Powering Mor O Gariad

Mor O Gariad uses a lot of electricity!  The average 4 bedroom house in the UK uses 4,000-5,000 kWh of electricity per year. However, Mor O Gariad is not an average house, with its hot tub being available all year round, and a heated swimming pool available for 5 months of the year. When I took ownership of Mor O Gariad in October 2021, the property was drawing around 12,000kWH from the grid per annum i.e. 3 times the average. I felt that this was unacceptable so I decided to make some changes to drive own energy use.   The property does have an array of 26 solar panels and so contributes power back to the grid, which makes me feel a bit better!  In order to improve the situation, I have carried out 3 projects:

• 1. Install a new highly efficient air source heat pump for heating the water in the swimming pool
• 2. Install a new similar heat pump for heating the water in the hot tub
• 3. Install high capacity batteries to allow for more efficient, local usage of power generated by the solar panel array (in particular to allow for power generated by the solar panels to be used by the property in the evenings).
• 
  
• The graph below shows the positive impact these measures appear to be having, with annual usage dropping by about a a third. The battery storage was put in place in January 2024 and the benefits that will result from this are still emerging. I'm hoping that the trend shown below continues as the longer days and better weather enable much greater local electricity generation and storage.  We'll see!