In July, the government announced the new Green Homes Grant, which provides homeowners and landlords with £5,000 – £10,000 vouchers for energy-saving renovations.

The Green Homes Grant scheme is a £2 billion package to help the UK bounce back from the covid-19 pandemic by saving money, cutting carbon, and creating jobs. A further £1 billion package for the public sector was announced by Mr Sunak.

In total, this £3 billion initiative by the government plans to make 650,000 homes more energy efficient, help save households money on bills, lower the UK’s carbon emission by more than half a mega tonne per year — equivalent to taking 270,000 cars off the road — and support an estimated 140,00 green jobs.

‘This is going to be a green recovery with concern for our environment at its heart,’ Sunak says.

Green home improvements ranging from insulation of walls, floors and roofs, to the installation of low-carbon heating, like heat pumps or solar thermal – measures that could help families save up to £600 a year on their energy bills.

Households will be offered a list of approved TrustMark and MCS registered tradespeople in their local area to carry out the work. Once the works are agreed, vouchers will start to be issued from the end of September so work can commence.

An area covered by the new Green Grants is Air Sourced Heat Pumps. Carter Electrical will be registering with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme to enable their clients to claim under the Green Grant scheme.

In addition, households can use their voucher for further energy saving measures, including appliance tank thermostats and heating controls.

Promoting the use of renewable energy sources has been on the UK government’s agenda for many years now. The EU’s Renewable Energy Directive set out for all member countries to reach a 20% renewables target before 2020. The UK has been working towards that goal, but recently approved policies have been scrapped or the related incentives have been reduced.

Carter Electrical Installation have been installing and maintaining Solar PV systems in the Thames Valley since 2010. Although many installers have ceased trading as the Feed in Tariff has been scrapped, we’re still installing and servicing systems. If you’re interested, we can usually provide an initial quote and illustration without even visiting your home. Rest assured there will never be any hard-sell from us.

Prices are from approximately £1000 per 1kW installed (depending on specifications). If you’re looking to improve the efficiency of your home (and future-proof yourself a little against price increases in electricity), this can be a great addition to your home. We also offer battery storage with PV systems, from under £12,000 for an entire system comprising 4kWp solar PV together with 8kWh battery. We can of course fit battery storage to an existing solar PV system. Don’t worry if this sounds a little complicated we can take care of everything and provide you with the appropriate system for your home.

We can also service and repair existing fitted Solar Panels. Whether we installed them or not. Carter were recently called out to a fire caused by badly fitted and maintained solar panels on an industrial unit. (See the photo of the cherry picker on the right.)

According to the Daily Mail (1st July) the UK Government are considering offering drivers £6,000 towards an electric car if they scrap a diesel or petrol model. Electric cars are also exempt from Road Tax and will spare you from CO2 emission charges levied by some towns and cities. So some compelling economics to purchase an EV.

The Government has also provided extra funding for the fitting of home charging points and is providing £500 million towards public charge points over 5 years.

Already electric vehicles are becoming much more commonplace in this country and if the above is true then sales could be set to soar. Indeed the market share of electric vehicles sold was set to reach 5% in 2020 before Coronavirus hit all car sales. Sales of EV’s had tripled in the first three months of 2020, causing some supply challenges.

The questions most often asked by potential purchasers are:

1. How far can I drive on one charge?
2. How long does it take to charge an electric vehicle?
3. How much does it cost to fully charge my vehicle?

Most electric vehicles can travel 100 miles on one charge, with the Nissan Leaf capable of over 130 miles. Top of the range Tesla can drive for 250 miles!

Charging an EV can take anywhere between 30 minutes to 12 hours. It depends on the type of car battery, and the speed of the charging point.

Several factors can affect charging speed including:

The size of the battery

The dimensions of the car

How full the battery is

The maximum charging rate of the vehicle

The maximum rate of the charging point.

A typical EV with a 60kWh battery can go from empty to fully charged in just under eight hours with a 7kW charging point.

Owning a rapid home charger for your EV, or an EV charger that has a rapid mode or quick charge function, enables you to power your battery at a much quicker rate.

You can charge your electric car in different ways. Charging at home is the most common method, whether or not accelerated you can comfortably charge in the period that you do not use the car. Electric charging of course is even more economical if you have solar panels or a wind turbine. With normal chargers you can not choose how much use is made of your own electricity production.

Carter Electrical recommend and install zappi chargers. Jon Carter commented “And that is what the smart zappi charger distinguishes itself in. The zappi charges environmentally conscious and greener by applying as much as possible of its own consumption and pulling out of the grid as little as possible. This way you will be driving cheaper and cleaner.”

Now you can decide for yourself how fast your car needs to be recharged, with the zappi charger you can make maximum use of your own electricity production. If you don’t produce any electricity zappi can still be used to charge your vehicle from the grid.

Carter Electrical can also install other chargers, including Rolec. Please do get in touch with us if you would like more information on the installation of Electric Vehicle chargers.

Want to buy and store cheaper electricity?

Fed up with power cuts?

Want to work reliably from home?

Carter Electrical are proud to announce that they have been approved as an installer of Tesla Powerwall 2 batteries.

Tesla are well known for their electric cars and, after last week, the launch of SpaceX. What is lesser known is that Tesla have become a leading supplier in the UK of batteries to homes, offices, shops, and industrial units.

The advantages of employing Carter Electrical to install a Tesla Powerwall in your premises are many fold but the key points are:

• Store power when it’s cheaper and release when electricity is expensive.
• Have power back up when you experience a power cut.
• Charge your electric car more cost effectively
• The ability to sell stored power back to the grid.
• Store power from your solar panels if you have them fitted.
• Potential to become a self-powered home with a Powerwall 2 battery and PV panels both fitted.
• Manage everything from the Tesla App.

With a 13.5 kWh Tesla Powerwall 2 Battery costing around £7,200 plus VAT estimates on payback range from 7 to 13 years depending on your tariff. As an approved Tesla Powerwall supplier Carter Electrical would be delighted to quote you to install the appropriate battery and accessories to your home, office or workspace.  Reading based Carter Electrical cover Berkshire, South Oxfordshire, North Hampshire and Surrey.

Tesla quote on their website ”A self-powered home combines solar energy and Powerwall to independently power your home day and night. During the day, solar panels can produce more energy than your home uses. Powerwall 2 stores this excess solar energy and makes it available on demand, even after the sun has set. Through the Tesla app, you will have full visibility into your self-powered home.”

Regarding all too frequent power cuts Tesla say “Powerwall detects grid outages and automatically becomes your home’s main energy source. Protect your home from the next power outage and keep your lights on, phones charged, and devices powered up.”

Read other Tesla related articles:

• Tesla Powerwall Installation In Reading
• Removal and Re-installation of Tesla battery

A recent BBC report has highlighted how during the Coronavirus pandemic the National Grid were virtually giving electricity away. With demand down 15% across Europe, and with lots of sunshine and wind generating plenty of renewable energy, electricity prices went negative 66 times during April.

“Consumers who had signed up to flexible, real time tariffs with one UK energy supplier found themselves encouraged to use electricity when it went negative. ” according to the BBC.

“You’re doing a service to the National Grid,” says Greg Jackson from Octopus Energy, the company who encouraged their customers to use more during negative pricing episodes.

“The grid is going to pay someone to deal with this problem of oversupply. They will pay a company to build batteries, or they will pay companies to stop generating or you can pay customers to use electricity at those times.”

“These are all different ways of providing the service of balancing the grid.”

With the growth of powerful batteries consumers, both domestic and industrial, can buy electricity when prices are low and store it for later use.

Reading based Carter Electrical have just become an approved installer of Tesla Powerwall 2 batteries. Tesla have over 100,000 of their batteries installed in UK and are set to become the leading supplier. Powerwall is a completely automated system that installs easily and requires minimal maintenance.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52943037

Carter Electrical Installation Limited is proud to announce the launch of our new re-designed website. The website provides a clear message of who we are and where our values lie as well as ensuring that we are up to date with the latest technology allowing customers to view the site on any type of device. The site has been designed by East Anglia Design in Suffolk, who have been professional, friendly and supportive throughout.

Going forward we will continue to communicate regularly through our blog and social media so please keep visiting us to find out about more the services we provide here at Carter Electrical Installation Limited and if you have any questions whatsoever, please don’t hesitate to contact us.