Warmth and ease of life in a new build family home

Location: Ballynahinch, Co Down

SQ/FT: 2000 sq. ft.

Budget: Two Stacks of Coins

When: June 2021

Homeowners, Anthea and her husband worked with Daly Renewables to save £220 p.a on their electricity bill on a home that is three times the size of their previous terraced home.

Our clients wanted to leave behind the frustration of living in a cold terraced house where they constantly worried about heating and paying for oil. Their vision was to build a family home, where heating and energy efficiency was built into the fabric of the house. We created a renewable energy system that took away the constant worry and used energy-efficient technology to transform their daily life. With annual bills at £1000 offset by ROCS payments, the family now only pay £620 a year.

Key Details

• New build property 2100 Sq Ft
• Renewable Energy System Design, Installation and Commission by Daly Renewables
• Timber frame core by Kudos

Technologies Installed by Daly Renewables

• Hitachi Air Source Heat Pump
• Solaredge Solar PV System
• 4KW solar hot water panels
• Roth underfloor heating
• Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation
• Central Vacuum system

Client Story

The Crothers were desperate to move out of a terraced townhouse that was old, hard to heat and not able to meet their hot water and heating demands. It was often colder inside their house than outside. The outdated heating system meant that they often had to put the kettle on to do the dishes, or the heat on to dry the clothes.

The couple wanted a modern, easy home for their young family, which would be stress-free, easy to heat and energy-efficient too.

Properties on the market, however, were not energy efficient and neded a lot of renovation. So they decided that they would self-build. During their search for houses for sale, they came across a site for sale with planning permission, tucked in a back garden at the edge of the town centre.

Choosing Daly Renewables As Their Heating System Partner

Anthea Crothers was the family’s chief researcher and planner. She decided that if they were undertaking this project, then it should be future proofed as much as possible.

Not knowing too much about renewable energy, Anthea knew she didn’t want a conventional heating system with an oil tank in the garden. With the price of oil constantly fluctuating and no idea of when piped gas would be offered Anthea was even more determined to go with a renewable energy system

However, Anthea found that all the renewable energy contractors and architects she spoke to were highly sceptical and unenthusiastic about the timber frame and meeting her requirements.

Initially, the Crothers looked into a Ground Source Heat Pump but quickly realised their site was not big enough for one.

Finally, they came across Daly Renewables through a web search and arranged to meet with Ryan Daly. They presented their house plans and Ryan talked them through what was possible and drew up a proposal for an Air Source Heat Pump system, solar panels, and a heat exchange system

Ryan also recommended going with Kudos for their Timber frame. The company is as passionate about renewable energy-efficient homes as Ryan, so was a natural fit for the project.

Ryan’s knowledge and passion was totally different from the experience that they had had with other renewable energy contractors. With Ryan, there were no frills or ambiguities.

“Ryan gave us exact information, he stated this is what it is, what it is going to do for you, what it will do for you and what the cost is. That was it. He was very passionate, but also matter of fact and quite simply that gave us confidence in his company and his system.”

The family made the decision to go with Daly Renewables after hearing the testimonials of other clients.

“They shared their experience of working with the company during their build. Those visits sealed the deal for us both in terms of going with a renewable heating system for our new home and also that Daly Renewables was the company for us.”

Our Solution – Renewable Energy Heating Design System

We wanted to ensure that the renewable energy system was designed to cope with the demands of a family, with a constant warm temperature across the house.

We achieved this through the installation of underfloor heating and a Hitachi Air Source Heat Pump. Underfloor heating is a radiant form of heating that helps to create a consistent ambient heat in the heated space, unlike radiators which are a forced convective heat. As the heat is coming from the floor below there are no hot or cold spots in the room which are normally associated with radiator systems.

The heated floor is warm on your feet and also helps to kill off dust mites in the home. It is the perfect heat emitter when combined with ground or air source heat pumps as the lower flow temperature will allow for a higher coefficient of performance (COP) from the associated heat pump system which helps to drive down running costs.

Solar PV panels in conjunction with the heat pump also helped to reduce the electrical running costs of the system. Ryan also advised that we should try and run our electrical appliances during the day when the Solar PV is producing electricity and stagger them coming on so that we are spreading the load, meaning the solar power can offset the cost of these. A simple tip which has been very effective!

“We have consistent hot water without having to worry about whether we can have back-to-back showers or an occasional bath.”

The whole process did scare the clients initially. All that new technology and the initial investment can seem scary. However, once Anthea looked at the price of oil and their previous monthly bills they knew that in the long run, any initial outlay would still be cheaper than their current inefficient system.

“When you break it down and you look at the price of oil and what we were paying, we then realised we could afford it. It was still more than we had thought, but we decided to go for it.”

The Results?

Our client’s main requirement was to have an effortlessly warm house for their growing family and remove that constant worry about the heating.

They definitely achieved that as Anthea explains how she is just overwhelmed at how “everything is just so easy”.

“We don’t think of anything to do with the heating in our home. It is self-regulating. Ryan has the system designed to suit our family life and comings and goings. The underfloor heating is just lovely. The hot water is just there, if you want a bath, you have a bath. Life is so much easier”

Going from daily worries about heating the house and boiling kettles for dishes to a fully functional renewable energy heating system is like night and day for the Crothers.

The family have been delighted with the results and really noticed an improvement not only in the overall warmth but also an improvement in their health too!

“We haven’t had colds in our house, since we moved in here.”

They found that self-building to their exact specifications with a reliable renewable energy partner was much cheaper than buying a house to then renovate.