Solar power - Is Solar Power worth the money?

The new Home Information Packs (HIPs) give energy-saving advice on many forms of energy saving including Solar Power. So what does the government backed information really tell us?. Following this advice by installing solar heating is environmentally-friendly and will begin to save you money. However, it will take 208 years to break even. And it’s not just solar heating . The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) research found that it could take a while to break even on other energy-saving measures, too. In an average three-bedroom terraced house payback times range from five years for cavity wall insulation to over 200 years for solar heating. Double glazing, energy-efficient condensing boilers and even loft insulation could take years to cover the initial costs by savings in energy bills. We spend an average of 16 years in one property so homeowners may consider these costly measures just too expensive. RICS has been calling for a reduction in the level of VAT applied to all energy-saving measures and for an attractive grant program to aid real change. Its head of policy and public affairs said that the Energy Performance Certificates should be applied flexibly to all residential property, not just those that are being bought and sold, thought to be 6.9% of homes. The idea behind these certificates is to encourage homeowners to implement energy-saving measures to help reduce carbon emissions. Having a house’s energy performance assessed costs between £100.00 and £150.00. There is concern that HIPs have brought about a substantial decline in the number of family homes being put up for sale, resulting in a shortage. The property market is already fragile. It has also slowed down following higher borrowing costs. This information was made public in the Daily Mail Oct 13 th 2007

This article had 210 Views

Rate This Post:

No Ratings Yet