Water-Value

Heating is a significant and rising cost, and while renewable electric gets much publicity, a large proportion of your energy demand is likely to be for heating. 

With rising heating bills, particularly in areas off the gas grid, renewable heating options are becoming more attractive, due to their lower fuel costs and Government incentives.

gfw-Renewables can help you understand how renewable heating could reduce your fuel bills and provide an alternative source of income for the next 20 years.

Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)

The long awaited Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) provides payments for renewable heating to increase the opportunities for heating produced from:

• Heat Pumps
• Biomass Boilers
• Solar Thermal Panels

Currently the RHI is available to non-domestic properties; however, this classification includes:

• district heating schemes (more than one property linked up to one system); and 
• some domestic properties which comprise a commercial use, e.g. a farm office or bed and breakfast. 

Domestic properties are currently supported by a scheme of premium payments where the Government provides a one off voucher to help with the capital cost of installation. 

The Government is currently reviewing the RHI and further changes may be introduced in the summer of 2013. These changes could include extending the scheme to domestic properties and introducing a requirement for energy efficiency measures to be installed within properties whose owners want to start claiming the RHI.

gfw-Renewables can help you to understand how the RHI could provide an income from a renewable heating system: click here.

Click here to read about the latest RHI developments.

Biomass 

Wood fuel (including logs, pellets and chips) can be used to sustainably heat properties and often represents a significant saving in fuel, especially at properties currently heating by oil or LPG. 

At gfw Renewables we see that these savings on fuel costs can be optimised for many of our rural clients by the use of existing woodlands, the use of which often carries other benefits for the landowner. 

Click here to read the latest news on biomass. 

Heat Pumps

Air or ground source heat pumps utilise electricity to provide space heating and hot water. Although not a renewable technology (unless the electricity utilised is from a renewable technology, e.g. solar panels), they are so good at increasing energy efficiency that they are including in the RHI. However, the application of heat pumps has to be carefully designed and managed to capture the benefits of lower heating bills and income from the RHI.

Heat pumps are best suited to well insulated properties; the capacity of the electricity supply also needs to be considered in the context of the required electricity demand of the proposed system.

Solar Thermal Panels

Solar thermal panels, usually mounted on roofs, capture the heat from solar energy and transfer it to the heat distribution system within a property to heat or pre heat water for space heating or hot water. A back up system heating is usually required, however, the benefits of no fuel costs and low maintenance make solar thermal panels a good, low cost option.

Contact the gfw-Renewables team for help with:

• feasibility

• planning and permits

• business planning – income and cost management

• Ofgem accreditation for the RHI