The Importance of MCS

When researching renewable energy the term ‘MCS accredited installer’, is probably one of the most important you’ll come across.

What Does MCS Stand For?

MCS is the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, it’s quality assurance scheme which is backed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). MCS administer the Feed-in Tariff (FiT), Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP). They are responsible to ensuring those in the industry, both suppliers and installers, are attaining a high standard.

So Why Should You Use An MCS Accredited Installer?

If you’re interested in receiving any of the government incentives, such as the above mentioned FiT, RHPP & RHI, you’ll need to ensure you use a MCS accredited installer. Installing renewable energy is a highly technical process and requires a depth of knowledge and commitment to high quality. The MCS scheme inspects installers on a regular basis to ensure they are maintaining high standards. Furthermore, in order to become accredited an installer must pass a rigour testing procedure.

Additionally, benefits such as ‘permitted permission’ are only available to MCS accreditted installers. This allows the installation of renewable areas without formal application for planning permission.

Also, some insurance packages will only support MCS accredited installations.

More Information

If you’d like more information on the MCS scheme, please visit their website.

Complete Renewables Ltd. are an MCS accredited installer for solar PV, solar thermal and air/ground source heat pumps.

The Real Cost of Heating

The Carbon Emission Reduction Target (CERT), approved by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have released figures showing the cost per kilowatt of energy for the various ways of heating your home.

The below chart shows the costs:

This assumes a gas boiler efficiency of 80%

An air source heat pump efficiency of 3:1 and ground source of 3.5:1

To view this information on the Energy Saving Trust page, click here

Electricity, not on this chart, is the most expensive form of heating. This ranges from 9.08p (economy 7) through to 15.32p for standard rate.

The reason why air and ground source heat pumps are the cheapest is because their efficiency is a multiple of the energy used.

To explain this we can use the example of gas, which is normally around 80%. When 1kW worth of gas is burnt to heat your home, around 20% is lost due to inefficiencies within the boiler. Examples include a less than perfect fuel mix and inefficiencies within the heat exchanger.

The same can be said of LPG and oil burners. In fact it is only electric heaters which operate at 100% efficiency – all the electricity is used to create heat, none is lost as a by-product.

Air and ground source heat pumps take their energy from the atmosphere; either the air temperate or ground temperature. They are therefore taking more energy than they are using. In the case of an air source heat pump they need 1kW of electricity to take 3kW of energy from the atmosphere. So the cost of energy is 1/3 of the electricity used to generate that energy.

Details of the Renewable Heat Incentive Announced

For those of you who have been following the progress of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), it’s a tale of ups and downs. We’d all hoped that the scheme would get the industry going much in the same way as the Feed-in Tariff did for solar panels – although we’re keen to see a better long-term plan than was the case for solar.

However up until now we haven’t really had much to get excited about. Delay after delay has a very detrimental effect on an industry. Especially as plenty of customers are putting off installations to see what they will actually be entitled to.

So How Do The Figures Look?

Well the good news is that this week we had an official announcement and a nice set of figures to get excited about. Air source heat pumps will be paid at 7.3p per kWh, ground source at 18.8p per kWh and solar thermal at least 19.2p per kWh hour. The amount of energy installers will be paid for will be based on the renewable energy their household generates. So the performance coefficients are important here; if a heat pump has coefficient of 3.5 it will generate 3.5 units of renewable energy for each unit of electricity it uses. The 3.5 units will be entitled to payments, and the 1 unit of electricity will be discounted.

What about dual heating systems?

The good news is that households who have maintained an existing heating system or installed one in addition (which is not renewable), will still be able to claim the RHI. They will however need to install a meter to ensure that they are only paid for the renewable energy they generate

So Not All Households Will Need A Meter?

If you’re not willing to, or don’t have the space, to install a meter you don’t have to. Estimated figures will be taken from your EPC and green deal assessment to workout how much renewable energy you will generate. If you are interested in installing a meter to get a more accurate payment, you can do this. Plus you’ll receive an additional payment of up to £230.

So The Future Looks Good For Renewables

At Complete Renewables we’re really excited about the RHI. We believe that it will be the boost needed to get the industry going. Heat pumps represent excellent value for money and can save households hundreds, often more, per year. Even without an incentive they are an excellent option for households looking to reduce their spend on energy. With this additional boost heat pumps will surely come to the straight to the front of the queue when it comes to replacing older less efficient technologies.

More information

If you’d like more information on our air source heat pumps, click here. For more information on ground source heat pumps, click here

The full details of the RHI can be found on the Government’s website here

Dimplex A Class – A Revolution in Heating Your Home

We were very exicited to be invited to one of Dimplex’s road show last week. The reason we were so excited? The new A Class air source heat pump was being unveiled.

Despite the fact that the this are of renewables is one of the fastest growing, plus the fact that there is huge potential for air source heat pumps to fundamentally change the way we heat our homes, there has not been a lot of development in this market recently.

Dimplex have changed all that with the new A Class. This is a heat pump designed specifically for the UK climate. Able to maintain it’s power output throughout our winters and provide the kind of efficientcy previously only seen in ground source heat pumps.

We believe this is a real game changer for the UK market. One of it’s great selling points is that it does what it says it does. Understanding air source heat pumps is not always straightforward. Despite the huge savings they can provide, customers are often put off because of the complexity of the technology. The A Class changes all this. It is now possible to specify and install a heat pump that is able to maintain it’s maximum output through a British winter.

The A Class is due to be launch late September/early October and Complete Renewables will be amongst the first to be registered and qualified installers.