At Resonates, we’ve a lot of expertise spanning energy, technology, PR, marketing and the environment. In this series, we’re sharing what we know about the things that get us excited.
Let’s face it, after a few centuries of industrialisation, the environment isn’t in a brilliant place. Ecosystems are stressed, the world isn’t on track for net zero, and countries that once led the way have begun to lose the plot.
It’s a worrying time, and green technology alone isn’t the answer. Yet I’m lucky enough to work with clients providing services that really make a difference. From demand-response leaders like Enel X, who help electricity grids adapt to increasing renewable energy, to independent distribution network operators like Eclipse Power, who help low-carbon generation and storage clients get grid connections.
But I’m also fascinated by what we can all do at home. New (or not so new) technologies like electric vehicles, heat pumps and solar panels can drastically reduce the carbon footprint of our homes and travel. The question is, are they still the preserve of environmentalists and early adopters, or do they already have benefits that the rest of us can access and appreciate?
Solar
It’s perhaps easiest to answer this for solar panels. They’ve been around for decades, use mature technology, and the typical installation provides clean, reliable power for around 25 years. If you’ve got a suitable roof and a way of paying for them, you should more than recover your investment over their lifetime.
Perhaps the best thing about solar power is that it’s almost completely fuss-free. Once installed, any power you generate goes into your home’s wiring, where it will be consumed if you need it. If not, it will top up your storage battery (if you have one), or go into the grid – you’ll get paid for that. When you need more power than your panels can supply, the extra comes from your battery, the grid, or a mix of both.
The key thing is that all this happens magically without you doing anything. You can tweak the system a bit or change your habits to try and make the most of it, but you don’t have to – you’ll still get plenty of benefit. I’m one of two people at Resonates with solar panels – even without a battery they save me hundreds of pounds a year.
Storage batteries
I’m covering storage batteries separately, as you don’t actually need solar panels to have one. Batteries can either be wired into your home electrics – in which case they usually work transparently in the background – or you can buy stand-alone battery power stations to power appliances, or provide backup power for important gadgets.
You can charge either type of battery from the grid during off-peak hours, and use its stored energy to avoid buying electricity during peak times. Although you’re still using grid energy (and a small amount is being lost through inefficiency), the off-peak power you store is more likely to come from renewable sources, so you’ll be lowering your emissions and saving money overall.
As with solar, it could take you some time to recoup the cost of a battery. That said, if you can afford to buy a big home storage battery, you could accelerate the return on your investment by selling energy back to the grid at peak times. And of course, if you’ve got solar panels, you can also store excess energy in the battery when it’s sunny, and use it when it’s not.
Home battery systems are easy to live with; you just tell them when to store power and when to supply or export it. Portable power stations usually require more management, though, so they’re probably not for everyone.
Electric vehicles
There are plenty more EVs in the UK than there were even five years ago, and EV drivers are really happy – multiple surveys put the proportion who’d ‘never go back’ at more than 90%. What are they like to live with?
First, the driving experience. EVs are easier and quieter to drive than conventional cars. They’re all automatic, tend to be quick off the line, and most of them have advanced driver assistance. They’re often more spacious inside, too.
If you’re lucky enough to have an EV charger, you’ll do most of your charging at home. Sign up for a cheap overnight tariff and you might only pay electricity costs of a couple of pence per mile – that compares to around 13p per mile for an efficient diesel car. However, charging on the street or at services could cost 4-10 times more. If you can’t charge at home, an EV could prove more expensive to run than a regular car.
Lots of potential EV buyers are concerned about range, but many – perhaps most – of today’s EVs can cover 200-300 miles on a full charge. On longer journeys, I usually need a break before my car needs recharging.
EVs are still expensive, and they aren’t ideal for everyone – particularly if you often drive long distances and can’t charge at home. It’s also important to challenge the assumption that EVs are ‘good’ for the environment – they’re not; they’re just less damaging than regular cars. Still, I love mine. I’ve covered more than 50,000 incident-free electric miles since 2021, and I’m firmly in the ‘wouldn’t go back’ camp.
Heat pumps
Updating to a heat pump requires commitment. Despite generous grants they can still be expensive, and you may need to upgrade your home’s radiators, pipework or insulation. But as with solar power, heat pumps use a technology that’s extremely well established – it’s at the heart of every fridge, freezer and air conditioner. In fact, heat pumps work much like a fridge in reverse, pumping heat inwards rather than outwards.
While the best gas boilers turn about 90% of their fuel into heat, and standard electric heating is pretty much 100% efficient, heat pumps can reach 300-400% efficiency – in other words, they deliver three or four times as much energy as they use. The trick is that they’re moving existing heat from the outdoors into your home.
The economics of a heat pump are complicated by the variable costs of energy. At present, electricity is much more expensive than gas, so you’ll need to be on a special tariff before a heat pump costs significantly less to run. Still, provided you’re on a renewable tariff, you’ll be slashing your heating emissions.
Heat pumps are most efficient when heating to lower temperatures than a boiler, so living with them does involve some adjustment. As our founder Chris explains: “The water temperature from ours is fine for a shower, but it needs a bit of a boost if you want to soak in the bath – you can lean on the immersion heater for that.
“Also, you can’t just come in and blast the heating like you would with a boiler; you need to leave it running steadily all the time that you’re home. I’ve added some smart thermostats to our system, which work really well with the heat pump to keep every room at the right temperature.”
Practical choices
To sum up, most green tech is already easy to live with. In some cases – particularly solar – it’s pretty much a no-brainer. It’s a shame, then, that many people are priced out of it, while others can’t install it as they don’t own their home. I’ll come back to this aspect in a future post, looking at budget and portable options that might still help.
