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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.

Stephen Adshead talked about how he has made a very shrewd investment taking advantage of the governments new feed in tariff. Phil contrasted this against another homeowner who agreed to a free solar panel installation.

In summary, a free solar panel installation allows the homeowner to save some money off there electricity bill. A purchased system enables the home owner to actually profit from the installation, with much greater financial returns than the free system.

Stephen talked about how the system would generate over £1500 per year in annual revenue, with a free installation the installer takes the vast majority of this benefit and the homeowner has to sign a long 25 contract agreeing the lease of his roof space.

Watch the BBC interview here:-

For many people a ‘free’ solar panel installation is certainly the right decision. However surprising as it may sound, they are not for everyone. Individuals who either plan to sell their house or have future financial prospects may find a better more financially rewarding solution by actually buying a solar panel installation.

You could be forgiven for wonder why anyone would want to pay for an installation of solar panels if ‘free’ installations are available? The answer is simple, the solar energy that falls on your roof everyday is a fantastic resource that can give you massive financial returns. ‘Free’ installations require the home owner to give up all their rights to harness the true value of this energy, the installer takes all of the benefit (government’s Feed In Tariff) for themselves and the home owner gets the relatively small benefit of some free electricity.

To makes things clearer we can provide some figures. An Intelligent Energy Solutions solar PV installation can start from around £6500 (inc VAT). This system would generate about 850kWh per year. With the governments ‘Feed In Tariffs’ this equates to a total revenue and savings of about £460 per year with a 7% tax free return on investment. This means that to receive the same return on investment as leaving the money in the bank you would require 11.5% bank account (for a high rate tax payer). For larger systems IES can provide a return on investment equivalent to a 16% bank account paying the home owner in the order of £1700 per year. It is for this reason that large investment groups are so keen to use your roof for the realistic saving for you of about £150-200 per year.

To sign up we also expect that homeowners will need to provide a long term legal commitment that the panels will remain on the roof for probably 30 or more years. This can impact significantly on simple things such as maintenance, but could also have more significant implications if you come to sell your home. In 10 years time, solar panels will have reduced in cost and outputs increased, who would buy a house that had an antiquated system that they were legally forced to live with for a further 20 years while another company took all the benefit?

In short you may better off buying a system now that will provide you with an excellent return on investment and have no legal future complications for your property. If you do not have the funds available at present you would be best advised to wait until a time comes when fund are available or even consider borrowing the money as this still makes financial sense.

If you plan on staying in the same property for the next 30 years and you can see no possibility that you will ever have a few thousand pounds to invest then a ‘free’ installation could then be the right decision for you. Frustratingly, many people are entering into these complex legal agreements with no knowledge of the value of the energy on their roof or the possible future complications that this could cause.

For an independent view click here.

Installing Solar PV panels has shown to increase your home’s value, shows research carried out in Europe and the United States. The research shows that homes typically sell for £6,500 to £13,000 more than comparable homes without PV. The value is often more than the initial investment to install the system to begin with.

A survey on 2,700 adults in the UK found that, a third of those questioned, responded that they would be willing to pay more for a house with a solar photovoltaic installation, and more than half of those questions would also be interested in looking to whether solar panels would be suitable for them and their home. These findings would suggest that despite the initial outlay costs of installing solar panels, it seems that adding a renewable energy option to your home will go to add financial viability. Philip Sellwood, chief executive of the Energy Saving Trust suggested that it also seems that Britons are willing to pay more for a property with a renewable energy source, which could be as attractive, if not more, to a house hunter as a new fitted kitchen.