We are meeting more and more people who want to live as 'green' as possible or want to reduce their own 'CO² footprint' to a minimum but find themselves faced by a maze of alternatives. Selecting the 'right' options is not easy and often there is no one solution. We are here to help you find your way through the maze but, be warned, the solution for you may not be simple. Give us a call and let's discuss your options.

Those of you who want to look carefully at the ‘climate change’ and ‘CO² reduction’ problems may want to review the following two reports. The first is a précis of a longer report published by ‘The McKinsey Report’ (you can get the full report if you subscribe) and the second is a report published by the ASES (American Solar Energy Society). Both of these reports address the question of what techniques can be used to overcome the problem and how effective each technique might be. They throw open the question as to whether we as a society are correct in throwing our resources at high profile supply-side techniques such as PV or whether we should be concentrating on more mundane demand-side reduction techniques such as insulation and ‘tight’ buildings.

We recommend that you first decide on your goals.
Some of the questions to ask might be:
 • Are you trying to save money?
 • Are you trying to reduce your carbon footprint to a minimum?
 • Are you trying to improve your comfort in as 'green' a way as possible?

Secondly you should carefully review your options. These will of course depend on where you are now.
Questions to consider include:
 • Are you planning to build a new home or refurbish your present one?
 • Can the energy usage of your present home be significantly reduced?
 • Is your present home suitable for solar energy improvements?
 • Is your architect fluent in 'passive solar requirements'?
 • How much can you afford to spend on reducing your 'carbon footprint'?

Other questions that will require serious thought are:
 • What technologies will work together and give optimum effect?
 • What 'size' of each technology do I need?
 • Very importantly - how will a mixture of techniques for heating and cooling be controlled?
 • How much will it all cost and how well will my goals be met?
 • What will be the annual cost of running the system and how long will components last?

Read our page on Designing a Hybrid Heating and Cooling System for more information on some of these questions/problems.