Perthshire farmer turns to Bell Ingram to heat and power estate

Perthshire Farmer Jamie Sinclair was looking for ways to improve the economics of his family house, farm and estate by making the most of any natural energy resources and reducing the substantial oil and electricity bills for heating the house. A neighbour had installed a wind turbine and he was aware of the arrival of the Feed-In Tariff scheme, and with two sons training to become engineers they were all keen to investigate their options for using renewable energy.

HSBC Ground Solar Technologies Ltd They saw the proliferation of suppliers and systems on offer and felt that what they needed was the impartial advice of someone experienced in appraising the feasibility of the various different technologies but with no axe to grind for any one of them. The Bell Ingram microgeneration consultancy service caught his attention and he invited Joe Fergusson over to survey the house and estate and discuss the options.

“We were initially rather disappointed when Joe poured cold water on our first idea for a wind turbine in the middle of the field on account of the limited wind resource. Whilst it seemed open enough to us, he explained that it was too low lying and that turbulence from the woods around would wreck the economics. But he helped us identify the best spot on the estate and gave us comparative cost and payback figures for turbines over a range of sizes. Without this we might easily have gone along with the neighbour’s recommendation and been disappointed.”

They looked at the available roof space with a view to installing solar photovoltaic panels and Joe explained how their roof, whilst large, wasn’t suitable for various reasons. They then talked about the energy bills and possible energy efficiency measures, and Joe explained the pros and cons for them of switching from gasoil to heat pumps, wood pellets, chips or logs, calculated the likely fuel quantities, costs and savings and benefits from the Renewable Heat Incentive, concluding that a chip boiler installed in the steading nearby and heating the main house and a self-contained annex would be attractive.

Jamie concludes “Joe Fergusson and colleague Nigel Benson clearly have a deep knowledge of this broad subject and it has been very reassuring to have the benefit of their input before we go to the market, and we know they will be there to help us as our projects proceed. I am currently being bombarded by over optimistic wind and solar companies telling me I must get a piece of the action through them, so I really do value their independent and realistic input.”

bellingram.co.uk/microgeneration

For further information contact :
nigel.benson@bellingram.co.uk or joe.fergusson@bellingram.co.uk

Tags: Microgeneration