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Dan Loveridge

Dan Loveridge on the power of energy

By Dan Loveridge

Managing Director, Cinergi Ltd.

Through completing an electrician apprenticeship and progressing his experience with SSE Contracting, followed by a period working in construction for Touch Building Services, Dan Loveridge gleaned the technical and electrical expertise to set up his own company: Cinergi Ltd. 

Specialising in renewable energy installations, the company is part of a new era of energy bringing efficient and sustainable solutions to its customers on the South Coast.  

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What are the core services of your business?

We have a team of heating and power engineers specialising in renewable energy installations including air source heat pumps, solar panels, underfloor heating, and heat recovery systems.

Air source heat pumps are our core business, however the solar side of the business is growing rapidly. Our clients are mainly domestic, but we do have a number of commercial customers too.

What details in your work especially make you proud?

We've got a great team of people. Genuinely, everyone that works here is really good; everyone gets on well and it's a really good team to work with. That's probably the biggest thing that makes me proud – the people are brilliant.

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What external factors affect your work and industry?

The government is pushing air source heat pumps and incentivising their adoption through grants. Domestically, there is a £5000 grant to install a heat pump which makes them a bit more affordable.  

Energy prices have all gone absolutely crazy, and this has a particular impact on the solar PV side of the business. Electricity costs have pretty much doubled in the last 18 months and will probably continue to rise and potentially triple so there’s never been a better time to get solar. 

How is the technical capability of power evolving?

A question that people often ask is if they should hold on for the new technology. Heat pumps aren’t new tech, they work in the same way that your fridge works – they’ve been around a very long time and there aren’t really any big leaps in that area.  

Solar and batteries are becoming much more affordable and financially viable. The country is facing some quite big challenges in going from fossil fuels to electric; particularly with how the National Grid copes and reacts. There is some quite smart stuff happening now with load balancing the Grid, where people can charge their batteries when the power is cheap and there’s surplus power, and discharge that back to the Grid when the Grid is struggling. It helps the homeowner to earn quite a bit of money for doing so, and also helps the National Grid deal with those challenges.  

"Electricity costs have pretty much doubled in the last 18 months and will probably continue to rise and potentially triple so there's never been a better time to get solar."

Managing Director, Cinergi Ltd

What’s one thing everyone should know about renewable energy installations?

I think all renewable technology takes a change of habit to really make it work.  

For example, your boiler in your house might be a 24-kilowatt boiler, but you may only need a seven- or eight-kilowatt air source heat pump, which is because you’ve only got to turn it once then leave it on all the time.  

The biggest challenge we come up against is people trying to run a heat pump like a boiler, by only turning it on for a couple of hours here and there which isn’t an efficient way to heat a house.  

So it’s educating and training people to think a little bit differently in how they do things.  

You can make some big savings just by using power at the right times. In the winter, there are massive surges of power from the Grid at certain times like when everyone turns their kettles on to make a cup of tea in the evening. Energy is drastically expensive at those times, so using energy smartly by creating good habits is a key thing to learn about renewable energy.  

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?

I’ve got a dirt bike which I occasionally ride on the Salisbury Plain.  

I’ve got a little boy who is 15 months old – it’s so nice to come home to him. And we’re due another baby in August as well.  

Where is your favourite place to be or visit when you need to get some downtime?

As a family we always holidayed in the South of France; we lived there for a couple of years when we were kids so that's a place that we go to and is like a home from home.

We’re homebods really; we love our house; we’ve put a lot of effort into a home. As soon as you have children your perspective on everything changes quite drastically.

"The country is facing some quite big challenges in going from fossil fuels to electric; particularly with how the National Grid copes and reacts."

Managing Director, Cinergi Ltd.