Garenin Blackhouse Village on the west side of Lewis is turning green with help from the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) network and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (CnES).

The Blackhouse Village consists of nine restored historic blackhouses that are owned by the Garenin Trust.  The blackhouses are used as self-catering cottages, a youth hostel, resource centre, small museum, restaurant and service building. 

Seven of the buildings requiring heating are currently on an electric heating system, either with electric boilers, underfloor heating, or storage heaters.  The current system will be replaced by three 'Water Furnace' heatpumps (total 51kW), which extract about 75 per cent of the total heating space requirement of the blackhouses from renewable (solar) energy stored in the soil.

The new heating system will reduce the currently very high heating bills, with financial savings for the Garenin Trust expected to be in excess of £3,000 per year. The installation of the heatpumps is also expected to decrease carbon dioxide emissions by between 75-100 per cent of current levels - a total saving in CO2 emissions of around 22.5 tonnes per year.
 
The HIE community energy unit (CEU), via the Scottish Executive funded Scottish Community and Household Renewable Initiative (SCHRI) has invested £68,900 in the installation of the heat pumps and associated civil engineering works.   CnES has also invested £62,400 in this mini 'district heating scheme', while the Garenin Trust itself makes  a contribution of £8,000 to the total cost of the system.

Henk Munneke, CEU development officer for the Western Isles, said: "Heat Pumps are a well-established technology in Scandinavia, the USA, Europe and increasingly the UK and are ideally suited for historical sites, as they can be unobtrusively installed. 

"As an added advantage, the installation of this renewable heating system will add educational and environmental interest to the Garenin Blackhouse Village and will lead to significantly reduced electricity bills for the Trust as well as reduced CO2 emissions."