Hagg Leys Farm

Tag: RHI

RHI approved

September 1, 2014 /

We seem to be on a bit of a roll with the ground source heat pump. Last week we finally sorted out the leak in the ground loops that had been plaguing us for the last 6 months.  Today our application for the Renewable Heat Incentive got approved.  We applied for it at the end of July and it looks as if our first payment will be at the end of October.  The incentive is paid on a quarterly basis, so this means that the approval today means that our first payment is exactly 3 months from when we first applied.

The current tariff is 18.8p for every kWh generated.  According to our EPC, it has been estimated that we will be generating 35,405kWh per year.  A quick bit of mathematics will  show that this generates a payment of around £1,660 per quarter.  These payments are for 7 years and by the time we reach the end of this period, it should have re-couped the capital that we invested in the ground source heat pump.

We have installed our own electricity monitor (Owl Intuition) so we know exactly how much electricity that we are using.  While we are going to have to wait to see how the heat pump, and the house, performs over the winter, current indications are that we are using between 150kWh per week in the summer to around 1,000kWh in the winter (this includes all of our heating, hot water, lighting and cooking).  We will have to see how it all pans out…..

RHI application submitted

July 31, 2014 /

RHI (renewable heat incentive) is an incentive paid by the government to encourage people to install renewable forms of heating.  This covers ground source heat pumps (like the one that we have installed) and the incentives are intended to enable users to recoup the upfront investment involved in installing the systems.  The incentives are calculated on a 7 year repayment period.

RHI is covered in depth elsewhere on this blog, but today we managed to submit our application.  The process is all online and administered by Ofgem.  You will need to have your MCS registration number (your installer should provide you with this), your EPC reference number and your GDA (Green Deal Assessment) number.  Other than that, you just have to answer a few simple questions. It didn’t take more than 30 minutes to fill in the online form.  Now it is just a matter of waiting for the application to be reviewed.

Although the application process opened in April, it has taken us a few weeks to sort out the EPC.  The RHI payments are based on the heating requirements calculated as part of the EPC.  I haven’t really paid that much attention to EPCs before (you need one if buying or selling a house), but when a payment depends on it, it gets a lot more attention.

We had a problem that the first couple of EPCs that were done bore little resemblance to the original calculations before by the system installer.  The original estimates were that the annual heating and hot water demand would be in the region of 50,000kWh.  The first two EPCs were in the region of 30,000kWh.  The current RHI payment is 18.9p for every kWh generated, so a 20,000kWh difference equates to around £3,780 per year, or £26,460 over the 7 year payback period!

The main problem with the first two EPCs seem to be the unique nature of our property – some areas are double height, some parts of internal insulation on the original solid stone walls, even the heat pump itself seem to cause some head scratching.  The first assessor failed to produce an EPC at all!  He did the initial visit, asked lots of questions and then we never heard from him again.  The second assessor did his best, but our property didn’t neatly fall into many of the boxes that needed to be ticked.

Eventually, on the third attempt, we got an EPC assessment that was close to the original heat calculations.  The annual heat demand is still below the original calculations, but it is close enough.  The RHI application was submitted this morning and with any luck we should hear in the next week or so.

Update on RHI

March 6, 2014 /

I went to three seminars today at Ecobuild 2014 on RHI.  A lot of the information that was presented in these session has been seen before.  However, there were some new snippets:

  • The launch date for domestic RHI has still to be confirmed, however, it is expected to be Spring 2014.  A number of the speakers referred to the date being finalised in the “next few weeks”;
  • The domestic RHI payments will be “deemed” (i.e. estimated) rather reliant on using installed meters.  The estimation will be based on the calculations completed as part of the MCS installation;
  • There are a couple of situations were meters will be required.  This is where the property is either a second home or there is an additional form of heating (e.g. gas boiler).  The metered payments will only be able to adjust the payment upto the deemed value, i.e. the metering will only be used to adjust the deemed payment downwards;
  • Applications for RHI will be administered by Ofgem.  Applications will be made on online and it is expected that applications should take 20-30 minutes to make.  In many cases, the decision of the online application will be instanteous;
  • The applications will require details from your MCS certification as well as your green deal assessment.  Hopefully, this will speed up the application process as details will be pulled in from these documents;
  • The government reserved the right to reduce the tariff by up to 20% should the RHI be over subscribed.

You will find more information on the Renewable Energy Association website.

Ecobuild 2014

March 4, 2014 /

logo_ecobuildIt is Ecobuild this week in London.  On Thursday, there are a couple of sessions on RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive).  This is a government scheme that provides funds for those people installing renewable forms of heating.  This applies to ground source heat pumps (as well as air source heat pumps).

You will find more information on RHI in previous blogs entries.

While the incentive has been in place for non-domestic use, the domestic scheme is due to launch next month.  While the overall framework for the incentive is well understood, there are a number of details still to be clarified.  I am hoping that the sessions at Ecobuild this week will help provide some answers.

RHI – Update

July 12, 2013 /

The update that we have all been waiting for on RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive) has just been published.  You will find the information here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-heat-is-on-for-householders

Specific detail on RHI is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/renewable-heat-incentive-proposals-for-a-domestic-scheme

The good news for us is that the scheme appears to be open to all householders, even those who previously had a gas boiler installed.

RHI eligibility for current gas users

July 5, 2013 /

I have been concerned that we would not be eligible for RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive) for our ground source heat pump based on the criteria for RHPP (Renewable Heat Premium Payment).  RHPP is the current scheme in place and RHI does not come into effect until Spring 2014. RHPP is a one-off payment, whereas RHI is based on a tariff (with different tariffs for different sorts of heat generation). Information on RHI is still fairly sparse although it is due to be updated “during summer 2013”.

With the current proposed tariffs for RHI, the incentive could be around £2,000 per year for 7 years.  So a significant sum.

While the information on RHI is sparse, the information on RHPP is very clear about existing gas users on this page.  Here is the relevant text….

 if you have recently removed a mains gas heating system or currently heat your home with mains gas, you are only eligible to apply for solar thermal

On the basis that we aren’t eligible for RHPP, I began to wonder if we would be eligible for RHI.

However, you will find a factsheet on RHIon the Government’s DEC website here, but here is the relevant text regarding existing gas users.

If my current main fuel use is gas, can I still get RHI if I install a renewable heat technology?

Yes, we propose that the scheme be open to any home in Great Britain wishing to take part, even if they are currently using gas as their main fuel. However, almost 3 million homes in the UK do not have gas as an option. These off gas grid homes typically face higher bills and produce more carbon than the equivalent on grid home. For this reason, we are proposing that the tariff levels are set to be more financially advantageous to those homes off the gas grid, compared with those that are.

 So this all sounds good for current gas users who want to move to a ground source heat pump.

UPDATE: 12th July 2013 The Government has released the latest information on RHI and the links to it will be found here.  It is good news for current gas users as it appears the scheme is open to all households.

Ground source heat pump update

July 4, 2013 /

I think we might have finally got there with the ground source heat pump.  It has taken some time to sort this out and I am glad that not all of the decisions on the renovation have been quite as tortuous as this one!

So why has this been so difficult?

  • First of all, we had the debate over air source vs ground source.  We thought that the difference in price between the two would have favoured an air source heat pump.  However, having looked into it became clear the difference was not as big as first thought.  Given that we have a one acre field adjoining the property, it seemed a shame not to use a ground source heat pump.
  • The next issue related to the provision of a 3 phase electricity supply.  It turned out once the initially estimates had been done that we needed a 24Kw unit.  Unfortunately, this is too big for a normal single phase supply and we needed a 3 phase supply.  We had heard stories of it costing thousands to get a 3 phase supply installed, so we thought that we ought to get this sorted out BEFORE ordering a ground source heat pump.  This took a while to get the quote from Northern Power Grid. More information here.  To be fair to them, it took me a while to fathom out the form!  Lots of questions that I didn’t know the answers to!  Anyway, the cost for installing a 3 phase supply (and modifying the existing single phase supply) is £2,600.  So not cheap, but not a showstopper.
  • Almost there…..but now there are questions over the depth of the soil in the field.  We need at least 100cms of soil to go on top of the ground loops. We thought that there might be a problem because of the amount of soil in the others that we had dug.  So there was nothing for it, but to dig a number of test holes.  We did this last weekend and found that there is between 700-900mm of soil before you reach the bed rock.  It has taken until today to establish that around 800mm will be sufficient, so once the sand is added to the bottom of the trench to hold the pipes, we won’t be that far off.  We also have soil to come out of the garden when the footings and foundations are dug for the extension.  This soil could be put on top of the existing soil to raise the overall ground level.
  • Then the last concern is over whether we are going to quailify for RHI.  I have covered this elsewhere on the blog, so I won’t bore you again here.  To qualify for RHPP, there must never have been gas on site.  Since we do have gas onsite (even though the boilers have been removed), we don’t qualify for RHPP.  RHI is due to in next  be introduced next Spring, but earlier indications seem to be that we WILL qualify for RHI.  We can’t say definitely, but we have decided to take a punt.  RHI is likely to be worth around £2,500 per year to us for 7 years.  So well worth having!  This document on the Government’s DECC website is the closest that I have seen to confirming that we are eligible even though the property has had a gas supply in the past.

So after all that I think we are just about ready to place the order for the underfloor heating and the ground source heat pump.  At last!

And now for some gratuitous photos of digging holes in a field!!

 

Only 700mm of soil covering the bedrock

Only 700mm of soil covering the bedrock

Another skill to add to my CV!

Another skill to add to my CV!

In total, I dug 9 holes across the back of the field. The depth of the soil ranged from 600mm to 1300mm - it averaged 700-800mm in most of the locations.

In total, I dug 9 holes across the back of the field. The depth of the soil ranged from 600mm to 1300mm – it averaged 700-800mm in most of the locations.

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