Firm has energy solutions
An East Sussex plumbing and heating business is leading the way in the field of renewable energy as early experience pays off.
Paynes Heating and Plumbing Services are involved in a contract to fit panels to the roof of a London fire station to generate heat thermally, which can be pumped into the ground and stored until needed during winter months, and electricity to be sold back to the national grid.
It has also installed 14 bore holes and two large ground source heat pumps at a school in Surrey and been invited to participate in a ten-year build programme there.
The business, based at Blackboys just outside Uckfield, is expanding steadily. It employs 65 people and is recruiting more.
Experiments with renewable energy solutions began five years ago and now the company has opened a showroom on its three-and-a-half acre site in Blackboys, featuring ground and air source heat pumps as well as solar installations.
It is Renewable Energy Saving Week between October 19 and 25 and Paynes will be pleased to welcome visitors then or any other time.
Local primary schools are taking an interest in the centre especially since the company started distributing a picture book about how families can make their homes energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
One of the company directors, Andy Payne, hopes councils, architects, surveyors and other potential customers will also take the opportunity to visit and see how the latest systems work.
Paynes was launched 27 years ago in a garden shed and has been through four moves since then.
The company has been investigating alternative sources of energy to fossil fuels for the last five years and is now confidently selling ground and air source heating systems while expecting increasing interest in solar photo voltaic systems over the next few years.
Andy, whose father Frank started the business, said there would come a time when people would make a living by allowing the new solar systems on to their land and rooftops to generate electricity which could then be sold at a profit to the national grid.
The change is expected to begin next year when electricity tariffs will allow electricity generated privately to be sold back to the national grid at a better rate than it can be bought.
Andy said: ‘Oil boilers have already been phased out in Scandinavia and in Europe people are generating electricity which is bought back by the electricity companies. Eventually it will be possible for that to happen here too,’ he said.
Paynes started business in Uckfield, before moving to Ridgewood, then Norfolk Way and the Bellbrook Industrial Estate before settling at Oak Tree Barn in Blackboys.
The business is involved in projects across the south east of England in Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, London, Oxfordshire and in Birmingham too.
Andy is very excited about the future for Paynes Energy Solutions. A particular source of pride for him is that the company has won ‘micro-generation certification’ following scrutiny of all its policies and procedures by a Government inspector.
This allows Paynes to offer government grants to customers taking advantage of new technologies. ‘We invested heavily in achieving the certification which is not an easy thing to get and I am very proud to have won it,’ said Andy.
Paynes now specialise in energy solutions for their clients whether they prefer natural gas, LPG, oil, solid fuel, pellet boilers, electrical or renewable energies.
Please see their website, at www.paynesheatcentre.co.uk for more information or call them on 01825 891720.
(Added to site Wednesday, October 14th, 2009)
