Making energy at home - video transcript

[Caption] Making energy at home, from Kent County Council.

Megan, a member of staff at Kent County Council: "Making investments in your home to be more energy efficient can save you money and reduce your carbon footprint too, and it's easier than you might think. The best place to start is by keeping the heat in, so well insulating your home can make a really big difference. There's also a number of different low-carbon technologies that you can install at home too, to create your own energy."

Jacqui, a homeowner: "Over the years we've taken various different measures, the first being getting solar panels on the side of the house over the last few years. More recently, last February, we got an air source heat pump installed."

Megan: "Jacqui is just one of many residents who has had a heat pump installed and is feeling the benefits."

Greg, a homeowner: "So the first thing that we did when we were doing the build was to super insulate all the walls, and starting from that, trying to make it cosy inside. Then we designed the heating system so that we could run underfloor heating downstairs and large radiators upstairs, because what we want to do was to put on an air source heat pump. And then the other couple of things that we did was put on some photovoltaics on the roof, which basically is the the electrical energy from the sun. Also solar thermal, so we use that for our domestic hot water."

Megan: "Over 21,000 homes in Kent have had solar installed and they're feeling the benefits."

[Caption] "It was a smooth and simple process" Kent resident

[Caption] "The whole project has been great, very informative and flexible with timings to suit me" Kent resident

Greg: "Probably the best thing is basically that you can be inside all year round and just wear a t-shirt."

Jacqui: "We get money back every quarter from the government for the next 7 years. So we installed this in February 2020 and from spring last year, we've been getting quarterly payments, and we will probably get about £11,000 back from the government over that 7 year period."

Megan: "You can find more advice about the low-carbon technologies suitable for your home on our website, kent.gov.uk/saveenergy."