For one Glenrothes woman, home energy improvements not only helped her save money, but gave her a new career!
“It started with a cold call about solar panels,” explains Shirley Paterson. The “it” in question isn’t just cutting fuel bills during the last four years through using renewables, in the process reducing her family’s carbon footprint. She’s also talking about the launch of her own business.
Within six weeks of the call Shirley – recovering from illness – had six quotes, one almost £9,000 less than the original – “extortionate,” as she describes it – estimate for solar panel installation.
Shirley and her husband had just extended their home, adding a second floor to what had originally been a bungalow built in 1989. They’d already made some energy efficiencies at that – replacing old bulbs with energy efficient LEDs, installing a new boiler and loft insulation – but with an interest-free loan from the Energy Saving Trust helping to reduce the up-front cost of the £10,000 cost, 16 solar panels were installed four years ago.
The solar panels generated 3,548 kWhs during their first year, 8% more than predicted. Paterson was also delighted that the feed-in tariff payments – that’s money paid by energy suppliers for the power the solar panels generated, even that used by the house rather than exported to the National Grid – exceeded the cost of the combined gas and imported electricity bills during the same 12-month period. “The income now is less under the current tariffs for new installations, but I’ve never said that it was a priority,” she says. “When I talk about the benefits of solar generation to people, I tell them it’s a bonus that you can get a 20 year income.”
Her gas usage has also been lowered thanks to the installation of an Energy Management System; this wireless system can control gas, oil or LPG boilers. It receives hourly external temperature feeds from the Met Office and maintains the temperatures set by the owner to within 0.3 of a degree, without firing the boiler constantly – meaning enhanced comfort at a reduced cost. She can also use the system to set the desired temperatures for the house when they are in, out, asleep or away on holiday.
In addition to simple controls dotted around the house – including by the front door – the heating schedule can be remotely controlled using a smartphone app. Over time the system also learns when and how much hot water the family uses, again cutting out standing losses of energy in their hot water tank.
Paterson now has the solar panels and energy management systems linked, so when extra generation would normally be exported to the national grid, the house instead uses a smart immersion switch to heat the water in their tank instead, which helps to further reduce their gas usage. She also recently installed smart plugs which power appliances or devices at no cost when there’s any excess solar generation available.
“It’s all the little differences that, added together, make a big difference,” Paterson now insists. “For instance I was surprised how cosier the house felt when we put underfloor insulation in last year; it’s just rock wool netted up to the joists, but my energy manager system showed me immediately, even while the installation was happening, the difference it was making.”
She’s well aware, though, that many people are dubious about the value of solar panels in Scotland, given our “four seasons in an hour” weather. “There have been four days in four years that this house hasn’t generated electricity,” she says. “Those days we had snow about half a foot deep on the roof covering the panels. But because of the technology in our house, we can see at any second what we’re generating. I can assure you that, even when the panels are covered with a sprinkling of snow, light is still getting through and we are generating. It might be a small amount, but I know we’re generating.”
Paterson is the first to accept that she’s “a bit overboard in data”, but it helps her educate people. “I have let people see my bills; where they were then, where they are now.” Her energy management system’s In Home Display (IHD) shows at a glance whether the house is currently importing or exporting electricity, or if their usage is balanced with what they are generating at that particular moment. She also has an online account which monitors the solar data on a daily, monthly, and annual basis, as well as similar monitoring of the central heating.
All of which she now finds invaluable in her professional life. “As soon as the panels were in and I saw what they were doing to our energy bills – that was in the winter, as well – I just wanted to share that knowledge,” she says.
So Paterson joined the Energy Saving Trust’s Green Homes Network, through which interested members of the public can arrange to visit people’s homes to see for themselves what’s possible “on an eco-front”. During one particular “Open Day”, 80 strangers turned up on Paterson’s doorstep in Glenrothes – the first couple were from Liverpool, the second from Canada!
“After making the changes in my house, seeing the effect on the bills – which is really, really impressive – and then encouraging the people who came through the Trust, educating them about what was possible, the penny dropped that I was actually selling people these technologies, and I thought… I could do this as a business.”
Paterson set up nextGenergy in 2012, providing energy-saving advice coupled with the sale of renewable technologies. She can provide official Energy Performance Certificates and Green Deal Advice Reports. Yet, while accepting she’s at times “evangelical” about the energy and money-saving changes people can make to their homes, she also has a new “passion” – electric vehicles.
In 2014, she bought her first electric car – a Renault Zoe – and installed a home charging point with the help of a grant from Chargeplace Scotland. The vehicle’s 22kw battery takes just over three hours to charge, and can do around 80 miles between charges.
Paterson is well aware that, if most people know little about how renewables can make a real difference to their homes, even fewer know anything about electric cars. “In a year and a half, I’ve done 24,500 miles all over Scotland,” she insists. “It’s no just for short journeys. Have I ‘range anxiety’? No. Have I ever run out of fuel? No. There’s a charging infrastructure that’s great, and it’s still being added to and still being improved, not least in Fife, with still more rapid chargers put in. Yet time again, I hear about all the negatives. Even from car dealerships; that’s what bugs me, more than anything.
“Assessments don’t touch on cars but I know that, if people are generating their own electricity, it’s a no-brainer to tag on a car that could take the fuel,” she adds. “Even if I didn’t have solar, my running costs would be 5p a mile for fuelling the car from the house. What is it per mile for a typical petrol or diesel car? People need to work this out!”
For more information on the technology and support available, check out the Energy Saving Trust website.
First published in The Scots Magazine, January 2016.
