Seeing The Green Light

Once considered worthy and hippyish, embracing environmentally friendly ways of heating and lighting is catching on in town and country, finds Anna Tyzack

- Anna Tyzack

FORGET orangeries and infinity pools, the most fashionable addition to a country house these days is a renewable-energy system— preferably powering a stable of electric cars. Large estates are leading the charge, such as Holkham in Norfolk, where the Earl of Leicester has embraced solar, biomass and ground-source heat, as well as anaerobic digestion. ‘I’ve become passionate about renewables,’ the Earl admits. ‘Nature is forgiving, but how we live our lives has a bearing on the planet.’

Figures from the CLA’s most recent Rural Business Report suggest 46% of members have invested in renewable energy and, across Britain, a million homeowners now have solar panels in what the Government has called ‘a small-scale electricity revolution’.

For those living in old, draughty houses, however, the cost and upheaval of installing a green heating system can be off-putting —there seems little point in installing a biomass boiler or photovoltaic (PV) panels without upgrading insulation and glazing. In a listed property, the disruption required is even more daunting.

The newest systems, however, are discreet, clean and highly efficient. The output heat energy of an air-source heat pump, for example, is up to six times the electrical input power and solar panels will still generate substantial amounts of electricity on a cloudy day in the depths of winter.