You Are Here: Green Energy Courses > About Green Energy Courses
Skills Training for Green Energy from Able Skills
We are all becoming aware that climate change - caused by the ‘greenhouse effect’ - is a result of the energy we use every day - at home and when we travel. The simple fact is that we are responsible for producing over 40% of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions.
Green energy is probably now one of the single most important issues confronting world resources and how we must make radical changes in the way we make and use fuel and their materials in our everyday lives.
These changes most directly apply to all those working in a trade construction industry, i.e. plumbers, electricians, gas installers and builders. Skills training for the installation of energy efficient forms of heating and lighting are going to be a very necessary and vital part of a trainee student course.
Able Skills - in conjunction with NICEIC, CITB and City & Guilds – are helping to lead the way and have opened an Energy Saving Training Centre to provide the necessary approved training.
Energy suppliers are obliged to encourage people to use energy more efficiently by helping with the supply and costs of installation of energy saving measures and providing advice on energy efficiency.
With some simple energy saving home improvements, you can save money, improve the comfort of your home and help fight climate change.
An energy efficient house makes sense. It's cheaper to run and it could be a key selling point if you choose to sell your house. Renewable energy technologies like Ground Source Pumps and Air Source Heat Pumps are seen as effective alternatives to fossil fuels and will help you to meet your own energy requirements and reduce your home's carbon dioxide emissions
Two methods developed for adopting efficient ‘green energy’ to supply domestic heating are :
Ground Source Heat Pumps
Ground source heat pumps use pipes buried in the garden to extract heat from the ground. Beneath the surface, the ground stays at a constant temperature, so a ground source heat pump can be used throughout the year - even in the middle of winter.
This is usually used to warm water for radiators or underfloor heating systems. It can also be used to pre-heat water before it goes into a more conventional boiler
Air Source Heat Pumps
Air Source Heat Pumps absorb heat from the outside air. This heat can then be used to warm water for radiators or underfloor heating systems, or to warm the air in your home.
Ground Source Heat Pumps
Ground source heat pumps - widely used in other parts of the world, including North America and Europe, for many years - provide a new and clean way of heating buildings in the UK. They make use of renewable energy stored in the ground, providing one of the most energy-efficient ways of heating buildings. They are suitable for a wide variety of building types and are particularly appropriate for low environmental impact projects.
They do not require hot rocks (geothermal energy) and can be installed in most of the UK, using a borehole or shallow trenches or, less commonly, by extracting heat from a pond or lake. Heat collecting pipes in a closed loop, containing water (with a little antifreeze) are used to extract this stored energy, which can then be used to provide space heating and domestic hot water. In some applications, the pump can be reversed in summer to provide an element of cooling, but these systems are not currently eligible for UK grants.
Benefits
The only energy used by Ground Source Heat Pump systems is electricity to power the pumps. Typically, a Ground Source Heat Pump will deliver 3 or 4 times as much thermal energy (heat) as is used in electrical energy to drive the system. For a particularly environmental solution, green electricity can be purchased.
Typically they cost more to install than conventional systems; however, they have very low maintenance costs and can be expected to provide reliable and environmentally friendly heating for in excess of 20 years.
Ground Source Heat Pumps work best with heating systems which are optimised to run at a lower water temperature than is commonly used in UK boiler and radiator systems. As such, they make an ideal partner for underfloor heating systems.
Reduce your CO2 emissions: on average a ground source heat pump could save around 1.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year when replacing an oil boiler.
Eliminate your fuel bills: ground source heat pumps run on electricity, so there's no need to pay for gas, oil or solid fuels to heat your home.
Cut down on wasted electricity: heating your home with a ground source heat pump is much more efficient than using electric radiators.
Is a ground source heat pump suitable for my home?
To tell if a ground source heat pump is right for you, there are a few key questions to consider:
Is your garden suitable for a ground loop?
It doesn't have to be particularly large, but the ground needs to be suitable for digging a trench or a borehole and accessible to digging machinery.
Is your home well insulated?
Since ground source heat pumps produce a lower temperature heat than traditional boilers, it's essential that your home is insulated and draught proofed well for the heating system to be effective. It could also make the system cheaper and smaller.
What fuel will you be replacing?
If you're replacing an electric, oil, Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) or coal heating system, a ground source heating system will pay for itself quite quickly. If you're replacing a new, more efficient heating system, your savings will be smaller.
What type of heating system do you want?
Underfloor heating systems or warm air heating will work much better than radiator-based systems.
Is the system intended for a new development? Combining the installation with other building work can reduce the cost of installing the system.
Costs and savings
Costs of installing a typical system range from about £7,000 to £13,000. Running costs for a year, where 50% hot water and all space heating can be provided by the system are likely to be around £540 per year, but will depend on a number of factors - including the size of your home and how well insulated it is.
Savings can be considerable - up to 1.8 tonnes of CO2 and £750 if you're replacing an oil-fired central heating system.
To reduce your home's CO2 emissions further, consider installing solar electricity or some other form of renewable electricity generating system to power the compressor and pump.
Savings in the table below assume ground source heat pump installed in a detached property which provides 100% of space heating and up to 50% of domestic hot water, the additional 50% is met through an electric heater.
| Fuel displaced | £ saving per year | CO² saving per year ( tonnes) |
|---|---|---|
Gas |
410.00 |
1.2 |
Electricity |
1,000.00 |
7 |
Oil |
750.00 |
1.8 |
Solid |
350.00 |
6.5 |
Air source heat pumps
Air source heat pumps absorb heat from the outside air. This heat can then be used to warm water for radiators or underfloor heating systems, or to warm the air in your home. These systems use similar principles to ground source heat pumps to extract heat from air or water instead of the ground.
Air source heat pumps can be fitted outside a house or in the roof space and generally perform better at slightly warmer air temperatures. Water source heat pumps can be used to provide heating in homes near to rivers, streams and lakes. It can extract heat from the air even when the outside temperature is as low as minus 15° C.
Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHPs) in particular are receiving increasing interest in North America and Europe and the technology is now well established with over 550,000 units (80% of which are domestic) installed worldwide and over 66,000 installed annually.
There are two main types:
An air-to-water system : Uses the heat to warm water.
Heat pumps heat water to a lower temperature than a standard boiler system would, so they are more suitable for underfloor heating systems than radiator systems.
An air-to-air system : Produces warm air which is circulated by fans to heat your home.
The efficiency of air source heat pump systems is measured by a coefficient of performance (CoP) - the amount of heat they produce compared to the amount of electricity needed to run them. A typical CoP for an air source heat pump is around 2.5.
Benefits
GSHPs are particularly suitable for new build as the technology is most efficient when used to supply low temperature distribution systems such as underfloor heating. They can also be used for retrofit especially in conjunction with
measures to reduce heat demand. They can be particularly cost effective in areas where mains gas is not available or for developments where there is an advantage in simplifying the infrastructure provided.
Overall efficiencies for GSHPs are inherently higher than for air source heat pumps because ground temperatures are higher than the mean air temperature in winter and lower than the mean air temperature in summer.
For GSHP systems, used to supply low temperature water based heating systems (eg underfloor heating), seasonal efficiencies of between 300% and 400% are common for indirect systems and can be higher (350% to 500%) for direct systems. By comparison the seasonal efficiency for an air source heat pump system is about 250%.
Reduce your fuel bills: air source heat pumps run on electricity, so there's no need to pay for gas, oil or solid fuels to heat your home.
Cut down on wasted electricity: heating your home with an air source heat pump is much more efficient than using electric radiators.
Save space: an air source heat pump system is compact, and requires no storage space for fuel.
As well as reducing purchased energy consumption and resulting in low CO2 emissions, GSHP have a number of other
environmental and operational advantages:
• High reliability (few moving parts, no exposure to weather)
• High security (no visible external components to be damaged
or vandalised)
• Long life expectancy (typically 20-25 years and up to 50 years
for the ground coil)
• Low noise
• Low maintenance costs (no regular servicing requirements)
• No boiler or fuel tank
• No combustion or explosive gases within the building
• No flue or ventilation requirements
• No local pollution
Is an air source heat pump suitable for my home?
To tell if an air source heat pump is right for you, there are a few key questions to consider:
Do you have somewhere to put it?
You'll need a place outside your house where a unit can be fitted to a wall or placed on the ground. It will need plenty of space around it to get a good flow of air.
Is your home well insulated?
Since air source heat pumps produce less heat than traditional boilers, it's essential that your home is insulated and draught proofed well for the heating system to be effective.
What fuel will you be replacing?
The system will pay for itself much more quickly if it's replacing an electricity, Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) or coal heating system than a gas one.
What type of heating system do you want?
Air source heat pumps are much better at powering underfloor heating systems or warm air heating than radiator-based systems.
Is the system intended for a new development? Combining the installation with other building work can reduce the cost of installing the system.
Costs and savings
Costs for installing a typical system suitable for a detached home range from about £5,000 to £10,000 including installation. Running costs for space heating are likely to be around £440 per year. This will vary depending on a number of factors - including the size of your home and how well insulated it is.
Savings can be considerable - up to 6 tonnes of CO2 and £870 per year for a system that replaces an electric heating system.
All savings in the table below are approximate and are based on an air source heat pump providing 100% of space heating in a detached property.
| Fuel displaced | £ saving per year | CO² saving per year |
|---|---|---|
Gas |
300.00 |
830 Kg |
Electricity |
870.00 |
6.0 tonnes |
Oil |
580.00 |
1.3 tonnes |
Solid |
280.00 |
5.0 tonnes |
To Book or for more information please freephone our booking line on 0808 100 3245.
Courses are held Monday to Friday. All Course Times are: 08.30am-16.30pm.
