HEAT PUMP & SOLAR THERMAL PANEL

Most of our hot water will be provided by the solar thermal panel on our south-facing roof. Every house should have one - they are cheap, simple and reliable and will give you hot water even on a cloudy day.

In the winter, we need another heat source for both hot water and our central heating, which hopefully won't be in use too often, given how well-insulated the house is. As we were determined to ban fossil fuels from the building, we opted for a ground source heat pump which extracts energy from four 25m boreholes beneath the house. See my diary for 27.10.04 for more on this well-tried but still rather mysterious technology.

Here you can see the ends of the four borehole pipes brought together where they will enter the house. They were successfully pressure-tested to ensure no damage occurred during installation.

Our heat pump and solar thermal panel are supplied by Ice Energy: 01865 882202, www.iceenergy.co.uk.