Whole House Solution

The combination of Mitsubishi Electric’s Ecodan and Photovoltaic (PV) product ranges means that we can offer a quality whole house solution.

Our range of highly efficient and reliable PV systems allow a home to produce its own energy, helping to reduce its energy use and take advantage of the Government’s feed-in tariffs. When combined with the CERT-approved Ecodan, the award-winning air source heat pump system, to provide domestic heating and hot water, there is scope for efficiency* in annual household fuel bills and CO₂ emissions to be reduced even further.

Cottsway Housing Association – which is the largest Registered Social Landlord in West Oxfordshire – is pioneering the use of environmentally friendly technologies by installing both Mitsubishi Electric’s PV modules and Ecodan air source heat pumps in their houses.

The firm started by installing Ecodan air source heat pumps to replace storage and convector heaters and solid fuel fires and has now fixed Mitsubishi Electric PV arrays to reduce energy consumption further.

A clear demonstration of this approach can be found at the home of Mark and Hayley Pearce. The Pearce family live in a 3-bedroomed home near Chipping Norton and Cottsway installed an Ecodan air source heat pump two years ago. Dramatically lowering the costs to heat their home.

Before the new heating system the Pearce’s mid-terraced home spent £1,137 a year on household electricity bills and solid fuel.  The house is not on the gas network and the storage heaters and coal fire gave the property a carbon footprint of nine tonnes of CO₂ a year. With the new system, costs have been slashed to £384 for the heating and the carbon footprint of the home has been reduced by 65 per cent to just 3.2 tonnes.

“We knew we would see a cut in fuel bills for our tenants but this has even surprised us,” says Gary Salter, a surveyor in the company’s asset management team and one of the architects of the plan.

The Pearce family is quick to agree: “No one relishes paying a large bill for heating and hot water,” says Mark Pearce.  “But you do want a reliable system to provide heat when you need it.   We love it – and since it relies on a neat box situated outside the home it even takes up less space than a boiler or storage heaters.   We’ve kept the fire, but really just for show – it’s the heat pump that keeps us warm!”

Now with the addition of a Mitsubishi Electric PV array, the Pearce family are a further £986 a year better off, achieved from a combination of the feed in tariff for the electricity they generate and also by reducing the amount of electricity they need to buy from the grid and by selling excess electricity back to grid when it is not needed in the home.

The twelve 185-type panels have been generating up to 15kWh on the longer summer days, with an expected average of 9kWh per day over the whole year. Cottsway estimate that the PV array will generate half of the household’s daily consumption during the day.

“The PV array was simple to install and is virtually maintenance free,” explains Salter, “and we are also benefiting from the Government’s Feed in Tariff which will ensure an income for the next 25 years.”

Cottsway is also waiting to see what the Government’s spending review will mean to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) which promises payments to homes using renewable energy equipment, such as the Ecodan air source heat pump.

For further information on Mitsubishi Electric's PV range, visit the website www.mitsubishielectric.co.uk/pv 

For further information on Mitsubishi Electric Lossnay Fresh Air Ventilation, downoad the product information sheet here.

 *Any Actual efficiency benefits and emissions reductions will depend on comparison with your current heating system, satisfactory system design and installation, and operational settings i.e. how you use the heating system.