Mr Roofer

I had a short winter break with the family last week. Holiday for them, part holiday, part business for me.

Whilst in Cyprus, which was surprisingly cold given its Mediterranean location, I wore a jacket most days. What was particularly interesting was that all new housing developments had moved quite positively in the direction of energy efficient homes. Whilst perhaps rather unsightly, all new homes incorporated a hot water heating system on the roof using solar power. My wife was interested in looking at the new homes, not that we are remotely in a financial position to consider buying, so we went along and had a good look at the new homes being built around Paphos. Naturally I was interested in the built in home energy efficiency and was very impressed with the central hot water heating systems. I tested the water and it was very hot even on overcast days. Free hot water, excellent!

Well, not quite free because the cost of installing the heating system has to be considered. On questioning a few of the builders on site I managed to ascertain that the average home hot water system was being installed for circa £4,000 Cypriot pounds, about £5000 in pound sterling. So, not a whim investment but certainly one that makes sense if we look at life cycle energy running costs of a home given that the system has a predicted life expectancy of 50 years plus. Maintenance is practically zero so the system will pay back within 5 years over the cost of a conventionally installed system. Given that conventional systems are big users of the home energy budget and that the cost of energy is headed one way, way up, then the pay back of solar systems will be shorter than 5 years, possibly within just 3.