This property on the Black Isle, Highlands, already had a biomass system with a log burner, however the client was looking to reduce their carbon foot print further. With this in mind we suggested the use of solar thermal to add to the domestic hot water to reduce the operation of the biomass, especially during the summer months. The solar thermal instalation was optimised to give the maximum output from the available space as seen in the photo.

In addition to the solar thermal, 11kW of solar PV was installed and this was mounted on the large log store. Only a 6kW grid connection was available on site, so this was offset with battery storage and surplus power was also diverted to immersion heaters in the domestic hot water tanks controlled by an EMMA device from Cool Power.

The client also takes advantage of this excess power by using it to charge their electric car and when charging, the system stops charging the battery storage and immersion heaters meaning that very little power is imported from the grid.

At night the battery storage continues to power the property.