Flow Energy: can an electricity-generating boiler cut your energy bills?
Flow Energy is to launch a boiler that generates electricity. Can it help you cut your energy bills?
Flow Energy is set to launch a boiler which not only heats your home and water, but generates electricity too.
Flow claims the boiler will pay for itself over five years, and then save homeowners hundreds of pounds a year.
Flow is one of a group of smaller energy companies that have been taking on the big six in terms of cheaper tariffs. It’s part of a bigger company called Energetix and currently offers just one fixed rate energy plan.
It’s been developing an electricity-generating boiler for the past 10 years and plans to launch it in January 2015.
But will it really save you money?
How it works
Normal boilers use gas to heat water, which is then pumped through pipes to your radiators, which then keep your house warm.
The Flow boiler does all this, but includes a generator to make electricity.
The Flow boiler is what’s called a “microCHP” boiler (CHP stands for “combined heat and power”).
So, natural gas or LPG burns in the combustion chamber, just as it does in a standard boiler. But instead of directly heating water, it heats up a fluid in the power module. This fluid evaporates and the resulting vapour moves through a scroll expander, which spins and acts like a mini dynamo to generate electricity, which can be used in your home or exported.
Once the vapour has moved through the scroll it condenses in a small heat exchanger to heat the water for your heating system and hot water. Then the whole process starts again.
Once you have a Flow boiler installed you won’t need to buy as much electricity to run your home – some of it will come from the boiler.
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Feed-in tariffs
The electricity the Flow boiler generates also attracts microCHP feed-in tariff payments. These payments – handed out to people who produce energy and feed it back into the grid – go back to Flow in the first instance.
Flow says that once these two things (electricity generated and feed-in tariff payments) are added together it should cover the cost of your boiler’s installation. In fact Flow guarantees the boiler will pay for itself over five years.
After five years, you’ll continue to save money on your bills because you can use the electricity the Flow boiler generates in your home. You’ll also start to receive the feed-in tariff payments instead of them being paid to Flow. Flow puts the combined savings at up to £500 a year.
Paying for it
The exact price of a Flow boiler is yet to be announced, but Flow has two options for paying for it: Flow Finance and Flow Freedom.
The Flow Finance package allows you to avoid the upfront cost of a new boiler. You pay for installation and sign a credit agreement for its cost. You then switch your home energy to Flow for the five-year period and agree to sign over the feed-in tariff payments to Flow.
Flow will then reduce your bills every month by the same amount as the monthly finance payment. This is guaranteed for five years, until the boiler is paid off.
For example, if you’re paying £50 a month for the boiler and £100 for energy, Flow will reduce your energy costs by £50 meaning you still pay £100 a month (£50 for the boiler plus £50 for energy).
Flow Freedom is similar but involves you paying for the boiler yourself upfront. You still need to switch your energy to Flow and it will give you a monthly discount on your home energy bills for five years. The total discount over five years will equal the cost of the boiler.
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Who’s the Flow boiler suitable for?
You can’t order a Flow boiler just yet – but you can register your interest.
The Flow boiler is best suited to three to five-bedroom properties. However Flow is working on both a more powerful version for larger homes and a business model that would make it economical for smaller homes.
The exact financial benefit you’ll get from Flow will depend on your gas and electricity usage, the type of property you live in and several other factors. Flow’s next step is to introduce a savings calculator to give households a better estimate of the financial benefit of installing an electricity-generating boiler.
What do you think? Are you tempted by an electricity-generating boiler? Let us know your thoughts in the comments box below.
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