Cornwall New Energy is helping Wellington House to assess renewable energy options and electric vehicle charging points

Wellington House is a bed and breakfast located in the heart of Falmouth, Cornwall. The property is typical of many Edwardian period houses by appearance but has a varied wall construction of solid granite, then brick and rubble, finishing with a timber frame and chicken wire in places.

The owners of Wellington House, Bruce and Rosemary Hobbs, have already taken steps to reduce their energy consumption at the property. However this type of period property can be tricky to move into the 21^st century in terms of energy efficiency. Solid walls were initially designed to work alongside real fires which would control drafts and allow the building to breath. Like many old buildings, windows have been replaced with double glazing to reduce heat loss and a gas central heating replaces the existing solid fuel systems.

These upgrades are great for reducing energy bills but need careful balancing to allow the building to function without becoming damp. Bruce and Rosemary know all about this and have installed measures to monitor and control the moisture content in the house.

Cornwall New Energy has advised that installing mechanical ventilation systems would be useful to improve air quality and reduce damp at Wellington House. A single room heat recovery unit is a mechanical ventilation system which recovers heat that would normally be extracted out to the atmosphere to warm the incoming air. This means that air quality is improved and emissions reduced.

CNE have also considered how heating and electricity at Wellington House could be subsidised by renewable energy systems. Unfortunately, the roof does not lend itself to solar and although an air source heat pump would be applicable it does not stack up financially over the A-rated gas boiler that has already been installed.

Bruce is really keen to look at installing electric vehicle charge points for his customers. Luckily, there is financial help available to install this technology: the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) offers grants to those wishing to install electric vehicle charging points. There is also the possibility to collaborate with Ecodrive, a Cornwall based company, to install multiple charging points meaning that more guests could benefit from the facility and unit costs would be reduced.

The consultation work that CNE has done with Wellington house doesn’t stop here; Wellington House is a member of the British Hospitality Association and Rosemary runs the Falmouth Hotels Trade Group. This provides an opportunity to tap into networks and work collaboratively to ensure that knowledge and sustainable initiatives spread beyond the walls of Wellington House.

Interested in finding out how your business can benefit from Cornwall New Energy?

Call Amanda Forman on 07471 953 998 or email: a.forman@prp-co.uk