Renewing our company one electric vehicle at a time

Pardon the pun, but our newest electric Maxus van has been on the roads for a couple of months now. One of our four 100% electric vans, it is emblazoned with our new Carter Renewables branding, an exciting division of our company focusing on Solar PV systems, Electric Vehicle Charging, Tesla Powerwalls and Solar battery installations.

As we look to diversify Carter Electrical with its new sister division Carter Renewables, it’s important we showcase the best of what renewable energy has to offer. And what better way than through our electric fleet; the Maxus EDeliver 3 does around 135 miles on a full charge, perfect for our work in and around the Reading area.

Carter Electrical New Electrical Vehicle

Why change to Electric Vehicles?

The electric vehicle (EV) market is booming, according to the latest vehicle stats. Electric car sales increased by 40% in 2022 and EVs enjoyed another record year with more than one in ten new vehicles being electric. The proportion of electric cars within the wider used car market is only going one way – up. Overall, 1.61 million new cars were registered in 2022 – a figure that’s 2.0% down on 2021 due to the impact of the pandemic and the continued global semiconductor chip shortage. Despite this, more battery electric vehicles (BEV) were sold in 2022 than ever with 267,203 registrations (16.6% of all new car sales), while plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) made up 6.3% or 101,414 cars.

Electric car sales are now second only to petrol cars in the UK.

Completing the circuit

With this in mind, more and more clients are reaching out to us to start the conversation about how they can make renewable adaptations to their homes and business premises to reduce their running costs for their electric vehicles. These include projects as straightforward as installing personal electric car chargers, such as the MyEnergi Zappi, or opting for our self-titled Triple Solution, where clients are storing the energy from their solar panels in storage batteries before using that generated power to run their homes. Batteries also let you charge up overnight with cheaper electric to reduce your unit price of electricity in the winter when there is less solar being generated.

Get Carter, go green!

So what are you waiting for? If you’re considering going green with your vehicle in the interests of contributing to a cleaner planet, not to mention adding value to your property or commercial venue, talk to us about an initial quote.

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energy price update

Lower Bills Ahead?

It looks likely that with falling natural gas and oil prices household energy bills could slip below the government’s Energy Price Guarantee (EPG). One of the energy suppliers, Ovo Energy, have announced a 12 month tariff of £2,275 to existing customers that is below the EPG of £2,500 (for the average family home). If energy prices fall further it is not unlikely that deals could come on the market this summer for £2,000 per year. These deals are still almost double what they were before Russia invaded Ukraine, but it encouraging to see some competition return to the domestic supply market.

Energy price guarantee

The Energy Price Guarantee was brought in to protect consumers from the soaring price of gas and electric reflected by the Energy Price Cap (EPG). The Energy Price Cap has risen from around £1,000 per annum 2 years ago to a high of £4,279 this January. Therefore the government have been subsidising households this Spring to the tune of £1,800 per year. £4,279 minus £2,500 =£1,779. Now with prices likely to fall below the EPG the government will no longer be subsidising households to such an extent. It is possible that the Energy Price Cap will fall further from its present level of £3,280 to around £2,000 this summer.

Green energy investments for your home

Obviously forecasting oil and natural prices is fraught with danger. With OPEC announcing production cuts this week, and the price of crude rising sharply, nothing is written in stone. And with fighting still going on in Ukraine it is very hard to make accurate predictions. Therefore we still advise householders to use the rest of the year to improve the insulation in their homes, and maybe look at Green energy projects for their houses. The return on investment for Green energy is still good even with annual power bills around £2,000. Don’t forget that their are still government grants available for certain projects, especially installing Air Source Heat Pumps.

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Nest heating

Getting the best out of your gas boiler.

Heating your home accounts for up to 60% of what you spend in a year on your energy bills (Energy Saving Trust). Therefore anything that you can do to improve the efficiency of your boiler and radiators will lead to significant savings.

Depending on your boiler’s age, a new efficient condensing one could save you up to £315 a year. However a new installed boiler will set you back anything from £1,800 to £3,000 depending on the boiler of your choice and the size of your house.

Adjusting your thermostat at home

If you only have one thermostat for your home, turning it down by 1°C would save around £145 a year, according to estimates from the Energy Saving Trust. For most people, the lowest comfortable temperature to set your heating is around 18°C. 

What many home owners don’t realise is that their boiler can be made to run much more efficiently. The ‘flow temperature’ is the temperature your boiler heats up the water to before sending it off to your radiators. Most gas boilers are set up to operate at what is called 80/60 flow and return temperatures. This means the boiler heats up the water to 80°C. The water returns to the boiler after travelling around all your radiators at 60°C, having given off 20°C to the room.

However an 80/60C flow is too high for a condensing gas boiler to achieve the A-rated efficiencies claimed by the manufacturers. Your installer should have reduced the flow temperature to give the boiler a chance to run in what is known as ‘condensing mode’ as much as possible. This is when you will make a decent level of savings.

Efficiently running your heating in your home

The correct temperature setting for heating on a boiler is ‘as low as possible’, but as a guide most older homes can run their heating systems at 60°C and newer homes at 50-55°C. They start to reach their very highest efficiency potential at 45°C flow temperature or lower, but this can be too low for older properties.

Ultimately how low you can turn your flow temperature down will depend on the size of your radiators, how well insulated your home is and your thermostat temperature. For homes with modern double glazing, cavity walls and good levels of loft insulation you should be able to drop your flow temperature down with no impact on comfort. Even older homes, particularly terraced houses, will be able to do this if they have been modernised and draft proofed.

Smart heating in your home

There are also a raft of smart heating controls like Nest and Hive that allow you to control your home heating via and App. Why have your heating on when no one is at home? Or turn the heating on remotely when you are on your way home? If you add smart thermostatic radiator valves to your smart heating controls you can really start to make savings. At Carter Electrical we recommend fitting Nest and have good experiences with that brand.

Thermostatic radiator valves and a smart heating controller allow you to divide up your home into various zones and then offer smart heating in each zone, so your guest bedroom is heated only when required, the master bedroom is warm in the morning and at bedtime, and the kitchen is cosy at breakfast and tea time.

Get in touch if you would like more advice or if we can help with any electrical and heating issues.

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Solar panels Reading

Saving Energy-Saving Money

We have written several blogs on the subject of saving energy and there are many great blogs out there that also give excellent tips on how to use less power. Therefore we have decided to share some of our favourite blogs from the internet and highlight the best tips to save money this winter.

6 tips to cut your energy bills:

We like this article from the BBC as it gives six simple tips to cut your energy bills that don’t cost a fortune to implement. They are

1) use an air fryer or microwave instead of an oven,

2) install LED lightbulbs,

3) turn your central heating down,

4) insulate and draught proof your home,

5) use your appliances more economically

6) and finally take shorter showers!!

We have previously written a blog about LED lightbulbs

This blog from EDF goes through the house in more detail giving you some more great ideas on how to save on your energy consumption

There are obviously larger expenditures that will save you money in the long run and many of these investments are now showing good returns as the price of energy has soared. Investments such as the installation of double glazing, solar panels, air source pumps can cost thousands of pounds but can indeed save you thousands of pounds over the long run. There are also government grants to enable households to make these green investments.

Installation of storage batteries

Installing a storage battery can also prove to be a good investment as the battery will store the electricity generated by your solar panels or the cheap electricity that is available to purchase overnight. Our latest blog discusses the merits of Tesla and Huawei Luna storage batteries.

You can also take this questionnaire on the UK Government website to see if your home would benefit from home improvements that could make your property cheaper to heat and keep warm.

Please do get in touch with us here at Carter Electrical Installations if you’re thinking about embarking on any of these projects.

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