FIVE HORSESHOES LEADS THE WAY
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heap, efficient and environmentally clean heating is something of a holy grail for people in the UK. The choices in the past have not all been acceptable; coal is seen as dirty, oil and gas is increasingly expensive, nuclear is not universally comfortable and harnessing wind and sunshine rely on the unreliable weather. However, the Five Horseshoes at Barholm is at the heart of a trial that could revolutionise winter fuel for thousands of rural homes and businesses. The 300-year-old free house does not benefit from the triple glazing or insulation of a modern building, and for years it was heated by a traditional oil-fired boiler. But this has now changed, thanks to one of the pub’s regulars, Alan Black, a former heating engineer who was later employed by Oftec, the trade body for oil-fired heating. Alan has researched the potential to reuse waste cooking oils, fats and greases as an alternative to kerosene. “Five or six years ago we were aware of the benefits” says Alan, “it is environmentally clean, safe and energy efficient, but had been dismissed because it would have meant using virgin oils, with the resulting destruction of wildlife through farming palm oil. But now processes have been developed to treat waste oil from the food industry to create the fuel”. The proof is in the pudding, as it were – since the new heating system has been installed at the Five Horseshoes, the pub’s carbon emissions have been reduced by nearly 90%! Investigation of how to offset the remaining 10% was soon under way, and
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it was discovered that this could be achieved by planting thirteen trees every 25 years. Fifteen trees will soon be planted near local schools on behalf of the Five Horseshoes. Heat pumps, which extract heat energy from the air or the ground, are currently the Government’s favoured technology for homes that aren’t on the mains gas network. But Alan Black - and Martin Cooke, MD of EOGB Energy Products (which supplied and installed the system in Barholm) – are keen to change this way of thinking now that hydrotreated vegetable oil, or HVO, is in their view a viable alternative. “Even with a new installation, like the one we have carried out at the pub” says Martin, “we’re looking at about £4,000 to £4,500 compared to about £12,000 to install a heat pump system”. To back up their faith in HVO and to show support for Horseshoes landlords Emma Freeman and Matt Thompson, Oftec paid for the installation at the Five Horseshoes and will fund the fuel for three years. In return, energy data will be extracted from the building to provide a case study for the fuel to be used more widely in homes and businesses around the country. The last word from Emma: “We’re not ecowarriors, but you have to do your bit”. Ain’t that the truth............ (This item is largely taken from an article in the Stamford Mercury, 22nd October 2021)
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2021/22
BEER AROUND ‘ERE
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