About Ian Hewson
Experience built by designing, commissioning and learning from real systems.
I am an independent energy strategy consultant specialising in rural, self-build, hybrid and off-grid homes. I help clients make joined-up decisions before separate trades or equipment choices design the system by accident.
Where the judgement came from
Good design begins before products are chosen.
My work in renewable energy began more than twenty years ago and developed through demanding rural homes, energy-positive research buildings and commercial off-grid systems.
Parc Bach Farm was formative: a remote Black Mountains home facing a £142,000 electricity-connection quotation and daily diesel-generator use. Working through Ecolek Wales, the resulting integrated system achieved 87% renewable operation and returned something less measurable but just as important: silence.
Later work with SOLCER House and the Active Classroom reinforced the same principle at the leading edge of building research: fabric, heating, generation, storage and controls perform best when designed as one system.
That principle carried into large family homes, three-phase commercial mini-grids and a private monitored portfolio of 127 systems, every one designed by me. It now underpins my independent consultancy.
The advantage of long-term evidence
Design estimates are just the beginning.
Monitoring reveals how real homes depart from assumptions: when demand occurs, which loads coincide, how batteries are controlled, what several poor-weather days do and when backup generation actually runs.
I developed HEM (House Energy Modelling) to bring those lessons into early design. It compares the effects of building fabric, heating, hot water, solar, wind, storage, backup and grid options before construction fixes the answer.
The underlying system data remains confidential. The practical learning is carried into every strategy.
Independent recognition
The work is documented beyond this website.
BBC and Guardian coverage, university case studies, award records and Victron Energy project features create a public trail from first-of-kind energy-positive buildings to operational off-grid homes and commercial systems.
A direct working relationship
The person whose experience you are buying stays involved.
I personally review each enquiry and lead the consultancy work. If the project does not need my involvement, or another specialist would be better placed, I will say so.
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