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Oil service "Going Green"

This story was submitted to the site yesterday, Dennis the writer is interested in raising awareness of solar ventilation products as an alternative to gas and oil-based ones. He had an interesting encounter with a local firm who specialise in servicing oil boilers. In short, they are experiencing a decline in demand for their services as customers are becoming more interested in "Greener" technology. Read on for Dennis' first Blog installment.

Oil servicing firm re-brands itself "Green"

These guys - www.greenenergyshropshire.co.uk - have built a business from servicing oil and gas boilers and are Oftec registered (oil firing technical association), they have worked out that the demand for oil fired central heating systems have begun to decline, so they are beginning to turn their business green. Hence my story of OFTEC registered engineers becoming a good source of solar solutions for both air and water.

The Story

My oil central heating boiler was due a service recently, and I had a real surprise when I called the company that had left their service sticker on the boiler cabinet. I expected the obligatory service engineer to turn up and do their stuff. The engineer was a pretty smart type, a real techie. When the service was done I was suddenly led into a conversation about the cost of oil and the potential for all carbon based heating energy to rise in price. Once we had agreed that heating oil was becoming horribly expensive the conversation was directed to all things solar and what can be done about it.

This particular company had rebranded itself GreenEnergy (Shropshire), and their intention moving forward is to help their traditional base of customers with oil and gas fired systems add solar technology to help reduce fuel bills. My boiler technician was a full of sensible information as to how to save money. They had infra red heating technology, ground source heat pumps, really innovative hybrid solar heating systems, even a range of wood burners.

Why? I asked are you doing this. The answer was simple but fascinating: the sales of gas and oil boilers are already beginning to decline. For OFTEC members the market is already shrinking.

"Hydrocarbon based heating systems are seen as a bad future investment."

I liked the honesty of this company; it seemed to be all a about green evolution as opposed to revolution. My engineer from GreenEnergy (Shropshire) had a clear view on how a householder should begin the green evolution.

- Do not throw the baby out with the bath water, your central heating system works and has value.

- Most people cannot move to some expensive technology, most people want to start modestly and develop a strategy for saving money. So I asked the question. “If you were me and wanted to spend £500 improving the heating efficiency of my home what would you do?”

The answer is solar ventilation, so I am off to Chirbury Shropshire to visit their brand new show room to find out all about products like SolarVenti.

In the meantime my OFTEC engineer recommended I visit Solarairtech.com to catch up on the solar chat and find out more about solar ventilation, and issues such as humidity damp mould and all the stuff that says your home and heating system is not up to scratch. Thanks OFTEC and Solarairtech. I am learning some sensibly priced green lessons!

Dennis

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Must See: Quick explanation of how a Solar Ventilator works

Obviously, we're big fans of solar ventilators here at Solarairtech.com. However, explaining the science and how the actual things actually work is sometimes a bit of an up hill struggle.

As we've maintained, solar ventilators have a hell of a lot of benefits - improved air quality, heating capabilities, returns on investment and reductions in both your carbon footprint and energy bills.

Nevertheless, a picture - or video in this context - speaks louder than words. Check out the informative video below for an overview of the technology and why people love it so much.

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Solar ventilation in Scandinavia - why it's so popular

Been up in Scandinavia visiting family and they had a Solar Ventilator. They are becoming very popular there; it is the new sort of green device up in Northern latitudes. Apparently Solar Ventilation is catching on because of the level of insulation used in producing high levels of energy efficiency in Scandinavian homes. The typical Danish and Swedish home is very prone to fill up with condensation quite simply because they are so sealed up.

No one opens a window in winter as energy is too expensive to let it drift outside into the cold. What I did not get was that solar ventilators are not about only hot air and the heating effect but something much more subtle. As my friend explained the cold in Scandinavia is much more bearable than in Britain because it is a “dry Cold”, the air has no humidity, and it is humidity that saps the heat out of you body. Well a house is the same, if your house is full of damp and condensation it takes longer to warm up, plus it fills with the living space with other environmental changes that are not so good for your health.

The Swedes love Solar Ventilation for another reason that is not just the free air flow driven by solar power but also because it provides a high level of energy input and saving. Say your solar ventilator provides 100 cubic metres of air every functioning hour at 26 degrees centigrade, that represents useful energy, but what needs to be considered is if you put that volume of air through you home on a typical British winters day but not through a Solar Ventilator it would be at 5 degrees Centigrade thus making the home colder. So the Swedes would argue the energy input is that provided by the Solar Ventilator plus the energy not lost by pumping cold air into your home. So I can see that Solar Ventilation is a pretty clever particularly when you dont have to heat up all that condensation as well.

Been up in Scandinavia visiting family and they had a Solar Ventilator. They are becoming very popular there; it is the new sort of green device up in Northern latitudes. Apparently Solar Ventilation is catching on because of the level of insulation used in producing high levels of energy efficiency in Scandinavian homes.

The typical Danish and Swedish home is very prone to fill up with condensation quite simply because they are so sealed up. No one opens a window in winter as energy is too expensive to let it drift outside into the cold. What I did not get was that solar ventilators are not about only hot air and the heating effect but something much more subtle. As my friend explained the cold in Scandinavia is much more bearable than in Britain because it is a “dry Cold”, the air has no humidity, and it is humidity that saps the heat out of you body.

Well a house is the same, if your house is full of damp and condensation it takes longer to warm up, plus it fills the living space with other environmental changes that are not so good for your health. The Swedes love Solar Ventilation for another reason that's not just the free air flow driven by solar power, but also because it provides a high level of energy input and savings.

Say your solar ventilator provides 100 cubic metres of air every functioning hour at 26 degrees centigrade, that represents useful energy. But what needs to be considered is this: if you put that volume of air through your home on a typical British winters day, but not through a Solar Ventilator the air would be at 5 degrees Centigrade thus making the home colder. So, the Swedes would argue that the TOTAL energy provided is that from the solar ventilator plus the energy not lost by pumping cold external air directly into your home.

So I can see that Solar Ventilation is pretty clever, particularly when you don't have to heat up all that condensation as well.

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SolarAirTech: What we’re all about and why

If you’re reading this, thanks for stopping by SolarAirTech - the ultimate online resource for all things solar. If you’ve found your way onto our site it means that you have an active interest in solar energy and how it can benefit you, your savings and the environment in which we all live in.

The purpose of this publication - on a whole - is to provide our readers with the most up-to-date news, features and overviews of what is currently going on in the world of solar technology - and trust us, there’s always something going on!

Initially, the site will mainly be focussed on solar ventilation and solar push technology. However, this is just a building block as we are currently making contact with all kinds of businesses, inventors, and journalists who have reams of information regarding every possible form of green technology known - and unknown - to man.

The reason we have started with solar ventilation and push technology is simple:

Solar ventilation is an already established mainstream technology in Scandinavia where thousands of users’ are already benefitting from reduced energy bills, improved air quality, reductions in damp, condensation and also bad smells. Basically, over there, solar ventilation and push technology is a done deal - we want to make it the same over here.

I already have two attached to my house and have been blown away by both there effectiveness and efficiency, as well as the savings I’ve made so far in just under a year.

Small, cost-effective solar units work and it only takes one person on street to get one before others do - it’s almost infectious! It also sends a message to the authorities that we are not going to take it anymore, that we are personally taking steps to be greener and more self sufficient and so should they.

It is simple, and has a predominantly consumer oriented market - i.e. you, me and Joe public. This means that individuals can begin taking their own steps towards a greener future without having to look to governments to lead by example, because lets face it, if we did that we’d be waiting a long, long time. The technology is out there, people just need to be aware of it and this is the entire point of SolarAirTech:

We research products, talk to experts and businesses, and analyse both established and up-and-coming technology. In essence, we’re doing the leg-work so that the information we uncover can be disseminated down to you, the reader.

If you’re reading this, thanks for stopping by SolarAirTech - the ultimate online resource for all things solar. If you’ve found your way onto our site it means that you have an active interest in solar energy and how it can benefit you, your savings and the environment in which we all live in.

The purpose of this publication - on a whole - is to provide our readers with the most up-to-date news, features and overviews of what is currently going on in the world of solar technology - and trust us, there’s always something going on!

Initially, the site will mainly be focussed on solar ventilation and solar push technology. However, this is just a building block as we are currently making contact with all kinds of businesses, inventors, and journalists who have reams of information regarding every possible form of green technology known - and unknown - to man.

The reason we have started with solar ventilation and push technology is simple:

- Solar ventilation is an already established mainstream technology in Scandinavia where thousands of users’ are already benefitting from reduced energy bills, improved air quality, reductions in damp, condensation and also bad smells. Basically, over there, solar ventilation and push technology is a done deal - we want to make it the same over here.

- I already have two attached to my house and have been blown away by both there effectiveness and efficiency, as well as the savings I’ve made so far in just under a year. Small, cost-effective solar units work and it only takes one person on street to get one before others do - it’s almost infectious! It also sends a message to the authorities that we are not going to take it anymore, that we are personally taking steps to be greener and more self sufficient and so should they.

- It is simple and affordable technology, and has a predominantly consumer oriented market - i.e. you, me and Joe public. This means that individuals can begin taking their own steps towards a greener future without having to look to governments to lead by example, because lets face it, if we did that we’d be waiting a long, long time. The technology is out there, people just need to be aware of it. And this is the entire point of SolarAirTech:

We research products, talk to experts and businesses, and analyse both established and up-and-coming technology. In essence, we’re doing the leg-work so that the information we uncover can be disseminated down to you, the reader.

Add new comment

SolarAirTech

Blog

Oil service "Going Green"

Must See: Quick explanation of how a Solar Ventilator works

Solar ventilation in Scandinavia - why it's so popular

SolarAirTech: What we’re all about and why

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