Skyrad has finished installing its solar heating system on six homes in Birmingham as part of a pilot scheme in conjunction with Birmingham City Council.
The response from all the residents was positive, and one resident was especially happy; Ms Ferguson lives in a 1930s house in Kingstanding in the North of Birmingham. Her house was poorly insulated, and heated with a mixture of gas fires and electric heaters – “the cost was horrendous,” she said “and you could feel the draft blowing even with the doors shut”.
When Ms Ferguson applied to Skyrad, we calculated that she could save between £1,600 and £2,000 per year on her utilities bills. The installation went well, despite the work being delayed by snow. “My goodness is it worth it,” said Ms Ferguson, “the installers cleaned up after themselves and I couldn’t fault them”.
Now Ms Ferguson is very happy with the result. She told us that Skyrad “is what these houses have needed”, and “it’s a pity more people don’t have it”. As well as cutting Ms Ferguson’s energy bills from as high as £60/week to an average of £10/week (on one particular week Ms Ferguson used only £1.40 of gas), the patented insulation that forms part of the Skyrad system also acted as sound-proofing, muffling out the noise of a major road nearby. All in all Ms Ferguson was very pleased; in her words Skyrad is “bringing these houses into the 21st Century”.
The pilot scheme was Skyrad’s first multi-building installation, and was carried out as part of Birmingham City Council’s Aim High Project. Skyrad founder Dr Sam Bailey said “we were absolutely delighted to be chosen to take part in the Aim High project with Birmingham City Council. It gave us the opportunity to work with one of the largest and most forward looking housing providers in Europe. The European Regional Development Fund, and also GPurchase Construction and Carrilion were instrumental in making the project a success.”
About Skyrad:
Skyrad is a patented solar heating system that uses roof mounted solar water heaters, external wall insulation and a heat control, storage and distribution system to provide solar heating and hot water to houses. Installation costs range from as little as £12,000 for a small terraced house to around £25,000 for an average-sized detached house. Installation can take as little as 1 week. Once installed, Skyrad supplies you with free solar heating and hot water all year round, and can reduce your heating and hot water bill by up to 80%.
I saw the project in Birmingham and would like to introduce it in my area too. This looks like exactly the type of product needed for the UK’s hard-to-treat solid walled housing.