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There are several methods of harvesting energy for a house but non of them are as important as providing excellent levels of insulation, air tightness and energy efficient appliances in the first place. Witness to this fact is the design of the Passivhaus which is so well insulated and oriented towards the sun that it needs no central heating system. Energy harvesting is very site specific -

• Solar Hot Water is available to most houses providing there is a good southerly aspect or good aspects to both east and west
• Wind Energy is only really viable if there is a fairly constant wind and little turbulence from surrounding buildings, structures, woods etc.
• Pico Hydro is excellent if you have a source of constantly running water, preferably with a good head
• Wood Burning is widely available  and high efficiency boilers and stoves are now available
• Passive Solar Design is very possible given walls which are SE, S, or SW facing and get good sunlight
• PV Solar Collectors although still very expensive to install, some people are making their houses ‘PV ready’ for when prices fall
• Ground Source Heat Pumps although enjoying a new found popularity need considering in the context of the electricity they use. If you don’t have a large area of garden to lay the pipes you can sink them downwards in bore holes

Clean Energy Cashback

The government has announced that (for England, Wales and Scotland),  starting April 1st 2010, there will be payments made to small scale generators of electricity such as solar, wind power and hydro.  This is known as ‘Clean Energy Payback’ or ‘Feedin Tariff’. There are varying scales depending on the size and type of installation. There are four really worthwhile aspects to this -

• the tariff is set to encourage uptake of microgeneration by paying you considerably more per kWh you generate than it costs to buy it from the grid. This is especially true for solar and wind. If you buy electricity from the grid it probably costs around 13p/kWh. depending on your supplier, how much you use and when you use it. The Feed in Tariff will pay you over twice that for wind energy you generate, and up to 41.3p/kWh for solar electricity.
• you get paid not only if you sell surplus energy to the grid but also for the energy you use yourself.
• if you do sell it to the grid you get an extra 3p/kWh on top of the main payment
• the payment system is guaranteed for between 10 and 25 years (depending on the type) so the investment is guaranteed. It is also linked to the Retail Price Index to keep in line with inflation.

See the Energy Saving Trust website for full details