Seeing The Green Light

Once considered worthy and hippyish, embracing environmentally friendly ways of heating and lighting is catching on in town and country, finds Anna Tyzack

- Anna Tyzack

FORGET orangeries and infinity pools, the most fashionable addition to a country house these days is a renewable-energy system— preferably powering a stable of electric cars. Large estates are leading the charge, such as Holkham in Norfolk, where the Earl of Leicester has embraced solar, biomass and ground-source heat, as well as anaerobic digestion. ‘I’ve become passionate about renewables,’ the Earl admits. ‘Nature is forgiving, but how we live our lives has a bearing on the planet.’

Figures from the CLA’s most recent Rural Business Report suggest 46% of members have invested in renewable energy and, across Britain, a million homeowners now have solar panels in what the Government has called ‘a small-scale electricity revolution’.

For those living in old, draughty houses, however, the cost and upheaval of installing a green heating system can be off-putting —there seems little point in installing a biomass boiler or photovoltaic (PV) panels without upgrading insulation and glazing. In a listed property, the disruption required is even more daunting.

The newest systems, however, are discreet, clean and highly efficient. The output heat energy of an air-source heat pump, for example, is up to six times the electrical input power and solar panels will still generate substantial amounts of electricity on a cloudy day in the depths of winter.

Over the past decade, Government incentives for selling power back to the grid and installing renewable-heating systems have ensured the upheaval was worth it financially. Alas, the motivation to switch to renewable energy has been eroded over the past few years, with the Government’s solar energy Feed-in Tariff scheme closing to new applicants last March. However, through the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, those switching to renewable heating can still receive quarterly payments for seven years for the renewable heat their system produces.