Alonzo Llewellyn Heating and Plumbing

Award Winning Solar Panel Installer - Environment 2020

The Only way is up!

Over the past 21 years, Alonzo Llewellyn's company - Alonzo Llewellyn Heating & Plumbing - based in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, has grown from just one man with his tool box to a team of three trained plumbers and a couple of apprentices.

Over the years, the company has developed a strong association with Worcester Bosch Group, to the extent that Alonzo says his business is now 'Worcester branded'. In addition to domestic installation work, Alonzo has taken on a number of commercial projects which opened up a bigger market and created further opportunities to install renewable technologies whilst building up his company in the process.

A recent project at a home of residence, involved the installation of two, new high-efficiency boilers combined with solar thermal panels to bring an outdated heating system into the 21st century. As Alonzo explains: "A lead came through from Worcester website, which we were keen to get involved with, for an installation at a local of residence, which badly needed bringing into the condensing age"

The home which is privately run by Governors and a management team had been relying on just one standard efficiency boiler and were well aware of the need to install a back-up system should anything go wrong. As well as wanting to reassurance of an additional boiler, keeping future running costs down was a priority for the management team, so replacing the old boiler for two high-efficiency condensing models was the most suitable outcome.

"It was the same approach on the hot water side and in this case the only way was up, as the client was ready to invest in solar panels to work in partnership with the boilers and help further reduce fuel costs, It was also important for the management team to get as much back from their investment as they could"

"We replaced an, old, open-flued cast-iron natural gas boiler with two brand new high-efficiency Worcester Greenstar 40CDi conventional gas-fired condensing boilers. These were installed in the property's boiler room and were fitted with new controls with different zones and individual pumps, so that everything would back itself up and run as efficiently as possible, In fact, almost every working part has been doubled up so that if anything ever fails the client will never be without heating and hot water"

"The client wanted the temperature of the building to be controlled at all times, so we used Honeywell CM927 controls for constant management of the central heating systems. This made sure that the boilers wouldn't have to heat the property up from cold, meaning we could help the client save more money through correct use of controls too. We also put in a brand new twin coil stainless steel, un-vented hot water cylinder, which was also compatible with the two solar panels positioned on the roof"

"For the solar installation, we chose in-roof solar panels - the FKT-1S Greenskies panels from Worcester which are really efficient and designed for the UK market. We have attended the training courses at Worcester, so know the products inside out. The great thing about these panels is that they are sunk into the roof to give a flush fit, as opposed to sitting on the roof tiles. Whilst it is a little bit harder to install them in this way, I employed a roofer to handle the job and make sure every aspect of the installation was perfect. We particularly wanted to make sure the panels looked like they had always been there and managed to achieve this by using the old slates we removed from the roof to finish off the area."

"We installed the panels on a south facing roof, which meant that even on a cloudy day the hot water cylinder will be heated without a problem in this location. The section of roof we were working on also has some Velux windows already in place, by trying to make panels fit in line with the windows they actually looked like they had been part of the roof when it was first built, in all, the installation of the two Worcester Greenstar 40CDi boilers took around a week and a half and the Greenskies solar panels took just two days to install work."

"Since completion we've had some really positive feedback from the client. They are extremely pleased with the way the system is running and I think the performance of the Greenskies panels has been a big surprise to them. They have commented that the solar system looks after itself and they never have to worry about it. In our experience all customers react in a fantastic way when they get their first full cylinder of hot water."