Darren Stockall

Darren Stockall

Worcester Renewable Energy Ltd

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Darren Stockall of Worcester Solar Heating Ltd., started his own business in March 2006 with a view to installing gas and future renewable products, including high efficiency condensing boilers, solar systems and ground source heat pumps.

As a Worcester accredited business, when it came to renovating his own detached home in Crowle, Worcestershire, Darren naturally specified Worcester products for the job. He explains: “Our property was originally a three bedroom detached house but we needed more room and so decided to convert it to add anther couple of bedrooms. Whilst extending the house, it made sense to update our heating system, as we had previously relied upon electric heaters that weren’t particularly energy efficient.

“Having just set up the company, I was keen to have the technology I would be selling to my customers installed in my own home. As a result, the work to my property was one of the first solar installations we’d ever done. To replace the electric heaters, we specified Worcester’s FK240 Greenskies solar panels and a Greenstar 30CDi system condensing boiler. We also decided to move over to LPG in conjunction with the solar panels because of our rural location, which helped us reduce our fuel bills by around 50% in 2007.

“From day one, I knew that I didn’t want to preach to my customers about something I had no first hand experience of, so it was important to be able to demonstrate my belief in the technology by having it at home. Installing Greenskies also gave me the chance to get to grips with the technology before working on anyone else’s property. You could say, I learnt in the privacy of my own home and it has certainly paid off!”