Member Article

Wolds Village cuts electric bill by 40%

As an award-winning tourist attraction in East Yorkshire, the owners of Wolds Village appreciate that customer service and attention to detail are key to success.

Chris and Sally Brealey run the popular attraction in Bainton, near Driffield, which consists of a restaurant and tearooms, an art gallery, bed and breakfast accommodation and a craft shop.

But the venue also had high electric bills to contend with and when the solution of installing solar panels was proposed to save money and potentially generate revenue, the couple jumped at the opportunity.

Chris explains: “We use a lot of electricity here at Wolds Village and the electric bills were very large because we have lots of fridge freezers going as well as air conditioning in the kitchen and restaurant.

“We also have a lot of lighting on too and, wherever possible, we switched our lightbulbs to LEDs to help save energy and we wanted to keep our costs as low as we possibly could.”

Discover Energy installed the ground-mounted solar panels

The Brealeys then followed the recommendation of a good farming friend who had used the Beverley-based Discover Energy for their own solar installation.

The result was an impressive ground-mounted installation of 340 solar panels which produce 85kWp on their site and which has led to an impressive 40% reduction in the electric bill at Wolds Village.

Chris says: “There’s no doubt that by installing solar panels we will see the initial cost being repaid back to us very quickly. Indeed, at the current rate of usage, Wolds Village should see its investment repaid in less than six years.”

Sally adds: “The PV installation has started well and because we have had a good summer we believe that the investment will be paying back more quickly than we initially believed.

“We would definitely recommend other tourist attractions or large electricity users install solar panels if they have the space or room on their roofs.

“In our case, we used a large area in a field that wasn’t doing very much and it made perfect sense to cut down on electricity bills by converting to solar power.”

For a sound reputation use Discover Energy

The firm they chose for the work was Discover Energy which has an excellent reputation in the field for its professionalism and cost-effectiveness.

The firm’s Martin Bleasby reveals that they are currently installing more than 1,500 panels a month for a growing list of happy customers.

He says: “The ground mounted installation at Wolds Village is an excellent example of how a business can have a big effect on their fuel bills – there are other clients who have also seen a big drop in their fuel bills and earn money too thanks to the Government incentives.

“Most of our clients are farmers for big installations like this one and everyone sees a huge difference in their electricity bills and with the installations offering 20 years of electric production they are a sound investment.”

For more information about solar panels and their effect for a business, contact Martin at Discover Energy on 01377 219066.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Steve Lumley .