenders will not generally tolerate third party interests which affect titles and may rank in priority to their charges as these can affect their security, making repossession or a subsequent sale more difficult or expensive and possibly even requiring them to buy out the interest should they wish to exercise their power of sale.

In response to the growing trend toward rent a roof schemes and the associated leases therefore the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), which represents the vast majority of high street lenders, including Skipton Building Society and Nationwide, found it necessary to formulate a plan for dealing with them. Its members did not simply want to refuse to lend and in so doing alienate a large section of the market (and be seen to be anti-green) but at the same time they did not want to place themselves at risk.

The result was a set of guidance notes on drafting solar panel leases in such a way as to be acceptable to mortgage lenders. This included a right for the lender to remove the panels and terminate the lease in the event that following repossession the lender is unable to sell or the value is reduced as a result of the panels, seemingly making the lender’s position safe.

Lenders’ Responses in Practice

Worryingly, in the Hampshire couple’s case the CML guidance was adhered to. Indeed, the installer even took the trouble to obtain the consent of their current lender, Royal Bank of Scotland, which approved the lease, so it was obviously a shock to discover that other lenders were not prepared to fall into line with the CML stance (which is not binding on lenders).

A spokeswoman for the Skipton Building Society said that they do lend on properties which are subject to a solar panel lease however their guidance to brokers, as at 20 February 2012, reads “The society will NOT lend where the panel provider is supplying and fitting panels free of charge, is taking income from the grid tariff scheme and is creating a long-term lease against the roof and roof air space.”

It was a similar story with the Nationwide, with the official line being that they are committed to lending on these projects but with the mortgage department telling the broker in this case on two occasions that they would only lend where they had lent originally.

Confusion Reigns but What’s the Solution?

The conclusion one must draw from this example is that whilst the boards of directors of the banks and building societies might be happy enough to lend, the message isn’t filtering down to those underwriters and advisers in the mortgage departments that make the lending decisions for individual customers, or it is but it is being ignored. This is perhaps not surprising given the recent history of dubious lending decisions and their consequences, resulting ultimately in global financial meltdown!

Time will help, as the decision makers learn more about solar panel leases and the boards have more opportunity to make clear their policies to their staff and the market for houses with existing solar panel leases is tested by future sales. Under the current CML guidelines however there is still a risk to lenders and these may have to change. As it stands, a lender can only remove the panels, which it may have to do at its own expense, if it has had trouble selling the property. The lender would therefore have to have marketed the property for longer than it would have normally expected to before being able to say that the solar panel lease is causing difficulties.

Even then it may not be so clear cut. When viewing a property and choosing not to buy; a buyer would rarely give just one reason. He might say “it needed a lot of work and I was concerned about the solar panel lease” or “I wasn’t sure about the area or the solar panel lease”. This could give rise to a legal challenge by an installer who thinks the lender is jumping the gun in asking for panels to be removed. All of this means potentially more loss to the lender in a negative equity situation.

So how to change things then? The only obvious solution would be to remove the lender’s obligation to show that the panels are affecting saleability and simply draft the leases in such a way that they have an automatic right to call for their removal on repossession. This would of course put installers in a dangerous position however as they would be gambling on the future popularity of solar panel leases to prevent lenders simply calling for their removal as a matter of policy.

Buying Your Solar PV Panels is the Safest Way

It seems that for now, the only safe way to proceed is to buy the panels outright. There is then no lease and nothing for lenders to be concerned with. Even if you don’t happen to have £8,000 – £10,000 spare cash, borrowing the money would still leave you better off financially than going down the rent a roof route if you do the deal right.

Related posts:

1. Consent of a Lender for Solar PV Rent a Roof Schemes
2. Where now with Pay As You Save (PAYS) scheme
3. FIT Rate Cuts, Is Now Still a Good Time to Buy Solar PV

So how does Mr Cameron and his coalition measure up? The public perception is that he comes up well short. A recent YouGov poll revealed that as few as 1 in 50 believe that his is delivering on his “greenest ever” pledge with 1 in 10 saying that this Government was actually less green than most previous Governments. That’s the perception, what about the facts?

The Green Deal

The biggest positive for the Government in its quest to be green is the Green Deal Scheme. This is an ambitious project to increase the energy efficiency of up to 14 million homes by offering cheap loans to pay for things like insulation, draught proofing and more efficient heating systems. The loans are structured in such a way as to ensure (theoretically at least) that the energy bill savings which result from the improvements are greater than the repayments so that with no initial outlay by the home owner he has nothing to lose.

Critics say that the Green Deal is just a cynical attempt to get rid of the subsidies provided schemes like the feed in tariff, renewable heat incentive and others. Proponents on the other hand point to the fact that the best way to cut fuel bills and reduce carbon emissions is to reduce energy use rather than encourage the use of renewable energy and the Green Deal does this where other schemes do not. They also make the point that funding for any subsidy scheme will run out eventually whereas the Green Deal is sustainable long term.

Solar Panel Subsidy Cuts and Future Spending Plans

In terms of environmental policy the biggest, or at least the most well publicised act of the coalition has been to cut the subsidies paid to the owners of solar panels. The feed in tariff was a scheme introduced by Labour under which installers of solar panels receive a payment in pence per kilowatt hour for each kilowatt hour of energy that their solar panels produce. Although they are paid for producing it, they actually get to keep the electricity for their own use.

At the outset the rate was 43.1p per kwh. In less than two years in charge the coalition has cut this in half. It is true that cuts to the rate were always part of the plan, the idea being that as the solar panel market grew the cost of new installations would fall so that the same percentage returns could be achieved with a lower tariff rate, but the scale of the cuts and the handling of them has drawn widespread criticism and have demonstrated an apparent lack of support for solar subsidies within the coalition.

Expensive though it may be, the feed in tariff scheme appeared to be producing the desired result, with tens of thousands getting involved and effectively reducing the carbon emissions from their homes by almost half. It may now die a death and if the Green deal does not prove an effective replacement the coalition may lose a lot of credibility with environmentalists.

Green Spending and Rhetoric

As well as cutting solar power subsidies and other schemes such as the Warm Front, the Government has come in for criticism over the collapse of a £1 billion project with Scottish Power to build a carbon capture and storage facility. In fact, since it came to power, the United Kingdom has gone from being the world’s 3rd biggest investor in green technologies to 13th. This is a pretty damning statistic however you look at it.

As well as the hard facts of the reduced investment, since his bold statement three days into his term, Cameron has failed to make a single speech on climate change. His Chancellor, George Osborne on the other hand has, saying that the UK would cut carbon emissions “no slower but also no faster than our fellow countries in Europe” and repeatedly criticising green policies as being too costly. Osborne is not alone either; a letter from 101 Conservative MPs attacking onshore wind farms makes it pretty clear where the party as a whole stands on the issue.

The Verdict on the “Greenest Government Ever”

Cameron said all the rights things during the election campaign, and who can forget him cycling to Westminster in his ridiculous helmet and bicycle clips, but beyond the PR he and his Government have done little to back up their promises on the environment. If the Prime Minister truly wants to be remembered as an environmental reformer he needs to rein in his party and in particular his Chancellor quickly and take one of two roads. He either needs to start investing hard cash in environmental projects or imposing harsher tax penalties on flagrant wasters of energy.

Neither approach will be popular in these tough economic times but then great reformers are like great artists, they are rarely appreciated until they’re gone.

We look forward to your comments and you can also post questions and thoughts on our Green Deal Forum section

Related posts:

1. What is the Green Deal Scheme?
2. Feed in Tariff – The Effect on Green Energy Production
3. Sweetening the Green Deal Scheme

Fortunately, switching has become a fairly straightforward process. It can be completed online or over the phone in around 4 – 6 weeks, usually without the need to contact your existing supplier meaning you can avoid that painful conversation where the customer service rep tries desperately to convince you to change your mind as though you are taking money right out of his pocket instead of the balance sheet of a faceless multinational with a turnover measured in billions. There are just a few steps you need to take to make sure the process goes smoothly.

Consider Discussing the Best Deals Available With Your Current Supplier

Above I mention avoiding getting into a conversation with your current supplier about switching but actually, if you are generally happy with them other than the size of your bill it can be worth talking to them. You might be surprised about what they can offer you if the alternative is that they lose a customer. Whatever you are offered though, do not agree to anything there and then on the telephone. Don’t be taken by the old “this deal is only available today” line, they are not going to turn away your business for the sake of a few days and this is just a tactic to trick you into entering into a contract without having the chance to have a proper look at all the options.

Instead, take the details of the deal they are offering and do a comparison check with other providers to see if you can do any better.

Fixed Rate/Capped Rate Contracts

Many contracts can be broken without penalty but if you are on a fixed rate or capped rate contract you may have to pay penalty charges when you switch. A fixed rate contract is where you pay the same rate throughout the term and a capped is where you pay no more than the starting rate throughout the term but can potentially benefit from a cheaper rate if the supplier decides to reduce its tariffs (say because of a fall in crude oil prices).

If you are going to incur penalty charges then you will need to take these into account when deciding whether it is worth switching. You should therefore find out what you will be charged if you are on a fixed or capped rate deal.

Be Aware that You Will Need to Settle Any Arrears

Unless you receive a quarterly bill which you settle in full in the traditional way and you switch at the end of the quarter, you will mostly likely be in arrears or in credit at any given time. You will often pay a fixed monthly amount which the supplier calculates based on your previous years’ fuel usage. Roughly speaking they will take the previous years’ total actual usage and divide by 12. In reality however you will not use fuel at an even rate through the year. You will use more in winter and less in summer, so if you switch at the end of winter for example you may well be in arrears.

Obviously the company you are leaving will want to be paid the final bill. In fact if you pay by direct debit, you may find that the outstanding amount will be deducted automatically from your account so make sure you know how much it is and that you have budgeted for it. You are less likely to be in arrears at the end of summer when you have been through a period of low energy usage.

Preparing to Choose a New Supplier – Find Out Your Existing Tariff and Usage

Not every customer of a given energy supplier will pay the same rate for their fuel. This is because each supplier offers a range of different tariffs. As you need to be able to compare what you currently pay with the other available tariffs to secure the best deal, you will therefore need to find out what your current tariff is called. This should be on your latest bill; alternatively you can speak to your supplier.

Users are split into three categories of usage, low, medium and high. Each supplier can tell you what their boundaries are but you should find out your annual usage either from your past bills or from your supplier as different tariffs will apply depending on your level of consumption.

Find a Price Comparison Website and Choose a Deal

Once you have all the information to hand, find a price comparison website. You could visit each supplier individually but a comparison website will often be more convenient as they will collate lots of different tariffs from different suppliers in one place. Find a tariff you like the look of and work out what your annual saving will be. Remember to deduct any penalty charges you will have to pay to break your current contract. Remember also that if you are choosing a new tariff which is fixed or capped you’ll be tied in for a period.

Once you have found a deal you like it always worth contacting the supplier directly to see if they can offer you it any cheaper than the comparison site.

Completing the Switch

Once you have chosen a tariff your new supplier should do most of the legwork. It will usually take around 6 weeks to switch. You will need to sign a contract with your new supplier and on switch over will need to take meter readings and settle the final bill. If you are in credit you’ll need to make sure your old supplier provides you with a refund. Make sure you cancel any existing direct debits with your old supplier and new any new direct debit is properly set up.

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Ground source heat pumps work by harnessing solar heat stored in the ground. Coils are buried in trenches or boreholes beneath your garden and a mixture of water and anti-freeze is pumped through them. This liquid absorbs the ground heat (which is typically around 11 – 13 degrees Celsius even in winter) and it is then fed through a compressor which increases its temperature to a usable level.

Is My Property Suitable for a Ground Source Heat Pump?

Ground source heat pumps can be installed at most properties. You will need some garden land and if laid in trenches, the coils will take up about twice as much area as the footprint of the house itself. If you do not have enough garden land for this then the coils can be buried vertically, in deep bore holes.

To achieve the best results however your property must be well insulated. The water used to heat your property will not reach the temperatures produced by a gas, oil or electric boiler therefore in a poor or even averagely insulated home the energy savings will be greatly reduced and it may be difficult to achieve a comfortable temperature in the colder months.

In addition, ground source heat pumps work best with under floor heating, which is often impractical to install in existing buildings. Radiators can be used effectively though they will need to be larger that the traditional kind.

As a result, ground source heat pumps are presently best suited to modern, well insulated homes or to new builds, where under floor heating can be easily installed.

How Much Heat Will Ground Source Heat Pumps Produce?

An “average” house, if there is such a thing, uses around 23,000 kWh of heat per year for heating, cooking and hot water and a good quality heat pump in a well insulated home should be able to produce all of this.

Will Ground Source Heat Pumps Produce Heat in Summer?

Yes, the temperature of the soil underground remains more or less constant throughout the year and so seasonal changes in weather should not affect the efficiency of a ground source heat pump. As with any heating system however it will obviously have to work harder in the colder months.

What is the Renewable Heat Incentive and How Much Could I Receive?

The renewable heat incentive (RHI) is a government incentive designed to encourage people to install microgeneration systems, such as ground source heat pumps, in order to reduce the amount of fossil fuels consumed and so help the UK meet its CO2 emissions targets.

Under the scheme, homeowners are paid for each kWh of renewable energy they produce. The rate varies depending on the type of technology used, with the greenest technologies receiving the highest rate. The rate for ground source heat pumps is 7p per kWh. The scheme is still in the pilot stage and the details have yet to be clarified however it is envisaged that the payments will be based on estimated rather than metered use. The total amount of energy that your home should use in a year will be calculated based on size and number of occupants etc. What will not be taken into account is how well or poorly insulated, and generally energy efficient, your home is. Instead, a minimum standard will be presumed.

The point of this is to encourage people to become energy efficient, as thus get more from the scheme. The average home is said to use around 23,000 kWh of heat per year, so if this were used as the estimate then the annual incentive payment would be around £1,610.

Assuming the government do decide to go ahead with the incentive, it is due to commence on 01 April 2011 and in the case of ground source heat pumps will be paid for 23 years.

Is Installing Ground Source Heat Pumps Cost Effective?

The following is yet to be confirmed and subject to change at the time of writing.

For modern, well insulated properties then the answer is certainly yes. The fuel bill savings, combined with the renewable heat incentive, could mean that the initial installation costs can be recovered in around 10 years. Thereafter, any fuel savings and RHI payments are pure profit and given that the RHI will be guaranteed for 23 years it is clearly a sound investment. The very rough sums are as follows:

23000 kWh of gas (what is needed to produce heat and hot water for a year for the average home) at current prices would cost around £920. A ground source heat pump producing 4 kWh of heat for 1 kWh of electricity would use around £775 worth electricity per year, so there would be a fuel bill saving of £145 per year. Add the RHI payment of around £1610 to this and you are £1755 per year better off. The system itself will cost between £7,000 – £13,000 to install and so potentially this cost could be covered in about 6 – 8 years. It should be noted that many of these figures or from installers are presumably therefore based on the best case scenario, but the potential is still quite evident.

For older homes, a larger, more expensive system will probably be required and it will probably be less efficient, therefore the benefits are harder to see. Nonetheless, the renewable heat incentive should still make it profitable and it is worth bearing in mind that gas prices are likely to rise well above the rate of inflation for the foreseeable future and the closer they get to electricity prices, the more cost effective the ground source heat pump becomes.

An important note of caution is needed here however, the RHI was a Labour initiative and, although the current administration is equally (if not more depending on the Lib Dem influence) committed to meeting emissions targets, they have not confirmed whether they intend proceeding with the scheme.

Do I Need Planning Permission?

In England you will not usually need planning permission, though you may if the property is in a conservation area. If it is a listed building you will certainly need to enquire about listed buildings consent. In Scotland and Wales you would currently need to apply for planning permission though the rules are currently under review.

What Maintenance Do Ground Source Heat Pumps Need?

According to the manufacturers no regular maintenance is required. The system has few moving parts meaning it is less likely to break down. Guarantees are generally available and you should try to get the maximum possible term and ensure that it is insurance backed in the event that the installer ceases trading.

How Long Do Ground Source Heat Pumps Last?

The manufacturers claim that they will last for more than 25 years. This is much longer of course than a boiler would be expected to last and hopefully, in 25 years time although the RHI payments may well have come to an end the technology should, as tends to be the case with new technologies, have become much cheaper.

Photo by Bryn Pinzgauer

Related posts:

1. Renewable Technologies: Ground Source Heat Pumps
2. Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) – the Basics
3. Interested in the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)?

The truth is that it doesn’t require significant lifestyle changes to cut your energy consumption and save money on your power bill. Rising energy prices in Australia are adding to the pressure on the household budget, but small and simple changes to the way you use your household energy can cut down your power bills significantly.

Here are some simple things you can do to reduce your power bill.

Lighting

By simply switching to energy efficient light bulbs, you could cut your lighting bills by 50%. In Australia, the traditional but inefficient types of lighting (incandescent) are being phased out. By simply switching to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), light emitting diodes (LEDs) and fluorescent lights, you could cut your lighting bill in half. LEDs and CFLs are the most energy efficient of these options. Also, make a conscious effort to turn off lights when you leave the room.

Heating and cooling

Did you know that heating and cooling makes up approximately 38% of every power bill? If you’re in an older home, there are things like your house’s aspect that you can’t change. But there are small things to reduce the amount of air conditioning that you need and use. In winter, these include making sure your house is well insulated, draught proofing all doors and windows with weather strips (only a few dollars per roll), closing off rooms you’re not using and laying down carpets and rugs, particularly on surfaces such as timber and slab.

In summer, there are also ways to keep your house cool. Insulation also helps keep your house cool, so this is again key. Shade your windows from the sun and keep them closed during the hottest part of the day. At night when a breeze is flowing, open up your house and make sure that all obstacles to air flow are removed. By making these small changes the amount of air conditioning you’ll need (and thus the price of your power bill) will fall.

Appliances

Most appliances now come with energy ratings, and buying wisely is a good start. But buying energy efficient appliances alone is not enough. It’s how you use them. Standby power accounts for around10% of your power bill. That means that if you leave your computer or TV on standby mode, it is still using energy. By taking the time to turn them off completely and switch it off at the socket, you’ll be taking advantage of the easiest way to reduce your power bill. This can be particularly effective when you’re going on holidays or know you’ll be out of the house for an extended period of time.

Not only will taking the above measures help to reduce power bills, you’ll be doing your part to help reduce Australia’s emissions and our impact on climate change.

If you’d like to take it further and have an even more positive impact on the environment, you can contact your energy suppliers to find out how you can offset a percentage (or all!) of the electricity you use with renewable energy.

Author bio: David Goadby from Australian Power &Gas offers simple tips for Australians to reduce their energy bills and adopt energy efficient practices. Australian Power & Gas is a leading gas and electricity supplier in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, helping Australians get transparent and fair deals on their power.

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There were 10,781 solar installations registered in the week ending February 26th alone, compared with 8,007 the previous week and just under 5,000 the week before that. The new deadline was introduced by the DECC after it lost an initial court hearing that challenged the December 12th ruling that it could not apply the lower tariff retrospectively. However, the department has launched a third appeal against the decision, and it remains to be seen whether installations of photovoltaic solar panels from companies like Evoenergy that were completed before March 3rd will secure the higher rate permanently.

The news comes shortly after BusinessGreen reported that the DECC has revised its internal estimate of the cost of the feed-in tariff between December and March to £500 million, one third lower than the original forecast of £1.5 billion. A spokeswoman for Friends of the Earth told the online publication that the environmental campaign group had separately calculated that the cost to consumers would be 25p per year.

“Ministers must get on with the important task of restoring confidence to the UK’s renewable energy industry and helping homes, businesses and communities to plug into clean British power,” the publication reports her as saying.

A spokeswoman for the DECC responded that the predictions were based on the expectation that interest in the FiT scheme would rise based on the change, the same way it did before December 12th. “The installation rate has been increasing very rapidly over the past three weeks, so it is hard to estimate how many installations will take place before March 3rd,” she told BusinessGreen.

“For illustration, there were nearly 30,000 new PV installations in the week before December 12th, so if there were a similar number this week then the cost estimates would nearly double.”

In spite of the political and financial meanderings that have plagued the scheme, the FiT has undoubtedly done wonders for the UK’s renewable energy industry. Since it was launched in 2010, the amount of renewable energy in the country has grown by more than 41 times, reaching a milestone of 1,000MW in February.

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1. DECC Announces Feed In Tariff changes – the good and bad news
2. Feed in Tariff – The Effect on Green Energy Production
3. How to Claim the Feed In Tariff

I wonder how long it will take householders to realise that they won’t actually make anything from Green Deal during the life of the Green Deal financing? The Green Deal is being sold on the basis that making your home more energy efficient will mean lower energy bills – that is, you will save money. And that should be the case – but…..not until the GD finance deductions are finished. OK maybe a very careful energy user could save money during that period – but most almost certainly won’t.

Sure it is not costing them anything, and that is a big plus. But once they have gone through the rigmarole of applying for a GD EPC and assessment and Green Deal finance, and had the disruption of several different lots of workmen traipsing through the house, leaving a trail of plaster and brick dust behind them, the householder will probably not make a penny in energy savings for what, 5 years? 10 years? More? How many of them realise that I wonder? There is also a question mark over long term gains.

The householder trusts the Green Deal Provider to provide kit which will produce those gains, but some condensing boilers are being replaced after 10 years. If the 10 year GD financing on a new boiler – a new boiler specified by the Green Deal Provider not the householder – does nothing but cover the cost of the boiler up to the point in 10 years time at which it needs to be replaced with another new boiler, then the householder might well feel – with good reason – that he has gained nothing as a result of Green Deal.

The other point worth making is that no-one seems to be looking at the human element of energy efficiency, and this could turn out to be GD’s biggest failing. Test results on zero carbon houses in the US, released a couple of years ago, showed that there were wide variations in the actual energy use in those houses, which came down to the way that different families lived in them and used energy. The same is likely to be true of the people living in homes which have been given the GD treatment. And this will inevitably impact on the Golden Rule. Admittedly the government does not guarantee that the Golden Rule will work in practice in every case, only that theoretically it should work. But families are bound to feel cheated if their energy bills go up after GD work on their home.

As I said, I am in favour of Green Deal and want to see it working, but factors such as this will determine whether it will work or not as far as the end users are concerned, so we need to consider them. It would be a shame if the public felt that GD was a con, because if they do, it is likely that they will blame the person who did the GDA in the first place.

Written by Terry Wardle, Editor of Energy Assessor Magazine

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1. Sweetening the Green Deal Scheme
2. What is the Green Deal Scheme?
3. Conveyancing and the Green Deal Scheme

The Green Deal scheme is based around the idea of saving energy whereas the FIT exists to encourage generation of clean energy (see any parallels with the two administrations’ economic policies?!). The rationale between linking the two was that it is both cheaper and more beneficial to the environment to save energy as opposed to generating it therefore this should come first. It was a fair point but the solar energy industry, which accounts for the majority of domestic renewable energy generation, feared that consumer uncertainty about the Green Deal would topple an industry already seriously destabilised by recent emergency tariff rate cuts.

Thankfully for those whose business is solar panels the Government has its own words “listened carefully” to consultation and has decided to drop the requirement. It will still be necessary for anyone wishing to claim the FIT to show, via an Energy Performance Certificate, that their home has an energy rating of D or above. This apparently applies to about half the homes in the UK.

Future Feed In Tariff (FIT) Cuts

So that was, sort of, the good news. Now for the bad. For those who don’t know, the FIT rate for small scale (i.e. domestic) solar panels started out at 41.3p per kilowatt hour of electricity generated. The plan was always to reduce this as the installation costs came down and the price of electricity purchased from the National Grid rose so as to maintain a fairly steady level of return on investment. From December last year however the rate was slashed to just 21p p/kWh. This resulted in a legal challenge which is currently heading for the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal having upheld the trial Judge’s ruling that the cut was illegal but whatever the outcome, the DECC has confirmed that the rate will be reduced to 21p from 03 March this year.

The news that the new rate will definitely apply from March was wholly expected but plans relating to future cuts were also revealed. The proposals are that future rates will depend on the net size of all installations claiming the tariff. If this figure reaches 150 MW between March 3 and April the rate could be down to 16.5p and if it reaches 200 MW, it could be as low as 13.6p – less than a third of the original rate. The Government says it is trying to get the industry to a point where it can survive without subsidy but critics say it is more likely to cause it collapse before it can ever reach that point.

The cuts will apply from 01 July and even deeper cuts are expected to the to the already decimated large scale solar industry. Those in the industry believe that it will shrink considerably, leading to redundancies.

Future Feed In Tariff Rates to Be Tied to Installation Costs

Going forward, ministers have said that rates will be linked to the cost of installing solar panels. No details were provided as to the formula that might be used but essentially, the cheaper it is to install solar panels, the less the rate will be. The idea is to remove uncertainty and debate as to when the rate should be cut and by how much.

This cannot be good news for manufacturers at the high end of the market since it seems likely that the Government will use the low end as the basis for assessing the cost of an installation which will presumably lead to a reduction in quality as the more expensive (but more reliable and efficient) installations become less viable.

It is possible of course that a shrinking in the size of the industry could lead to an increase in installation costs and one can only speculate as to whether this would lead to an increased FIT rate!

Reduced FIT Rates for Multiple Account Holders

As well as the general rate cuts, ministers also announced that from 01 April the rate payable for anyone who registers more than 25 installations will but cut to 80% of the prevailing rate. This will affect “rent a roof” firms who install solar panels on others’ properties in order to claim the tariff, with the home owner benefiting from the lower electricity bills.

This seems something of a short sighted approach. The profitability of this sector of the industry now depends on economies of scale thanks to the rate cuts and the firms affected will no doubt feel as though they have had the rug pulled from under them, as will the many home owners for whom such a scheme would have been their only opportunity to have solar panels installed. The only goal seems to be to reduce the number of installations by punishing the less well off in society. It seems the modern day Conservatives haven’t moved quite as far from their roots as they’d like us to believe.

Related posts:

1. How feed-in tariff changes will affect homeowners
2. Feed in Tariff – The Effect on Green Energy Production
3. Guide to Solar Photovoltaic and the Feed-In Tariff