• Renewable Energy News & Discussion

You can also follow us with our Twitter and facebook feeds.

• IES_homeuser Domestic User Twitter Feed
• IES_commerical Commerical Twitter Feed
• Intelligent Energy Solutions Facebook Page

We look forward to discussing your project!

The IES Team.

0800 779 7710

Unlike many systems, the dual tank system is able heat hot water for showers and bathing utilising the wood burner, solar thermal panels and heat pump simultaneously. The combination of flat plate heat exchange, thermal store and unvented hot water systems give fantastic water performance when the heat pump runs with or without the solar panels and wood burner. Existing, so called, ‘renewable thermal stores’ historically require heat pump and solar thermal water to be boosted with an immersion heater to over 80 degrees for hot water to function normally. This system, developed by the IES Leeds branch does not require an immersion for this purpose. This gives the customer massive efficiency benefits.

The solar PV panel system contributes by supplying the electricity to run the heat pump, circulation pumps, controllers and any other electricity draws within the property.

IES Leeds Project Manager, David Milne said “The experience at IES has enabled us to develop a unique solution to an age old problem of how to effectively combine different heat sources efficiently.”

For more information contact IES.

The Renewable Heat Premium is a payment from the government for new installations of heat pumps and solar thermal collectors.

Heat Pumps & Solar Thermal Renewable Heat Premium

The payments are outlined as follows:-

- Air Source Heat Pumps – £850

- Ground Source Heat Pumps – £1150

- Solar Thermal Collectors – £300

Available from IES now!

IES expect demand to rocket in July 2011 when these payments are officially available. To manage demand more effectively we have decided to offer these payments to all eligible customers who order a system after 14th March 2011. IES will offer this payment up until July 2011, when the official Renewable Heat Premium scheme is expected to be launched.

To be elligble for the payment customer’s properties must have:-

- Cavity wall insulation in walls with cavities.

- At least 270mm of roof insulation where possible.

- A room thermostat and heating time clock. (provided with all IES Heat pump installations)

- Hot water time clock. (provided with all IES Heat pump installations)

- Low energy lighting in suitable light fittings.

- Thermostatic radiator valves in all radiators not in same room as wall thermostat.

- The homeowner must provide feedback as to the performance of the system.

Contact us now to discuss your requirements with one of our specialist consultants.

In summary the government has confirmed the following points:-

1. For commercial and large organisations the payment for ground/water source heat pumps 4.3p/kWh

2. For commercial and large organisations the payment for solar thermal installations will 8.5p/kWh

3. Domestic installations of ground/water source heat pumps will be supported by a new £15million scheme called the Renewable Heat Premium (RHP), the details of this scheme will be announced shortly. Domestic installations will need to agree to give detailed feedback and measure accurately the systems performance.

4. Payments are guaranteed for 20 years.

5. MCS approval for systems below 45kW is mandatory.

In respect to commercial and other large organisations this is extremely positive news and this will provide a massive incentive for this type of installation.

More information is available here:-

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/uk_supply/energy_mix/renewable/policy/incentive/incentive.aspx

There are two version of the controller:- Intelligent Heating 2 (IH2) and Intelligent Heating 4 (IH4), the number corresponds to the number of heat pumps that can be simultaneously controlled. The features are as follows:-

- Efficiently control up to 2 (IH2) or up to 4 (IH4) Ecodan air source heat pumps
- Controls central heating, hot water heating and hot water pasteurisation cycle
- Accurate temperature control with internal and external sensors (not thermostats)
- Flow Temperatures reduce as target internal temperature is reached (more efficient and comfortable for the occupier than the standard Ecodan controller)
- Accurate monitoring of heat pumps output to switch on AND off as required.
- Heat pump rotation (to spread the wear evenly across all heat pumps)
- Heating or Hot Water Boost feature
- Utilises, tried and tested, robust PLC hardware
- Facility to add backup conventional boiler (not normally required) with flow temperature control (0-10V output)
- System logging of errors and heat pump utilisation

This new controller is available from IES to be supplied to other Ecodan installers or as part of an IES Ecodan installation.

This latest CERT funding is being supporting by British Gas in collaboration with Mitsubishi. A simple online application will tell you how much you could be entitled to, however all installations must be installed, commissioned and fully paid by the 31^st March 2011.

Funding varies from person to person, and from property to property, but ranges from £75 to over £1,000, higher priority groups may be eligible for higher funding levels. The online funding page is accessible here: http://domesticheating.mitsubishielectric.co.uk/cert/cert_quote

Please contact Intelligent Energy Solutions to specify your system and assist you with the online application. As well as this funding, customers would also be eligible for the RHI which is due to commence in 2011 (TBC).

Please contact us for further details.

The government has allocated a funding pot of £860million and the incentives are expected to drive a more-than-tenfold increase of renewable heat over the coming decade, shifting renewable heat from a fringe industry firmly into the mainstream.

Details of the tariffs and how the scheme will operate will be announced before the end of this year with the scheme commencing into force in June 2011.

This means that commercial and domestic property owners can proceed with their renewable heat installation without delay. This will give homeowners the benefit of energy, Co2 and fuel cost savings as well as significant additional financial support from the government.

For further information on the RHI please visit here.

For further information on the governments spending review please visit here.

It has now been announced that the coalition government is set to extend this domestic green retro-fitting scheme to over nearly 3 million business premises! This move could provide a huge boost for the £10bn commercial refit market, after the energy minister Greg Barker decided to extend the scheme to offices and other commercial buildings.

Approximately 2.8m businesses could benefit from the scheme, which would initially target heating and lighting systems for smaller firms.

The borrower would be able to spend the money on a number of energy-saving technologies. Solar Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal will be among the favourites, as well as solid wall insulation. Ground & Air Source Heat Pumps and Wind Turbines will also qualify.

The 'Pay as you Save' scheme is ideal for the newly released Feed-in Tariff and also bodes well for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) which is due next year. The 'Pay as you Save' scheme is one of the first green labour policies to be endorsed in principle by the new coalition government.

On the face of it this is bad news for heat generating renewables, however most of us were already aware that these grants would be brought to a close within the next 8 months due to the impending Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). In addition many felt that the LCBP grants were too small to properly influence a buyers decision, meaning that anyone claiming the grant would have made the purchase anyway. From this respect it should and will not deter people from making the decision to fit a heat pump or solar thermal panels.

What does this mean for the RHI?

The new government have not given any specific guidance in respect to the RHI at this stage. Closing the LCBP grants does mean that there are extra funds to inject into the RHI. There is also wide acknowledgement that to make a significant impact on the CO2 output from domestic homes we must focus on the methods used for home heating and hot water. The majority of CO2 emitted from a domestic home can be contributed directly to space and water heating and this is an area which now has no direct government stimulus to modify homeowners behaviour. Having said this for many people fuel prices alone provide a massive incentive to heat our homes more efficiently.

The government also made clear this week that they intend to stick to targets to make all new home built from 2016 to be zero carbon.

Given the name I can understand how people would assume that it must be good value. Consumers often forget that to receive a very attractive night rate you must pay more for electricity during the day.

This means that the savings are not always there. To prove the point I have done few basic calculations.

Is 40% of your total electricity usage at night?
Typically economy 7 rates are presently in the region of 15p/kWh during the day and 5p/kWh at night. A typical standard rate is 11p/kWh for any time usage.

This means that for Economy 7 tariff to save the home owner money they must use around 40% of their electricity at night. For homes that are heated with storage heaters this is easily achieved but for home that use gas or even a heat pump this is often not the case.

For most people even putting the washing machine and an hot water cylinder immersion heater on at night will not increase night usage to 40% of their total.

I am not saying that Economy 7 is a waste of time but it is important to realise that it is not always the cheapest option.