Renewable Heat Incentive to be revealed this week

The Renewable Energy Association (REA) expects to receive proposals for the UK’s renewable heat incentive (RHI) later this week. The long-awaited enticement for UK residents to switch from fossil fuel heating to renewable sources will work in a similar way to the solar PV feed-in tariff, increasing the UK’s potential in the green sector.

Working to encourage the uptake of renewable heat sources, the RHI will support several technologies including biomass, heat pumps, deep geothermal, woodfuel burners, heat components of biomass CHP, biofuel heating, anaerobic digestion,(Biomethane) Green Gas injection to Gas Grid and of course solar thermal. The REA hopes the scheme will go live in June.

The Renewable Heat Incentive will offer premium payments to encourage the uptake of this wide range of technology, enabling the heating of homes, schools, public buildings and large offices/factories. The RHI will also help the UK to work towards the legally binding renewable energy target as well as carbon reduction targets as well as reducing the country’s dependence on imported natural gas.

Paid out of general taxation, anyone or any organisation who invests in eligible renewable heat technologies and who applies for support under the scheme will be eligible to benefit from the RHI.

The RHI will work by adopting ‘tariff’ principles, offering a fixed payment for every kilowatt hour (kWh) of renewable heat generated over the lifetime of the tariff. It currently applies to heat installations of all sizes – there is no upper limit – although the REA is concerned that solar thermal may be constrained. Renewable heat can be measured using a heat meter, just like electricity; however metering may not be appropriate in smaller domestic installations – where deemingis likely to be used instead (i.e. a standard payment, based on an estimate of the heat generated).  Safeguards will also be needed to ensure people do not waste metered heat.

Heat is by definition locally generated as it is expensive to transport heat long distances.  The RHI will therefore strongly compliment the development of local renewable power under the solar PV feed-in tariff.

At present, the UK’s heat is predominately supplied by fossil gas, accounting for 47% of the country’s CO₂ emissions. The UK’s renewable heat industry currently makes up just 1% of the UK’s heat market. The RHI is aimed at boosting this percentage significantly.

 

New section: case studies

We decided to put new fixed page on our blog: CASE STUDIES!

We took some photographs of our recent installations and together with system description and comments from our delighted customers we’ll be putting it on the blog for your viewing pleasure…

Homebuilding & Renovating Show

Yet again Future Proof Energy is exibiting at Self Build & Renovation Show. This time we will be in Glasgow at SECC on 15-16 May 2010. Please come along and have a chat with us about your ideas for self build, conversion, extension or renovation. We will be more than happy to advise you on implementing renewable heat sources in your project or combining existing fossil fuel technologies with alternatives.

Click on the banner below to claim your FREE tickets!

Why consider renewables TODAY?

Why you should install a heat pump and solar collectors TODAY? There are many reasons why you might want a heat pump and solar collectors, here are three of the most important:

1) You want to save a significant amount of money on the cost of heating your home and receive a minimum of £1000 a year for next 20 years when RHI kick-in early in 2011:

Ground source heat pumps (GSHP’s) collect stored solar energy from your garden, the heat pump uses this “free” energy to heat your home and provide hot water. There is a cost to collecting the energy and that is the electricity to run the circulating pumps, compressor and control systems of the heat pump. Our GSHP’s are 400% efficient which means that from each 1kW of energy used it gives 4kW back! Solar collectors require almost no power at all (equivalent of small light bulb).

In addition, the Renewable Heat Incentive is intended to be launched in April 2011. This government scheme is designed to offset the costs of installing renewable technologies. Here is a real life example:

A large household’s useful energy demand for heat averages 20,000 kWh per year. You might conclude that solar thermal collectors would provide 5,600 kWh hot water requirement, with the ground source heat pump providing the rest (1,400 kWh) as well as the space heating requirement (13,000 kWh). In this case the RHI entitlement would be:

5,600 kWh x 18p = about £1,000 per year for 20 years

14,400 kWh x 7p = £1,000 per year for 23 years

Total RHI payments would be over £2,000 per year for the first 20 years (and around £1000 per year for the following 3 years). This amount would be paid as a fixed (deemed) annual amount regardless of actual energy use (subject to the terms set out by the RHI such as continuing to use the equipment).

All installations after 15th July 2009 will be seen as a “new installation” and will be eligible for the RHI.

2) You want your home to be continually warm and cosy:

The philosophy of how a heat pump works means that it warms up the fabric of the building and then merely tops-up the “steady state heat loss”. By knowing when the outside air temperature is dropping it can calculate the amount of heat the building will shortly require and start supplying the heat prior to a drop in temperatures inside the building. This means that your home will be constantly warm, comfortable and cosy. Solar thermal collectors will mainly provide domestic hot water, but in some cases can be linked via buffer tank to support space heating. More information can be found on our main website at www.futureproofenergy.co.uk

3) You prefer independence from fossil fuel and feel that future proofing your house will be a good and long-lasting idea:

The most recent data show that approximately 69% of heat is produced from gas. Oil and electricity account for 11% and 14% respectively, solid fuel 3% and renewables just 1%. Gas and oil prices are rising steeply and are likely to continue to do so: demand is rising but supply is not, gas and oil reserves are likely to start ‘running dry’ over the next twenty years. The situation is likely to get worse not better.

Global energy demand is forecast to increase by around 40% between 2010 and 2030, with more than three quarters of the rise from fossil fuels. Without implementing renewable technologies on larger scale UK households would be more reliant on imported fossil fuels, and further exposed to global energy price fluctuations, especially when demand recovers as the world emerges from the economic downturn.

PAYBACK!

Why is potential payback so often the main consideration when thinking of installing renewables? And yet no other part of the building gets this scrutiny. No-one questions the payback on a boiler, but unlike conventional fuels, renewables have the added value of reducing carbon emissions.

Coal, oil, electricity or gas suppliers don’t offer any payback at all, but you still have to service, maintain and renew conventional equipment. Self-builders, in their embracing of micro-renewables, are leading the way in looking beyond pure monetary issues.

Pretty much everything you put in your house is bought without regard to payback. So why this fascination with anything to do with energy use do we talk about payback?

The car we drive, the house we own, plus many lesser things, often seem to be vanity- and/or comfort-related. A new car (which many people buy every 2 or 3 years) will lose say 35% of its capital cost in its first year. Even if it’s the most economical diesel or hybrid to run, it has no payback at all. Neither has a dishwasher, powerboat, jetski, TV, HI-FI, new kitchen, video camera etc. – but these can be financially justified somehow… Many of them have huge carbon footprints too. The only unquantifiable “payback period” can be related to feel good factor, ego or status. The latest 50″ Plasma’s don’t need to talk about energy savings to sell themselves.

Why should we talk about payback then? It misses the overall context.

Well… arguably green product will only become a mass market product if it competes financially.

It is not what like-minded people (as above mention self-builders) are doing, but the next step, where these ideas become the norm in the volume house builders repertoire that the benefits are seen. This is financially driven.

At Future Proof Energy, we believe that our products and services are financially viable. No gimmicks here. There are also few points worth bearing in mind:

• All (sometimes speculative) payback figures are based on current fuel prices, which are overall going up, and the cost of micro-renewable technology, which will come down the more the technology is specified.
• Renewable technologies will add value to your house, as energy efficiency becomes an increasingly important factor in buyers’ choice of house.
• Building the technologies into the fabric of the house at the outset is more cost-effective, and will therefore speed up payback.
• As more people start to use micro-renewables, they’ll become cheaper to manufacture and buy, and payback periods will become shorter.
• With energy saving certificates becoming compulsory, the value of an energy-efficient home will rise, improving payback.
• The more sceptical bodies sometimes define payback as merely the annual fuel bill savings, divided by the capital cost. But they fail to take into account factors such as future energy price increases and savings in boiler servicing.

The Color of Money

There are obvious environmental advantages of using renewables to provide heating and hot water. But no matter how important it is for our planet to stay green, it is easy to be cynical about the whole issue.

An interesting argument for all “nea sayers” is that renewable energy impacts another green, too, as in the colour of money.

“Money won is twice as sweet as money earned”

– “Fast” Eddie Felson (character played by Paul Newman in ’86 movie The Color of Money)

So far by implementing renewable energy sources, we’re already “winning” money. Combination of heat pump and solar panels can easily reduce home heating costs by up to 60%. Non-replenishable sources, such as natural gas, coal, or oil will only become rarer and… much more expensive. And these are facts, not a desperate cry of some eco-mentalists.

Just now we can “win” money by saving on running costs.

The Color of Money - start winning with renewable technology

The situation will change relatively soon in April 2011, when the government introduces the renewable heat incentive (RHI). The RHI is a ground breaking strategy to increase the uptake of renewable heat in the UK.

Heat is a huge part of household energy consumption and accounts for nearly half of Europe’s total energy demand. Until now this has been largely overlooked. We don’t know yet how the RHI will be implemented or how the payments will be figured. All we know is that systems installed since 15 July 2009 will be eligible for the RHI.

Currently, the Renewable Energy Association is predicting that the RHI will pay about 16p per kw for heat generated by solar thermal systems.

It is clear that we are on the verge of a renewable energy revolution. Until now the biggest barrier for people wanting to generate their own renewable energy has been the up-front capital cost. With the introduction of the feed-in tariff and the renewable heat incentive the government is making renewable energy available to everyone. And just about time for it, too.

Worth bearing in mind is that we are currently in a period of ‘golden opportunity’ for the purchase of renewable energy systems. When the RHI comes in the renewable manufacturers will undoubtedly drive their prices up.

Eddie Felson:   – Do you smell that?
Vincent Lauria: - What, smoke?
Carmen:           – No, Money…

So there has never been a better time to look at installing renewable energy solutions. Get in fast and enjoy the benefits. It’s a win-win situation!

Climate change: What price will future generations pay?

The long-awaited UN summit on climate change is opening in the Danish capital Copenhagen, with delegates from 192 countries attending.

Some scientists have described it as the most important conference the world has ever seen. About 100 leaders are to attend over the next two weeks. Developing countries are discussing whether to demand tougher emissions cuts than have been put forward so far.

Lets hope that negotiations will bring some tangible results.

Now, it’s still not too late to implement changes but we’re in the 11th hour. Leonardo DiCaprio produced the movie about that last moment when change is still possible. The film explores how we’ve arrived at this moment – how we live, how we impact the earth’s ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course. Featuring ongoing dialogues of experts from all over the world, including former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA R. James Woolsey and sustainable design experts William McDonough and Bruce Mau in addition to over 50 leading scientists, thinkers and leaders who discuss the most important issues that face our planet and people.

Click here to see the trailer

And here to see the movie

Green up your home

Find out how to retrofit renewable energy sources to an existing property

In an ideal world our homes would be airtight, super-insulated and feature cutting-edge renewable technology. But in reality, they’re not. So in lieu of a miracle eco-housing super-boom, can we retrofit renewables to our existing homes? The answer is yes, but many of the technologies on offer are costly and payback periods can stretch to many decades. The good news is that by installing them now, you’ll ensure they gain popularity and become cheaper for future generations. In a nutshell, make your home Future Proof.

Insulation

If your home isn’t well insulated it can’t possibly be energy efficient – it’s as simple as that. Just insulating your cavity walls could save around £160 a year on your fuel bills and, as it costs in the region of £250, would pay for itself in about two years. If your home was built before the 1920s, it probably won’t be suitable for cavity-wall treatment. Instead, consider installing solid-wall insulation. It’ll be cheapest to do this if you’re already repairing or renovating exterior walls.

Loft insulation acts like a duvet, trapping heat that has risen from below and preventing it from being lost through the roof. Without it, you could be losing as much as 15 per cent of your home’s heat. As it costs approximately £190 to install, you could get payback in less than a year.

Glazing

If you can feel cold air or draughts coming in around your windows, it means warm air is escaping. Poorly insulated frames and single glazed windows account for up to 20 per cent of heat loss in the average home. Double-glazing creates an insulating barrier by trapping air between two panes of glass, which cuts heat loss, reduces noise and helps to prevent condensation.

The cost of replacing windows will vary greatly depending on the product you choose – whether it’s gas-filled; whether the pane is self-cleaning; the list goes on. Contact our friends at info@dynamight-internorm.co.uk for more details.

Solar hot water

Thermal panels capture energy from sunlight, transfer it to water to heat it, and then store it in a tank until it’s needed. According to the Energy Saving Trust, they can supply almost all of your hot water in summer. The system costs around £4,000 to install, and you should get payback in around eight years.

Fitting is relatively simple, and can usually be completed within a couple of days. You will need an additional water tank and it is ideal to combine it with heat pump. Drop us a line at info@futureproofenergy.co.uk and we will provide you with the details.

Solar electric

If you want to generate your own electricity, then solar photovoltaic (pv) cells may be ideal. It’s a myth that solar pv requires direct sunshine, although the more intense the light, the more electricity will be generated. Pv cells are available as panels that can be roof-mounted or inset. They also come as tiles to replace traditional coverings. Installation can cost around £20,000, but average annual CO2 savings – about 1.2 tonnes – are greater then solar thermal panels. And you can sell excess electricity back to the national grid to slash your payback time.

Planning permission shouldn’t be needed for solar thermal panels or photovoltaics thanks to new permitted development rules, but just to play safe, contact your local planning department before you install.

Ground source heat pumps

In a well-insulated property, GSHPs can provide 2-4kW of free energy for every 1kW of electricity used to power them, and are ideal for use with underfloor heating. Installation requires significant pipework to be laid in your garden, either horizontally or vertically.

A typical system suitable for a detached home will set you back about £8,000-£14,000. Running costs (to produce heating and 50 per cent of domestic hot water) are likely to be around £540 per year, but depend on factors such as the size of your home and how well insulated it is. Payback can be anywhere from eight to 12 years. Planning may be an issue so make enquiries with your council.

Air source heat pumps

There are two types of air source heat pumps (ASHPs): air-to-air systems provide warm air for circulation around the building, while air-to-water types heat water to provide heating via radiators or an underfloor system. Air source heat pumps don’t need a borehole or ground collector, making them ideal for small plots. A typical 9kW domestic system, suitable for a well-insulated detached property, costs £7,000-£10,000 installed.

You could save around £870 a year by operating an air source heat pump as the sole provider of heat, compared to the cost of running an electric system. Planning permission is not usually required, but it’s always prudent to check with your local council before installation. At Future Proof Energy we can advise you on the most suitable system and we are not connected with one manufacturer / supplier.

More information can be found at Future Proof Energy or ask us anything by writing to info@futureproofenergy.co.uk

Get professionals!

Ten years ago, plumbing & heating installation were, for all intents and purposes, easy. You needed a van, tools, basic know-how, and a promise. Business cards were optional. Everybody needed a plumber but only a few companies and individuals were providing the service effectively. It was an Economics 101 lesson in supply and demand. Luckily, expectations for plumbing services were lower back then. Simple boiler swap or upgrade to combi done on time and the client would practically jump for joy. It gave us all time to learn and practice.

It’s a different landscape

Plumbing & heating “today” is all but completely different. Between the pipes and drainage, radiators, underfloor heating, heat-only or combi boilers and domestic hot water storage, thermostats and valves, there are many parts to integrate into a cohesive system. We haven’t even scratched the surface of micro-renewables like heat pumps, solar panels or heat recovery units and intelligent controls. A professional plumbing & heating firm can provide your company with solutions to all of these challenges.

But, I’m trying to save money

Can you still hire someone to install plumbing or heating system the old way?

Yes. Well technically, yes. But do it at your peril.

Are you really rich enough to buy cheap?

These days, there are more than enough plumbers and heating engineers out there. In a lot of cases, they are willing to drop their hourly rates to fight over work. However, this doesn’t mean you’re going to get a good, efficient and what’s most important safe system. Most installers are good at either conventional plumbing or renewable energy. If they are good at traditional plumbing, they tend to be good at using one solution or integrating a handful of conventional systems. Even some eco-installers tend to focus solely on the products they sell with disregard to alternative technologies. Chances are this isn’t how they will portray themselves to you. Nobody wants to talk about their strengths versus weaknesses. You’ll need to hope their exact talents match your exact needs. Either way, chances are they aren’t an expert in everything.

Having a team is a good thing

Finding someone – an individual – who can do it all isn’t realistic. It’s like trying to play defence and attack at the same time. At a certain level of competition, it is done. However, on professional level when you’re practising eight, ten or more hours a day and playing games, there simply isn’t enough time to be great at everything. There simply isn’t enough time to learn all the plays and perfect their execution. Your coach expects you to pick something and be an all-star at it, to specialise.

Experience

Nothing can replace industry experience. Books are great. College teaches responsibility and the learning process among other things. But, nothing replaces actual hands-on learning. This especially comes from year after year watching trends, reading and doing, making mistakes and learning from them, and being around colleagues with different specialities.

That is the key difference between hiring a professional company and a friend of a friend. Individually, the people are more experienced, have a broad understanding, and a speciality. Collectively, the team is better prepared to meet the challenges of your individual installation and rise to the occasion.

Combining renewable energy solutions

Get the most out of micro-renewables by pairing them with complementary systems

So, you’ve decided to incorporate some micro-renewable technology in to your new build, or retrofit it to your existing property. But it’s no good just bolting it on to an existing heating and plumbing system designed for a gas- or oil-fired boiler, without checking its compatibility. The flow temperatures from heat pumps, for example, are much lower than those from conventional heating systems, so more suited to providing a constant trickle of heat, unlike the higher temperature flows of a conventional system which maintains the house’s heat by stopping and starting. It’s all about volume of water and flow temperature. The less heating surface area you have, the higher the flow temperature you need.

Underfloor heating (UHF) is usually cited as the only real option for use with renewable heating, as it maximises surface area and reduces flow temperatures. Also, with each reduction of 1°C in flow temperature the heat pump is between 2 and 3 per cent more efficient. However, since so many conventional radiators are initially oversized – to cope with raising the property up to temperature twice a day – there may be no need to replace them. With existing underfloor heating, a well-designed system may well accommodate a change of heat source, although any mixing valves previously installed to lower the flow temperature from the conventional boiler would need to be removed.

Below the surface

One of the main governing factors of the efficiency of UFH can be the resistance of the floor finish. Basically, the harder the better, since harder surfaces are better at conducting heat. Stone and tiles are great heat conductors, but wooden floors are still suitable with the correct floor heating system. Generally, the thicker the wooden floor, the higher the flow temperature required. Try not to exceed 25mm thickness, including ply underlay.

If you are using solid timber, make sure that you tell your supplier it will be used over UFH, as the timber will have to be specially kiln-dried to a moisture content of 6 to 8 per cent (normally, boards are kiln dried to 9 to 12 per cent). Oak, for example, can be used over underfloor heating as long as it’s loose laid (spread across the floor without fixing) for six to eight weeks before fitting.

Under control

Another factor to bring into consideration is the type of controls you use for the UFH. Normal thermostats used with conventional heating systems are too crude for the delicate workings of heat pumps. Heat pumps need sophisticated controls – called weather-compensated temperature controls – which measure the difference between the internal and external temperature to work out the amount of heat being lost and set the flow temperature accordingly. Over-riding these with individual thermostats will disrupt the optimum operation of the units.

The radiator myth

In situations where wet UFH might be difficult to install, such as older properties or upstairs on a timber suspended floors, radiators can in fact work very well with some heat pumps. This is where it gets complicated, as different manufacturers make completely different claims, but in general, the more advanced the system, the higher the temperature and efficiency, and the more suitable for radiators.

So, to dispel one of the great heat pump myths, radiators will indeed work with weather-compensated heat pumps. The radiators need to be slightly oversized, by about 30 per cent, to give a greater surface area and will run at between 30°C and 45°C, slightly cooler than gas or oil boilers, but safer for vulnerable groups and children.

Radiators are only about 3 per cent less efficient than underfloor heating, but with an advanced heat pump giving a COP of 4 (or 400 per cent efficiency), this is still a good compromise for older properties.

Can micro-renewables be combined?

Bivalent: If you cannot install a big enough heat pump for your heating and hot water needs, you could also opt for a bivalent system – combining a smaller pump with another heat source. The heat pump does what it can and a conventional boiler backs it up. However, it is a complex solution – we can advice on how suitable it is for your specific situation.

Heat pumps and solar: Think about installing a solar thermal panel system with your ground-source or air-source heat pump. The solar system provides hot water so that during summer, when central heating isn’t really needed, it provides nearly all the hot water a house needs. Furthermore, you will save on the electricity necessary to run the heat pump, and since you’ll be using it less, you can expect a longer service life and increased system efficiency.

Some systems allow the heat pump to operate during occupancy hours to keep a thermal store at 55°C, but will hold off if the solar panels have heated the store above this. This thermal store – effectively a hot water tank – can act both as a buffer and a store for the output from roof-mounted solar panels. Domestic hot water can come from a coil inside the thermal store, which at the same time transfers heat from the solar panels into the heating system. Remember that solar thermal systems are not usually compatible with standard combi boilers, as they need a hot water storage tank.