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1800s South Norfolk farmhouse

1800s South Norfolk farmhouse

The owners of a picturesque 1800s farmhouse in rural South Norfolk are enjoying a warm home and reduced energy bills, thanks to a ground source heat pump installed by the renewable heating experts Finn Geotherm.

While renovating redundant farm buildings on their land to create a new home for themselves, Michael and Judy Watson decided to upgrade the heating and hot water system in the farmhouse where they currently live. The house, originally two separate homes joined into one, will be passed to the Watson’s family in a few years, once the renovation is finished.

“We’re living in the farmhouse while we renovate and extend a former cart shed to create our new home,” explains homeowner Judy Watson. “We had been giving a lot of thought to renewable heating for our new home and when we approached Finn Geotherm about the project, they suggested we could upgrade the existing oil-fired boiler system in our farmhouse at the same time. We were delighted when they told us we could actually heat both buildings from the same ground source heat pump.”

Finn Geotherm specified and installed a Lämpöässä Emi 43 ground source heat pump and 1000litre Superheat thermal cylinder with uprated 60litre/minute coils. While a beautiful lake within the grounds could have been used for the 2200m ground loop, Finn Geotherm decided that the trenching would cause too much disruption to Judy and Michael’s award-winning garden. Instead, the rapeseed field next to the Watson’s house was chosen for the ground loop installation as the most practical option.

The installation is now coming up to a year old and the Watsons have been enjoying their heat and hot water at reduced energy costs.

“We were very pleased with the way in which Finn Geotherm approached our project, with both attention to our heating needs and also care for our property and grounds. This is our first year without oil and it has been fantastic. The house always used to have pockets of heat but now it is warm throughout all the time. We had 10 people here over Christmas and never ran out of hot water. We are very happy with how the new system heats our farmhouse and we are looking forward to being cosy in our new home in the future too.”

The installation will also benefit from the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), a government financial incentive which rewards people and businesses for opting for renewable energy.

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