Geothermal Energy

The secret to how the Ground Source Pump attains such high efficiency is in the way it converts low grade energy extracted from the collection field to high temperature water ready to heat your hot water, building or swimming pool.

The heart of the system is the GSHP units compressor, the compressor contains a very small amount of refrigeration grade liquefied gas such as R407C or Propane, when the liquid gas within the heat pump compressor is exposed to the warm brine it boils and evaporates. The compressor then increases the pressure acting upon the evaporated liquid to turn it into a hot gas under this added pressure. The hot gas passes though a condenser where the hightened temperature is extracted and transferred into the heating system. The cooled gas then goes though an expansion valve where the pressure is reduced and the gas transforms back to a liquid allowing the short cycle to be repeated over and over again.    

Most heat pumps are capable of providing both heating and cooling if required simultainiously, offering massive cost and environmental savings over comparable fossil fuel based plant and equipment.

Generally, GSHP units within the domestic sector of the market come in two options, option one, is a combined GSHP with integral hot water tank or option two (usually for the larger house) is a stand alone GSHP with a matched hot water accumulator tank.

The combined GSHP unit will typically have an average of 160 litres in a inbuilt hot water tank, physically its about the same size of your regular domestic vertical fridge freezer. This unit is usually 240v single phase and has an output capacity of between 4Kw and 12Kw. These combined GSHP's will happily heat a new built home up to circa 350 sq/mtrs (3,500 ft) with two bathrooms, kitchen, cloakroom and general domestic appliances.

For larger properties, or homes with 3,4 or 5 bathrooms where the increased hot water demand is required, a stand alone GSHP with a matched hot water accumulator tank would be the favoured design option. The VPA hot water accumulator tanks come in various sizes from 200 to 450 litres as standard, and for larger commercial installations, in modules or 500 litres that can be coupled together. A solar option is available where a secondary heating coil is included to allow pre-heating from a solar system or pellet boiler.

For rural properties, and sites located far away from the main electricity grid, and / or served by overhead power lines, 3 phase units maybe required as the starting currant of the scroll compressor is shared over the three phases and reduces the drag off the grid. A typical 12Kw 3-phase unit would have a starting currant of only 7.3 amps per phase, thus avoiding any significant disruption to the electrical disribution network.

The GSHP unit requires no actual phisical maintenance programme, other than a visual examination of the plant and brine levels, heating system pressure general reading of the systems controller. Also, being factory assembled the GSHP and all of the components are fully tested and checked before they leave the manufacturer. With only a couple of moving parts and now flues or naked flames to worry about the unit is virtually maintenance free.

 Also, being all electric the GSHP requires no ventilation, flue, fuel store or special conditions so often found as a pre-requisite with most fossil fuel appliances.

Many GSHP's come with remote access control as standard, some require the addition of a RCU module (remote control unit), from this the GSHP can be integrated and programmed via the Internet or mobile phone, which is ideal if the unit is installed in a holiday home.

If you require any further information please contact us.

We have been extremely fortunate to have had the trust and support of many local architects and private clients during the initial set-up of the new "Renewable Energy Business" from an initial zero market in late 2005,  we have in less than 3 years completed ,or have works in progress on 62 separate installations in Jersey and 1 in Northern France. This success has led to us separating the business from its sister company Advanced Heating Limited, and forming The Low Carbon Company Limited to concentrate its efforts in the design and supply of low energy renewable products, thus leaving Advanced Heating to continue with its core business of mechanical design and consultancy.

As a group we have supplied low energy design technology to leading London architects, mechanical consultancy practices, local architects, builders and even heat pump manufacturers.

Bearing in mind our business background has been in mechanical engineering for the last 27 years i suppose we have a technical advantage over many of our competitors, even so, we have learnt an amazing amount from the new "geo-science engineering" that the renewable projects deliver.

We have set all manner of mini-milestone records within the industry and continually strive to push the engineering boundaries, drilling deeper, extracting more energy and improving efficiency from the installations we design.

Currently, within our portfolio of projects we have the deepest energy probe installation in the Channel Islands @ 196 metres per probe, the most energy extracted by geothermal means on any one site within the Channel Islands @ 125 KW, and the first ever installation of "energy scrubbing" within the British Isles. And its all here in Jersey, and of our own design, for example, the St Brelades Bay Hotel now produces a large proportion of its hot water from "energy scrubbing" GSHP technology, designed and installed by us.

We also have several combined heating & cooling systems in operation, plus passive home cooling, and of course a whole array of more simple installations that include swimming pool heating, warm air heat recovery ventilation, plus other domestic home heating installations.

We have a small number of commercial agricultural designs / quotations pending but as yet have not succeeded in securing an order for our "Agri-Therm" system. This is a bespoke product for plant / soil warming for seedling beds, plant nurseries and garden centres, this geothermal based heating system offers a controlled temperature to facilitate early seed germination, and seedling growth within external poly tunnels.

We are in the very near future going to expand this section of the web site to accommodate a client testimonial section, details of site specific case studies, energy monitoring and new installations. Please come and look at this site again shortly.

Geothermal Heating Explained

The use of ground source heat pumps to provide heating and cooling is commonly referred to a "geothermal heating". This is in fact not strictly true, as geothermal heating is the term for energy extracted from extremely deep geothermal energy probes drilled down many hundreds, if not thousands of metres into the earths crust to extract energy from super heated steam, to power turbines to generate large quantities of electricity, or supply district heating systems to whole towns.

Iceland, is currently one of the world leaders in this technology, and is currently operating several geothermal power stations, and adding to the number at ever increasing rates. It is Iceland's goal, to eventually become an nett energy exporter into Europe, and offer an alternative to gas currently being supplied from Russia.

Within the domestic / commercial market place ground source heat pumps (GSHP) are generating temperatures more suited to central heating and hot water production, rather than super heated steam. The systems are based around a number of collection mediums, surface energy collection, from shallow trenches dug into gardens or open agricultural land containing "slinky" collectors, or more comonly geothermal energy probes drilled down into the bedrock and thermal springs below the sites, and occaisionally from streams and lakes.

Typically the energy probes are drilled anything between 60 and 250 metres into the bedrock, the deeper the probe the greater the energy extraction level. The energy probe holes are cased with a high grade steel liner from the surface down to the stable bedrock, and then "toed" into the bed-rock about a metre to provide a good seal to avoid surface water entering the ground water system. Once the geothermal probe has been installed into the probe pocket the top of the probe is capped off with a proprietary rubber boot with stainless steel sealing clamps to avoid surface water or foreign debris entering the probe pocket.

Where Does The Energy Come From?

GSHP systems draw their energy from the stable ground temperatures that exist below the surface, within the Channel Islands, South of England and Northern France ground temperatures are usually relatively stable at around 12 degrees Celsius. The soil surrounding the "slinky" energy collector field or the ground water around the energy probe acts as the heat source in winter and the heat sink (dumping ground) in summer. The beauty of a combined heating / cooling system is that energy extracted in winter to provide heating is replenished by warmth being dumped from the house /office cooling system in summer. Thus making the renewable energy system even more renewable.

Where Else Could We Collect The Energy From?

In addition to surface energy collection it is also possible to collect energy from rivers, small streams, ponds, lakes even the sea.

Energy collection from any of the above means is a complex and specialist task, the engineering of these systems is much more complex than simple surface energy collection, however the potential energy extraction rate is considerably greater and in many cases limitless. A large commercial site in close proximity to a river or the sea could easily fulfill all of its heating and cooling requirements without any need for auxiliary back-up fossil fuel boilers or expensive refrigerant based air conditioning units.

How Well Will it Perform?

GSHP systems are in excess of 500% efficient, creating over 5 times the amount of energy they consume, this factor of efficiency is called COP (coefficient of performance). Nibe of Sweden currently hold the world record on COP performance at 5.03. Virtually all domestic GSHP units will incorporate a small back-up electric cartridge heater that can be automatically brought into operation to offer a boost during sustained abnormally cold conditions, from experience we find that these boost heaters are extremely rarely called upon due to our moderate climate.

A well designed installation will provide all of the domestic heating and hot water requirements and operate at a fraction of the cost of any fossil fuel installation.

What Does an Installation Consist Of?

The Geothermal Ground Source Heat Pump system has three main components: (1) the collection medium, either a slinky collector field or a geo-energy probe installation, (2) the GSHP unit, and (3) a heating and hot water system, the cooling option is usually a "bolt-on" additional package to the primary system.

1 -The Collection Medium

The GSHP energy collection pipework is specially manufactured 40mm SR11 40mm plastic pipe and comes in large coil, the pipes thin wall allows fast and efficient energy transfer between either the collection medium and the thermal transfer brine. As with all pipework systems, the joints are the weakest link. To provide maximum reliability and performance we recommend "electro-fusion" welded fittings, these high quality specialist fittings are designed to weld the pipe and fitting into one union, giving the pipe and fitting the same robust integrety and making the installation virtually indestructible and totally leak proof.

Standard mechanical fittings are cheap and readily available, but are suspect to fracture and leakage especially if the collection field is over planted with trees and shrubs. As the roots extend down they can cause the pipework to be susceptible to "heave" and eventually cause a leakage of the geothermal brine, any loss of brine pressure will cause the whole system to shut down.

Why does the Brine not Freeze up?

The thermal transfer brine that circulates between the GSHP and the energy collection field is a mixture of vegetable grade antifreeze and potable water, the mixture strength depends upon the individual system dynamics. On average the quantity of brine mixture to water is between 33% and 45%.

Does the Brine go Off?

A major problem than can exist within the collection field is bacterial growth, systems need to be very carefully installed by skilled engineers with knowledge of the potential pitfalls of bacterial contamination. GSHP systems can ground to a halt within a few months if bacterial growth contaminates the brine medium. The effects of even mild bacterial build up can be severe, it is not uncommon for the whole brine medium to turn into a thick "soup" that can be costly to be rectified.

2 - The Ground Source Unit

GSHP units within the domestic sector of the market come in two options, option one is a combined GSHP with integral hot water tank or option two (usually for the larger house) is a free standing GSHP with a matched hot water accumulator tank.

The combined unit will typically have a 160 litre hot water tank inbuilt, and its about the size of your regular vertical fridge freezer. This unit is usually 240v single phase and has an output capacity of between 4 and 12Kw, these combined GSHP's will happily heat a new built home up to 350 sq/mtrs (3,500 ft) with two bathrooms.

For larger properties, or homes with 3, 4 or more bathrooms where the hot water demand is greater, a stand alone GSHP with a matched hot water accumulator tank is the favoured design option. The VPA hot water accumulator tanks come in various sizes from 200 to 450 litres as standard, and for large installations in modules or 500 litres that can be coupled together.

For county properties often located far from the core of the main electricity grid and served by overhead power lines, 3 phase units maybe required as the starting currant of the scroll compressor is shared over the three phases and reduces the drag off the grid. A typical 12Kw 3-phase unit would have a starting currant of only 7.3 amps a phase making little effect upon the electrical network.

The GSHP unit requires no actual maintenance, being factory assembled all of the components are tested and checked before it leaves the manufacturers, with only a couple of moving parts and now flues or flames to worry about, the unit is maintenance free. Also, being all electric, it requires no ventilation or special conditions so often found as a pre-requisite with fossil fuel appliances.

Can I Check How Much Its Costing to Operate?

Most good quality units have a programme accessible though the front end that will allow you to see how many hours the compressor has run, multiply this by the input power of the GSHP, and you have the number of Kilowatts consumed, multiply this again by the electrical tariff, and you have the actual cost of operating the unit. Some sceptics will argue that there's other costs associated with operation such as power consumed by the brine pump and heating circulation pumps etc, this is true, however the amount of energy consumed annually pales into significance when the savings are analyzed as a percentage of what a fossil fuel system costs to operate. If of course you want really accurate results, the operation manual will give the wattage of both pumps and again it a mathematical exercise to multiply it by the hour run log.

After several years of monitoring installations and annual fuel bills regularly see savings in excess of 80% over fossil fuel installations. With an anticipated working life of 25-30 years the environmental and economic benefits of installing such systems cannot be ignored.

3 - The Heat Emitter System

GSHP installations will work with almost any type of heating system from, underfloor heating, radiators, warm air heating, and swimming pools.

Before we discuss individual forms of heating its worth for a moment considering how a conventional domestic heating and hot water system works, typically a time-clock or programmer is installed that controls the fossil fuel boiler and heating system. Most installations roughly fall into a similar bracket, with the heating coming on at 6.00 am and off at 9.00am, it stays off most of the day and comes on again at 4.00pm and then off again at 11.00pm thus operating in bursts for about 10 hours a day, with slightly longer running times over the week-ends and public holidays. For a system to operate in this manner the installation has to be sized to allow rapid heat up from cold, thus larger than actually required plant is installed and the systems operate at very high temperatures. Most domestic heating systems operate on a 82 Deg C flow temperature and a 71 deg C return temperature.

A GSHP installation works in a completely different manner. The heat pump is very often sized at only 25% of the output of a fossil fuel boiler, However, it operates 24 hours a day, slowly and gently trickle charging heat into the home via the heat emitter. The GSHP installation also has an outside weather sensor that constantly monitors the external temperature, and modulates the temperature of the heating water, either up or down, on colder days the water enters the system warmer, and on warm days it enters cooler, this term is known as weather compensation.

Underfloor Heating Systems

Almost any underfloor heating system can successfully operate with a GSHP, however most "packaged" UFH systems are designed to be connected to high temperature fossil fuel systems and require the flow temperatures to be lowered at the manifolds and have all manner of controls and pumps to facilitate this. Geo-floor is a bespoke UFH system specifically designed by our design department for use with GSHP units. It is suited to any floor application and is designed to operate directly from the heat pump and has been engineered to offer both both increased comfort levels and economics. For further information please look at our underfloor heating section.

Radiator Heating

Radiator heating falls into two categories, existing installations and new installations. When re-using existing installation's which generally occurs when an existing heating installation is converted from expensive fossil fuel heating to low cost geothermal heating the installation is of course already in place. It is important to fully flush any debris from the existing system as carbon debris and sludge will quickly choke the filters on the heat pump.

When re-connecting to any existing installation it is critical to assess the quality and performance of the installation, very often the home owner can be of assistance in his area, its worth asking how they feel the existing system performs, often they will identify areas that do not get as warm as they would like or highlight radiators that do not work. The installation should also be checked for iron oxide debris and sludge, this seriously effects the performance of the heating system and if left unaddressed will cause the GSHP to trip out due to low flow.

Warm Air Systems

GSHP units can be used very effectively to heat warm air system, the new high velocity systems such as the Unico system perform extremely well and offer an alternative to the old style low volume warm air heating systems so prevalent in the 1970's. These systems are particularly beneficial in restoration projects where lifting old floors and chasing into walls would damage the character and structure of the building, another benefit is they offer comfort cooling in summer as standard.

Swimming Pool Heating

GSHP's are ideal for providing low cost "top-up" heating within the shoulder months of the swimming season, of course systems can be designed to accommodate both small and large outdoor or indoor domestic and commercial heating applications where primary heating is required all year around. Within the domestic market place, the relatively small output from the GSHP can be used to assist in heating the pool. As there is very little demand during the shoulder and summer months for house heating, the excess capacity can be utilised to provide heating for the domestic outdoor pool.

It must me noted that the added benefit during the shoulder months is due to the lower demand of the home heating system, the GSHP in these installations must only be considered as a bonus to extending the swimming season, also a good quality pool cover is essential to avoid excessive night time losses. If constant pool water temperatures are required then a bespoke heat pump pool heating system must be utilised.

Potential Other Uses

There are many uses, here are a few that we cannot cover in detail, these include;

• Large Scale Commercial Hot Water Heating For - Hotels, Sports Pavilions, Distilleries, Centrally Serviced Apartment Blocks, Factories
  • Agricultural Uses Including - Nursery Plant Warming, Glass House Heating, Flower and Seed Prorogation.
  • Sports & Community Centre Heating & Cooling Systems
  • Church Heating
  • Sports Field Defrosting
  • Computer Room Cooling
  • Aquariums
  • Water Theme Parks
  

if you require more information please contact us.

Exhaust Air Heating Technology is a modern concept and is only just becoming understood, this type of installation is particularly suited to small / medium sized well constructed draft free apartments. The EAHP unit derives its power from scavanging energy from previously waste extract air being drawn back into the EAHP from the bathrooms, cloak room, utility room and the kitchen area.

All buildings require some form of ventilation, generally new buildings and especially apartment buildings use mechanical ventilation systems to provide a solution and meet building regulations.

The exhaust air heat pump is a purpose designed product, and is a "design solution" for architects and builders who have struggled to provide quality environmental solutions within a restricted foot print.

The EAHP is designed to facilitate the requirements of small / medium sized new build apartments. The EAHP unit extracts air from the apartment building through a series of small insulated ducts, it then utilises the latent energy entrained within this warm foul air, to provide the fuel for the units compressor. The resultant high temperature from the compressor is transferred to the heating medium which is then utilised to heat the domestic hot water and central heating though either a purpose designed low temperature radiator system or Geo-floor underfloor heating. 

Like all top quality heating products, the heating control system is designed around a weather compensator for optimum efficiency and performance.  

The installation of a EAHP unit is extremely cost and environmentally efficient, practical and user friendly. The installation process is quick and simple and the unit is quiet in operation, which allows it to be installed into Kitchen units or the space vacated where the hot water cylinder would once have been.

It will provide all of the domestic hot water, central heating  and ventilation requirements for the modern home, simply by utilising an element of previously waste energy.

During periods of sustained and abnormal weather conditions the inbuilt electric flow boiler provides additional heat as required so the home owners will never be left in the cold.

The controlled ventilation rates afforded by the EAHP allows the building to breath and enhanced comfort levels are attained. The system also negates the requirement for "trickle vents" installed into windows and individual noisy extract fans in the bathrooms and cloak rooms. The only place that requires separate ventilation is the cooker hood extractor unit, this is because often the cooking process generates airborne fat particles that could be drawn into the unit and cause unpleasant odours to permeate the building.

With most new domestic ovens being fan assisted an extract point is usually installed directly in front of the cooker vent to capture the warm exhaust air stream which is then drawn back to the heat pump.

If you require more information please contact us. 

Air Source Heat Pumps have been around for a very long time, almost exclusively in the commercial market place to heat and cool large office buildings. The transition to the domestic market has occurred only relatively recently. Some mainstream manufacturers of commercial ASHP's have attempted to modify there existing range of commercial VRV (variable refrigerant volume) heat pumps to meet this new demand, all with varying amounts of success.

Others, have opted for bespoke pieces of equipment designed specifically for domestic use. These air source heat pumps are typically slightly more expensive, but are usually more robustly constructed utilising stainless steel and high grade plastics in the shell and external module heat exchanger, a very important consideration in coastal environments.

It should be noted that in coastal locations especially, with large amounts of airborne salt in the atmosphere, the air will very quickly attack and corrode external units with aluminium fin heat exchangers. Also, some of the modified units can be very bulky and often rather noisy.

Can ASHP be Installed Anywhere?

Where air source units score over ground source units, is, as they utilise the outside air for energy as the energy source, no slinky collectors or geothermal probes are required, making the installation process less disruptive and costly. The ASHP's and can also be more suited to retrofitting into existing fossil fuel installations and of use within tight urban locations where ground space is limited, or access difficult.

Air Source Heat Pumps come in all manner of shapes and sizes, however they all have one factor in common, they all comprise an outdoor module and an internal module. The outdoor unit is where the fan unit is located and the choice of location is critical. It must not be crammed into a tight space, or be close to a high garden fence, tall shrubs, or up against the house, as the air will simply short cycle out one side of the fan unit and back in the other side, which will reduce its efficiency. Likewise noise from the fan motor must be considered, in the dead of night or early on a Sunday morning when all is quiet, the fan noise can travel many meters.

Actually How Noisy are They?

Sound levels vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, below are the noise levels from Nibe F 2005-8 and F 2005 -10/11 units, these are high quality bespoke air source units designed for the marine and coastal environment.

Sound Level F 2005-8 F 2005-10/11

Sound Pressure level at 1m. Fan low/high speed dB(A) 55.9/60.5 56.8/59.3

Sound Pressure Level @ 4m. Fan low/high dB(A) 43.9/48.5 44.8/47.3

Sound Pressure Level @ 10m. Fan low/high dB(A) 35.9/40.5 36.8/39.3

Does the Outside Unit Need any Special Building Works?

Once a suitable location has been chosen, the external module can be installed onto a simple base of garden slabs, when in auto-defrost mode, several litres of water are ejected from the base of the external module fan coil / heat exchanger, so consideration must be given to where it will go. In Winter it could easily freeze over and be potentially dangerous. Usually a simple soak-away constructed of gravel chippings suffices. The pipework and power can then be extended to the indoor module.

The indoor modules usually consists of the hot water store, volume expansion tank with pumps and valves plus the system controller. The hydraulic layout and general installation set up of the indoor module varies greatly between manufacturers. All of the internal modules require space for commissioning and future access for servicing. Generally, Air Source systems need little general maintenance other than to ensure the external fan, louvre and heat exchanger unit is unobstructed by snow, and leaves are not allowed to build up and impede the air flow through the fan unit.

Are They as Efficient as Ground Source Heat Pumps?

The simple answer is no. The temperature a couple of metres below the soil surface is between 10 and 12 degrees Celsius all year irrespective of seasonal weather conditions, so the energy extraction rate is stable and more advantageous than that of the air, which often falls very low during the winter. This is also when the maximum extraction is required to keep the building warm. ASHP units loose a great deal of efficiency in Winter and also can use a fair amount of power to defrost the external heat exchanger that freezes up during the air / brine heat transfer process.

Taking all matters into consideration, a good quality purpose designed air to water heat pump should deliver an average annual COP (coefficient of performance) in the region of 2.81 to 3.45. This is about 60% less than the GSHP but is still favourable when compared to virtually all fossil fuel boilers.

If you require more information or a quotation please contact us.

Both Air Source and Ground Source Heat Pump systems currently have an initial high capital cost, compared with other conventional fossil fuel fuel central heating systems. However, it must be borne in mind that they often include many in-built features and special components, such as weather compensator systems, and sophisticated energy saving controls that are usually at additional cost to any basic fossil fuel heating system. They also usually include components  that would normally form part of the electrical installation, so the cost differential may not be as great as initialy thought.

 Remember the old adage, you only get what you pay for.

The Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) has an anticipated working life in excess of 25 plus years, this may in some cases be three times longer than basic fossil fuel heating plant. It's maintenance free, requires no flue or exhaust, so often a problem with conventional flued boilers, no ventilation requirement, no oil tank or concrete tank base, no fire partition if installed under the stairs for example, and no physical input from the user Being an electric unit it is extremely quiet in operation and offers enhanced performance levels over any standard heating plant. These costs and benefits all need to be taken into account when analysing overall installation benefits and costs.

With an operational efficiency around 500%, long operational life, little to no maintenance requirement, a correctly dimensioned system can easily pay back its initial capital outlay within 6 to 7 years, at current fuel prices. Any future escelation if fuel costs would improve the payback period.

Larger domestic and commercial users, whom previously burnt large amounts of fossil fuel, have seen payback periods within 23 months, as savings in excess of 83% have been attained. As with the domestic installations little or no maintenance costs are incurred on commercial installations.

Another advantage over fossil systems, is that some GSHP installations can offer cooling, this can be either passive or active cooling, and be via various means, including low air volume fan coils or our bespoke Geo-floor heating / cooling systems. As modern buildings become more, and better insulated, with draft proofing improved, the requirement is shifting from general building heating only to a combination of building heating and cooling.

Passive cooling is when the ground or ground water is utilised as the cooling source, active cooling is when the GSHP phisically chills the circulation waters using its compressor.

In commercial applications, a correctly dimensioned GSHP installation can provide heating and cooling for any sized building for a fraction of the overall cost of a chilled water or VRV air conditioning system. A new GSHP installation can be installed for substantially lower cost, have reduced operating / running cost, and much lower annual maintenance requirement than any normal refrigerant based air conditioning installation.

Air Source Heat Pumps

Air Source Heat Pumps are cheaper to purchase and do not require any external ground  works for the slinky collectors or deep drilled energy probes so initially the installations appear considerably cheaper. They are best suited to installation in apartment blocks, and high density residential units. However with an annualised COP of between 2.8 and 3.4 (coefficient of performance) they are in the region of 50-60% less efficient than GSHP installations. During normal operation, and especially during winter, when they work the hardest, they need to defrost the external collector battery regularly using the inbuilt electric heated element. 

Typically, due to the low water volume of the equipment the systems often require a "volume expansion tank" of around 200 litres to be installed. This in conjunction with the 200 or 300 litre hot water store, control module and associated additional plumbing infrastructure add additional "bulk" to the installation using precious internal floor space and adding to the overall cost.

In a domestic situation the savings from an Air Source Heat Pump system, are typically in the region of 50% over conventional fossil fuel installations. Most average homes cost in the region of £500 -650.00 per year to heat.

Are any Grant Available?

In the United Kingdom, Ireland and most of Europe, a series of grants and incentives exist, unfortunately in the Channel Islands none of these are available at present.

Do I Need Planning Permission?

The answer is generally speaking no. Slinky collectors and ground probes can be drilled or dug on your property or adjoining agricultural land without planning permission. However, if you own a listed building, or, are a site of special interest, and you wish to install an air source heat pump in a prominent location it would be wise to consult with the planners before installation.

Do I Need to Inform The Environmental Dept if Drilling Near a Watercourse?

The answer is yes. We would advise the department in writing informing them of the proposed installation and method of energy extraction, they like to be advised of anything that could even temporarily alter the water flow or quality.   

What Factors Effect Heat Pump Performance?

The performance of all types of heat pump are effected by a number of factors and include the following;

1 - The Climate and Location

2 - The Type of Installation and Distribution System, and Requirements (i.e, Heating Only or Heating and Cooling    Combined).

3 - The Temperature of the Heat Source.

4 - Type of Heat Source, Air, Surface Soil, Lake Temperature, Depth of Energy Probe.

5 - The Dimensioning of the Heat Pump, (over-sized units are inefficient and expensive to operate)

6 - The Quality and Technical Standard of the Equipment. 

7 - The Quality of the Heat Pump Control System.

If you require more information or a quotation please contact us, we have in excess of 60 installations completed or under construction and can offer design solutions to virtually any requirement.