Location: Maryburgh
Technology: Air to air source heat pump, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, battery storage
CARES funding: £57,032.32
Date installed/operational: February 2025
Background
The Maryburgh Men’s Shed is a charity that encourages people in the community of Maryburgh to come together to engage in creative activities such as woodworking and community projects. In 2022, it took ownership of an 1860s-built property called the Old School. The Old School had been laying unused for 10 years and needed repairs to its roof, plumbing and electrical wiring before it could be used as a space for the community.
After the Maryburgh Men’s Shed completed these repairs, it started looking at ways to improve the building’s energy efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint in the hope of making the Old School a community facility that was sustainable for the long term.
Project aims and objectives
The project aimed to replace the Old School’s oil-fired boiler with four air to air source heat pumps. It also aimed to install an 12.15kWp solar photovoltaic (PV) panel array, complemented by five storage batteries, to reduce the charities reliance on fossil fuels and allow it to generate and store its own electricity.
In addition to installing renewable technologies, the project also aimed to improve the Old School’s loft insulation and upgrade lighting to modern, energy efficient LEDs.
Outcomes and achievements
The Maryburgh Men’s Shed applied to the Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) and received a capital grant of £57,052.32 for the project. This covered 80% of the project costs, with the remaining 20% being funded by SSE Renewables’ Sustainable Development Fund. The air source heat pumps were installed in November 2024, and the 12.15kWp solar PV array and battery storage was installed in December 2024. Improvements to the building’s energy efficiency were completed in February of 2025.
The Maryburgh Men’s shed has reported that the heat pumps performed well over the winter period and thanks to the solar PV system, it’s seen a decrease in the amount of electricity it needs to purchase from its supplier. The air source heat pump system has also given it the flexibility to heat individual rooms as and when they are needed, saving them on the cost of heating the whole building. The Maryburgh Men’s Shed commented that it felt the support from CARES throughout the project made the whole process easy to follow.
A spokesperson from the Maryburgh Men’s shed shared that “The savings made have reduced our running costs, which greatly helps towards providing a sustainable community facility into the future which can now continue to grow in usage”.
Lessons learned
When preparing its application, the Maryburgh Men’s Shed decided to use one contractor for the installation of its solar PV system and battery, and a separate contractor the installation of its air source heat pump system. On reflection they would have gone for one contractor for both aspects to avoid managing the interface between the two.
The Maryburgh Men’s Shed was given conflicting advice about the type of heat pumps to use. As they wanted to balance the building loads as much as possible they decided to go with the recommendation of using three phase heat pumps.
The Maryburgh Men’s Shed wanted to maximise the amount of battery storage possible with the inverter that was supplied. They were advised by their installer that another two battery packs could be added, giving them an additional 9.2kWh of storage. CARES provided 40% of the cost of the batteries to keep within the project budget.