Sust-it Blog

Just prior to the mad panic to install solar PV panels, we got together a couple of estimates for installing a system. The process was an interesting experience: The first company were trying to sell us cheap Far Eastern PV panels, which at first glance looked good value at £8,258, the sort of prices appearing in the media for a low end 4kW system.  It was only on closer examination that we realised that their quote was for not for a 4kW system, which had the maximum FiT return, but for a much lower output system, 1.6 kW.  We rejected them very quickly!  In effect this would have cost us £20,000 for non-branded panels.

The other supplier, who had installed our heat pump 6 years earlier. Had emailed us to say they were now offering PV installations, the bandwagon was moving fast! I asked them to provide a quote for a 4kW PV installation with well known Japanese branded PV panels and inverter. The price came back at the expected £12k,  again the sort of figures you would see around in the press and online. Then the bombshell feed-in-tariffs were slashed by 50 per cent!  Let the PV panic begin!

The phone calls started; “yes, we can install your system before 12th December, as long as you send £500 today! I must admit that I thought the installations cost were high, £3000 for two man days of work! (one electrician, and a labourer!). My gut feeling was that panels and inverters should have dropped in price due to demand and take-up of FiT. In the end, we decided not to risk installing a system on financial grounds, and foreseeing the panic to get the panels registered and commissioned in time to get the old tariff.

Then, miraculously last week, the company resent their quotation with a £2500 reduction for exactly the same system!  Claiming surplus stock – yet prior to 12th December, other suppliers could not source panels due to the demand to get systems in place before the FiT change. So Chris Huhne was right when he stated that the real price of PV panels had dropped dramatically. I didn’t believe that the price of panels was being reflected in the market place, and expected that, after the feed-in-tariff reduction, prices would drop in six to twelve months time, not a week after the deadline!

The renewable energy sector certainly needed kick-starting. However, is there a strong argument that PV installers were profiteering? Or was it a case of bad green policymaking driving greed and not generating the sustainable, long term green jobs we need?

It seems lots of us have, given that an astonishing 30 million TVs have been sold in the past three years, according to Ofgem. And this is when we are in a recession.

Another little known fact, is that energy suppliers could claim savings under CERT (Carbon Emissions Reduction Target), for subsidising televisions which had a built in digital tuner and a screen size of less than 22 inches. OK the carbon saving the energy suppliers could claim was small, around 0.15 tonnes of lifetime CO2. I can only guess what funding was given, but this amount of CO2 for other measures would typically see a subsidy of between £1.50 and £2.

In total almost 22 million televisions have received a CERT subsidy over the last three years which Ofgem claims “implies CERT has helped drive a significant uptake of energy efficient TVs in GB households”. Really? How many people stood in the store and chose a TV because it had a whopping £1.50 subsidy through CERT, how many even knew? And how many people instead purchased a TV with an integrated digital tuner because of the digital switchover?

A sceptic may conclude that over the past three years most of the TVs on sale had a digital tuner, so consumers had little choice but to buy one. With the analogue signal being switched off, surely most would opt for a digital-ready TV when upgrading? And not many of these TV would be a household’s main TV, more likely a TV for the bedroom, kitchen or even bathroom, or maybe for hotels and businesses, so I can’t imagine that CERT has had much to do with the driving their sales. Perhaps more incentives to encourage  consumers to buy energy efficient appliances generally, linking with manufacturers and retailers, would have had more benefit.

We all knew a cut to the high Feed-in-tariff was inevitable, but the speed and severity doesn’t make sense.  Just when the industry has geared itself up, the rug is pulled. But it leaves me thinking why was it set up this way in the first place? Why didn’t they link it to energy conservation and require homes to be properly insulated first. It appears to be less to do with saving energy and more to do with making money.  The savvy who have had a spare 12K in the bank, earning next to nothing in interest, have installed solar panels as an income generator. Nothing wrong with that; but only if it is linked to incentives to save energy as well. Yes, you might change your habits and put the dishwasher on in the day, but if your house is badly insulated and you feel it’s ok to heat every room to 21c how is that going to save carbon? Or if the income you generate allows you to fly to the Caribbean every year it’s a nonsense.

Has the price of panels really dropped more than they predicted? And if so, is that do the Chinese subsidising their solar industry? Raw materials haven’t dropped in price. The government obviously needs to re-adjust the scheme, as it is running out of cash, and the advise they have been given to ‘save the industry’ is to cut quickly and deeply. Yes, it might get rid of the ‘sharks’ around, be in does nothing to inspire confidence or trust.

We are often asked why we don’t list broadband routers in Sust-it’s energy efficiency rankings; the simple answers is that manufacturers tend not to publish any energy usage figures, and are unfortunately not obliged to do so!

The main issue with modem routers is that they are on all the time, 24/7 consuming electricity. So how much electricity do they consume? We did a simple test with our BT home hub 2, which is installed in millions of homes across the UK. This router uses 8 watts per hour, that’s 70.08 KWh’s a year, which adds up to £9.24!

BT has 28% of the UK broadband market*, that’s over 5m customers, consuming £45m worth of electricity every year!

British Telecom are addressing this with their New Home Hub for broadband introduced in 2011, this requires a third less power than previous models, according to BT, as it adjusts power consumption based on use. That still means it costing over £6 a year to run. Whilst this doesn’t sound much on an individual basis, thinking about it on a global scale means a lot of energy being used.

* Source ofcom

Have you ever switched energy supplier? If you have, you’re in the minority, as research from ofgem has revealed that 70% of us are not engaged in the energy market. As Chris Hulme pointed out, earlier in the week, the complexities of the energy tariff system is a stumbling block for consumers. So they are recommending a simpler single tariff, with a standing charge set by ofgem. Sound thinking, however lets hope they pull the plug (no pun intended) on using the term ‘Evergreen tariffs’ to replace the Standard tariff, which 75% of consumers are on. Surely anyone who’s heard of green energy suppliers, or is currently on a green tariff is going to be mightily confused! Is there anything ‘green’ about ‘evergreen’?

What ofgem doesn’t seem to be addressing, in their recommendations, is the the hassle and time it takes to switch supplier. I’ve experienced the hassling phone calls from the outgoing suppliers suddenly offering you a better deal; the end-list request for meter readings, as they don’t send out meter readers anymore. Then there’s the over exaggerated monthly repayments from your new supplier, as the outgoing energy companies probably don’t share information on your energy usage! And then you’ve got the joy of registering with your new supplier, creating new passwords and figuring out how their website works, not forgetting to cancel your old direct debits. And does it really take six to eight weeks for these energy companies to get their act together when you do want to switch? That’s all if your computer savvy. What about those who don’t have internet access or the skills necessary?

I say bring on Smartmeters with real-time billing and the ability to switch supplier instantly through some kind of login system on the Smartmeter, and the facility to add your credit/dept card details to this meter, rather than opening new accounts with energy suppliers. And a network of advice centres, maybe through the post office/library/citizens advice, to help.

It’s great to see that retailers and manufacturers are starting to show what home appliances cost to run! For the first time I’ve noticed them being upfront with this information; In an imaginative approach Bosch are offering to pay three years energy costs of any new appliances bought at comet. And what they are offering to pay is pretty generous too, compared to our energy efficiency calculations, which take into account the average usage of washing machines, tumble dryers and dishwashers and includes water costs. However their price for electricity is a little mean at 12p per KWh!

There’s a £100 off a BOSCH WTW86560GB tumble dryer, £81 off a washing machine, £78 off a BOSCH fridge frezzer and £71 off Dishwasher. Click here to see the offers.

Ethical Consumer has released the most comprehensive ethical buyers’ guide
to laptops and netbooks. The guide brings together work from a number of key
NGOs such as Greenpeace and the Enough Project alongside their own research. This unique report ranks twenty six I.T. brands across twenty three ethical categories, to give you all you need to know about the relative ethics of each company.

I’d like them to include product longevity into the mix too, having spent
most of my working days in front of Macs, which just keep on going and
going. It astonishes me when my PC colleagues have to replace their
computers due to performance issues, which probably have nothing to do with
the hardware itself. Macs just seem to outlast most Windows driven computers
in my experience.

Apple’s operating system appears to be more energy efficient too, when you
consider that the Mac mini has been top of our efficiency charts for the last two years – despite it using the same Intel processors as its PC cousins.

Are you around Gloucestershire this weekend? (10/11th September) As 28 homes and businesses throughout the Forest of Dean and Newent will be open to the public demonstrating how to save money and CO2 through energy saving design and technologies. This is Transition Forest of Dean and Newent Eco open homes event, part of the Heritage Open Days scheme. As well as seeing Rainwater harvesting systems and self sufficient gardens our own home and studios, in Hartpury, will be open as an example of a new build and barn conversion can embrace eco-ideals. We’d like to demonstrate that it was possible to build a well designed home, sensitive to it’s locality whilst minimising it’s environmental impact and to strict budget! The part green oak framed Chapel Farm house was built re-using lots of materials from the previous house (which had suffered terminal subsidence) is clad in locally produced larch from the Forest of Dean, and designed to maximise solar gain with high insulation values. The outbuildings at Chapel Farm have also been converted to create a modern working environment too. We have a ground source heat pump and two 1.5 kw wind turbines. In 2007 Chapel Farm was a finalist in the Grand Designs Eco-homes Awards.

For more information click here

Great progress from Philips in designing a computer monitor that uses less energy to run than a low energy light bulb. The Energy Star approved 19 inch 192EL2SB LED monitor has shot to top of our rankings using a mere 10.4W. That means you could run nearly 10 of these monitors for the same price as running one 100w light bulb! Compared to the worst performing monitor, a saving of £12.23 per year might not seem like a big deal, but if you are business and buy in bulk the savings can make a real difference to your energy bills. It is a positive step that manufacturers are developing energy efficient technology and seeing it a as a great selling point. Earlier this year Philips launched its 27 inch business monitor which reduces its power consumption by 80% when not in use.

After its £1m fine for failing to provide accurate information on the amount of electricity supplied from renewable sources, it’s nice of British Gas spend some of its £740m profits on full page newspaper ads telling us how they can help lower our energy bills. The adverts come after they announced a price hike which will cost the average dual fuel energy customer an extra £190 a year. Whilst energy conservation measures are a good thing, British Gas, and the others energy companies who are offering free loft and cavity insulation, or giving away low energy light bulbs are doing so to help them avoid a fine and meet their obligations under the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT). Would they be offering free insulation or giving away energy monitors without being required to? I think not.

Also the EnergySmart service British Gas promotes will only help people who have internet access and it also relies on a change in behaviour to make savings through the use of an energy meter. You might be mislead by the title; it is not offering a Smart Meter (allowing usage to be accurately read) and passing on the savings of meter readings to the customer, as the National Audit Office is calling for, but is offering an energy monitor and relying on the user to do the work.