The Goodey family decided to make their family home greener, so they invested in an innovative system that can meet a building’s full heating and hot water requirements all year round using solar power. The photovaic-termal (PV-T) system also incorporated a seasonal energy store and water-water heat pump to make up a system called Zero Carbon Solution (ZCS).
It uses 36 Solar Angel PV-T panels supplied by Natural Technology Developments and covering an area of 57 square metres. It is the largest system of its kind in the UK. The panels will generate 9 kilowatts peak of electricity and 27 kilowatts peak of heat, allowing the family to reduce their carbon emissions by up to 10 tons per year. They are also highly efficient and reliable, producing over four times more energy than standard PV panels.
Electricity will initially be used to meet immediate needs in the home, such as the heat pump. Excess energy will then be directed to an immersion heat in the hot water tank while thermal energy from the array will be used to warm the underground Earth Energy Bank (EEB). This consists of a matrix of boreholes sunk in the ground to a depth of just 1.5 metres within the building’s foundations. Given that the property covers 600 square metres, this allows for a total of 90 boreholes. The system will draw upon this stored heat in winter when solar power alone may not be enough to meet the home’s daily needs.
“I knew that with a property of this size, finding a system that would allow me to go zero carbon and still be financially viable, might not be an easy task” said Mr Goodey. “It was actually my architect, John Cotterill, who introduced me to ZCS.”
Despsite the size of the Goodey property, the ZCS system can be installed in new-build homes of all sizes as well as low-rise commercial developments. There is also potential to incorporate the system within a variety of other projects, such as multi-occupancy retirement homes and social housing and discussions concerning this are ongoing.
Image: Director at Caplin Homes, Stuart Caplin (left) with home owner John Goodey
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