"Mike" wrote in message
...

"Sue Begg" wrote in message
...

We've got a quote from Geothermal Scotland of £8000 so with grant it
will be about 5000.

Similar quote to us then.

We are then thinking of looking at the domestic
windmill which are just short of a grand (and there is a subsidy on
them as well ) the windmill will provide more than enough electric to
drive the pump so costs after that point should be negligible.

A windmill does change the equation if you can get about 3kW of free
electricity out of it when you want. Our national park doesn't like
windmills so we started looking at a hydroelectric generator to do the
same
thing but it just got more and more complicated getting the permits so
eventually we went for oil.

But we would love to go self-sufficient one day.

When using a windmill you must use a largish thermal store or heat bank.
This is to store heat for when the windmill is not turning. You want to
store as much heat as possible and not waste free energy. The windmill just
heats an immersion in the heat bank. Preferably have, "very" low
temperature underfloor heating, so, that when not fully turning the heating
may operate properly on low temperature water.

A windmill is preferable in a windy location, as they perform just as well
in summer as in winter. Heat pumps underperform in winter, at time hardly
capable of producing DHW hot enough.



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