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http://www.exposolar.org/2013/ 

September 4 (Wed.) ~ 6 (Fri.), 2013

Support for domestic biomass heating installations

Until 2013, support for the capital cost of installing domestic biomass central heating systems will be with a Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) of £950. Only houses without mains gas will be eligible – for example those looking to replace oil, liquid gas, solid fuel or direct electric heating.

From Summer 2013, domestic wood biomass heating systems will be supported through tariff payments as part of the second domestic phase of the RHI. Details for this are still unknown, but DECC have announced that this phase will be open for all eligible (see below) installations installed since 15 July 2009, including (but not limited to) those who received Premium Payments.

For more information on RHI support for domestic installations, please see our page How will the Renewable Heat Incentive and the RHI Premium Payment support domestic installations?

Support for non-domestic biomass installations

Non-domestic biomass heating systems, anything from a small pellet boiler for a B&B or shop over a wood chip heating system for a school to a massive industrial biomass heat & power station, receive an RHI tariff payment for every unit of heat generated.

For small (<200kWth) and medium (<1000kWth), the RHI biomass tariff is tiered, as explained further below.

RHI tariffs for biomass are:

Scale Tariff
Less than 200 kWth Tier 1: 7.6p/kWh
Tier 2: 1.9p/kWh
200 kWth or more, but
less than 1,000 kWth Tier 1: 4.7p/kWh
Tier 2: 1.9p/kWh
1,000 kWth or more
2.6p/kWh
To illustrate the tier system: A 30kW biomass boiler (e.g. a pellet boiler in a small school) generates 45MWh (or 45,000kWh) of heat in a particular year. Its “Tier Break” can be determined by multiplying 30kW x 1,314h = 39,420 kWh. It will receive
the Tier 1 tariff for first 39,420kWh, i.e.
39,420kWh x 7.6p/kWh = £2,995.92
the Tier 2 tariff for the remaining 5,580kWh, i.e.
5,580kWh x 1.9p/kWh = £106.02
Therefore, the 30kW biomass boiler will receive a total of £3,102 in RHI tariff payments. If the same 45MWh of heat is produced by a 25kW boiler then the tariff income will be lower as less heat (25kW x 1,314h = 32,850kWh) is paid the Tier 1 tariff, and more heat (12,150kWh) is paid the lower Tier 2 tariff.

Tariffs are guaranteed over a 20 year lifetime and will be adjusted with inflation.

All heat generated will have to be metered using heat meters for hot water or steam.

For information on RHI support for non-domestic installations, please see our page How will the Renewable Heat Incentive support non-domestic installations?

Eligibility for support

To be eligible, both the equipment and the installer for domestic and small (<45kW) non-domestic biomass systems will have to be accredited under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS). You can use the MCS website www.microgenerationcertification.org to find accredited installers and products.

EPCs give information on how energy efficient a building is and also contain recommendations on how to reduce the building’s energy use and carbon dioxide emissions.

The new regulations which came into force on 6th April 2012 mean that:

• an EPC must be commissioned for all buildings before they are marketed as being for sale or rent
• where an EPC is not available, those selling or renting buildings must use “reasonable efforts” to ensure that one is obtained within seven days of marketing the property (previously 28 days)
• the first page of the EPC must be attached to the written particulars for the property

Commercial property owners and landlords need to be up to speed on these changes in order to market their properties effectively and compliantly.

The penalty for failing to make an EPC available to any prospective buyer or tenant when selling or letting non-dwellings is fixed. In most cases, this is 12.5 percent of the rateable value of the building, subject to a minimum of £500 and a maximum of £5,000, so failure to comply could prove costly.

For clarification and peace of mind on the new EPC arrangements, seeking the advice of a legal professional experienced in this field is a sensible step.

improvements, like insulation, to make your rental property more

comfortable.

The person responsible for paying the electricity will pay for some or all of the improvements

over time through their electricity bill. Repayments will be no more than what a typical

household should save in energy costs.

Windows

Homes leak heat through their

windows. By replacing windows

with double or triple glazed

windows, or installing secondary

glazing to existing windows, the

home can be kept warmer and

outside noise could be reduced.

Improvements made under a Green Deal Plan come from recommendations made by a

Green Deal Assessor. The bill payer won’t be charged more than what a typical household is

expected to save in energy costs. Of course, the actual savings will depend on how much

energy is used at the property and the future prices of energy.

Loft insulation

Heat rises and it may be leaking

into the loft. Insulating the loft, or

topping up the existing insulation,

will keep heat inside the living

spaces for longer.

Draught

proofing

Gaps around doors,

windows, loft

hatches, fittings

and pipework are

common sources of

draughts. Sealing

up the gaps will

stop heat escaping

the home and your

tenants will be able

to turn down their

thermostat.

Boilers

Older boilers

tend to lose a lot

of heat so they

use more energy.

High efficiency

condensing boilers

and air or ground

source heat pumps

recover a lot of

heat so they use

less energy.

External and internal solid wall

insulation

Homes built before 1930 usually have solid walls.

Installing insulation on the inside or outside of the wall

can dramatically reduce the heat that escapes the home.

Cavity wall insulation

Homes built after 1930 usually have walls with a

hollow space in the middle. Putting insulation in

this space is quick and makes no mess because

the work can be done from outside the home.

Renewabl e energy

Renewable technologies like wind

turbines, solar panels and heat pumps

can capture energy and turn it into

electricity or heat for the home.

The electricity bill payer makes

Green Deal repayments

Green Deal repayments are part of the electricity bill

for the property. So, the person responsible for paying

the electricity bill – usually the tenant – is responsible

for making repayments for the improvements.

If a bill payer defaults on their electricity bill, you

will not be held liable – the electricity company will use

their normal collection processes.

Get a Green Deal

To start, you or your tenant will need a Green Deal

Assessment. Many different organisations – including

energy companies, DIY stores, and local tradespeople

– are authorised to do this.

For help finding a Green Deal Assessor, call

the Energy Saving Advice Service (England, Scotland

and Wales) on 0300 123 1234 or visit

www.Direct.gov.uk/Greendeal

When you book an assessment you may be asked if

there are any accessibility issues, like access to your

loft, and whether you can provide bills showing your

recent energy use.

Keep in mind that some Green Deal Assessors may

charge for their service – it’s best to check when you

make an appointment.

Energy Act 2011

The Energy Act 2011 contains powers so that from

2016 landlords should not be able to refuse reasonable

requests for consent to install Green Deal measures

from their tenants. From 2018 landlords should ensure

their privately rented properties meet a minimum

energy efficiency standard (likely to be set at EPC

rating ‘E’) or that they have installed the maximum

package of measures under the Green Deal.

1 T he current electricity bill payer

always pays the Green Deal

repayments

If the property is left vacant, you will need

to make the repayments until a new tenant

moves in and starts paying the electricity

bill.

2 Y our tenant needs your permission

before taking out a Green Deal.

Your tenant needs your permission before

taking out a Green Deal. If your tenant

wishes to take out a Green Deal Plan,

they will first need your agreement to

both the improvements and the financial

aspects of the plan, like the amount of

the repayments and how long repayments

need to be paid for.

3 Y ou need tenants’ permission

before you take out a Green Deal

Where the tenant is the electricity bill

payer, they will need to make repayments

for the Green Deal on their electricity

bill. So you will need their express

permission before taking out a Green Deal

at the property.

5 N ew tenants need to be aware

of the Green Deal and acknowledge

the repayments they need to make

When renting out a property with a Green

Deal you need to provide the tenant with a

copy of the Energy Performance Certificate

(EPC) (or, in Scotland, the EPC and the

Recommendations Report) showing:

• the improvements that have been made

under the Green Deal

• the repayment amounts the electricity

bill payer needs to make

• the length of the Green Deal

• the name of the Green Deal Provider.

You will need to make sure that tenant

acknowledges the Green Deal and

the repayments by including standard

prescribed wording.

4 A ll improvements are quality

assured

All improvements made under

the Green Deal are completed

by Green Deal Installers. This

means the work is completed by

professionals that meet Green

Deal standards and are authorised to

operate under the Green Deal.

Free and impartial advice about the Green Deal is available. Call the Energy Saving Advice

Service (England, Scotland and Wales) on 0300 123 1234 or visit www.Direct.gov.uk/Greendeal

Get

help

Five things landlords need to know

The Green Deal is a new initiative that will let homes and businesses pay for energy saving improvements, like insulation, through savings on their fuel bills.

The Green Deal Cashback Scheme is a first-come, first-served offer where householders can claim cash back from Government on energy saving improvements like insulation, front doors, windows and boilers. Packages could be worth over £1000 – the more you do, the more you get. Available from 28 January 2013 for households in England and Wales.

The Government Cashback is a limited offer while funds last. Green Deal Participants can encourage their customers to get Green Deal assessments early so, when the scheme opens, customers are ready to apply, and get approval, for their Cashback voucher before improvement work begins.

Government has guaranteed that £40m will be available at the rates listed in this guide. After this, Cashback amounts may reduce.

Who is eligible?

The Cashback is open to any householder making energy saving improvements under the Green Deal, after 28th January 2013. This includes owner-occupiers, those renting privately or in social housing. Landlords, both private and social, are also eligible where they pay installation costs, up to certain limits. In all cases, Cashback will be capped at 50% of the householder’s contribution to costs.

How does it work?

Householders will need to apply for a voucher which they use to claim the Cashback when work is completed.

To qualify for the Cashback householders must:

• have a Green Deal assessment carried out on the property

• get and agree quotes from a Green Deal Provider (this could be directly with a national brand or through a local tradesperson linked with a Provider)

• apply for Cashback voucher online or by phone. To make things easier some Providers will be able to apply on behalf of their customers

• receive voucher confirming the Cashback

• complete works within specified period

• redeem voucher, along with evidence of works completed, for Cashback.

Householders can fund improvements through a Green Deal Plan, or however they wish, and get the Cashback but they must use a Green Deal Provider to arrange the work. The more improvements a householder makes, the bigger the Cashback.

Householders can only make one claim for the Cashback, but it may cover a package of improvements recommended by the Green Deal assessment. The Government Cashback is separate and additional to any similar offers that may be made by Green Deal Providers.

Householders can also choose to donate some or all of their Cashback to a charity or community interest company of their choice signed up with the scheme administrator.

Interested customers can contact the Energy Savings Advice Service now on 0300 123 1234 to register their interest for further information when it is released.

Our Findings:

Proportion of properties fall into each A to G band:

• A 0.1%
• B 1.2%
• C 22.6%
• D 46.2%
• E 24.6%
• F 4.2%
• G 1.2%

Surprisingly this type of data has never been published by the Government. We feel this information is important to get out into the public domain as it is of interest to both domestic sale and rental clients and renewable companies.

Average UK Domestic Energy Performance Certificate Rating

Domestic EPC for Sales and Rental:

We constantly come across clients who are concerned that their D rated EPC is a bad thing, and worry that it may have an adverse affect on their sale or rental. These statistics prove that a grade D is not such a bad rating; in fact D is the median rating for properties in the UK, with approximately 46% of existing dwellings falling into this band.

EPCs for Renewables Installations:

Since the 1st of April 2012 all solar PV installations require the property they are powering to have an EPC certificate in place with a rating of D or better, otherwise they will not be able to get the higher rate Feed in Tariff (FiT). Similar legislation applies to properties wishing to apply for Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) payments from 1st October 2012.
The good news is that approximately 70% of domestic properties in the UK will make a D grade on their EPC report as is. A further 25 % fall into the band E, and many of these will get a D rating once solar panels have been installed.

What Next:

We are currently in the process of collating data to examine what the average potential EPC rating is for properties across the UK. This information is going to be of particular interest to home owners and landlords as it will reflect improvements to energy efficiency that can be achieved by following the recommendations on the EPC report, many of which will be eligible for full or partial financing under the government’s innovative ‘Green Deal’ scheme. If you would like more information about the Green Deal, and how it can help you to improve the energy efficiency of your property, then please contact us today.

One of the prime objectives of the Green Deal is to raise awareness of the financial and environmental benefits of improving energy efficiency of the home. In the UK last year 7 billion pounds of energy was wasted through inefficiently heated and poorly insulated housing. The Green Deal is designed to help combat that loss by making positive changes to home owner’s lifestyles and living environments. The Green Deal also aims to reduce waste, minimising energy consumption whilst avoiding incurring unnecessary costs.

The Green Deal works without having to take out any personal finance on the property and can be applied for if you are an owner, tenant or landlord.

What work can be carried out under the scheme?

Improvements that can be carried out on the home under the Green Deal scheme Include;

• Heating, ventilation & air conditioning (including condensing boilers, under floor heating  & heating controls)
• Building fabric (e.g. cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, draft proofing, energy efficient glazing and doors and more wall and floor insulation
• Lighting (fittings and controls)
• Water Heating (innovative hot water systems and energy efficient taps and showers)
• Micro generation (Solar thermal, solar PV, ground and air source pumps).

The view of the Government is that the Green Deal will be very  much a positive investment for householders.  Energy efficiency improvements implemented reduce energy consumption and will also lower household bills.

To qualify for the Green Deal all measures undertaken to improve the homes energy efficiency must fit in with what is termed the ‘Golden Rule’. This states that the ‘expected’ financial savings to the homeowner, must either be ‘equal to or greater than the costs’ associated with the energy bill, meaning that once the measures have been carried out, the householders energy bills (including the Green Deal repayments) must be the same as or lower than it was previously.

Once Green Deal measures have been implemented to the home, a Green Deal Charge, alongside reductions in energy use, will be clearly outlined on the energy bill associated with the property.  This enables consumers to see where the savings are being made, and allows them to monitor the payback period.

Key points that are ensured by the Green Deal

• Homeowners are protected by the terms of the Consumer Credit Act.
• Green Deal providers, advisors and installers must undergo a robust accreditation process.
• Green Deal providers are obliged to give appropriate advice based on the circumstances of each individual who applies for the Green Deal.
• Green Deal providers, advisors and installers will be audited on their work.

An important point to also note is that the Green Deal Charge remains strictly with the property, rather than being transferred with the owner-occupier or tenant. As this is the case there are no costs to the consumer once they are not associated with the property.

The EU Non Domestic EPC Guidelines states that an energy assessor will require the following information to produce a Commercial EPC:

• Details of the individual spaces or zones in use within a building and their dimensions.
• The activities conducted within the zones. For example, retail space, office space, kitchen or storage.
• The heating and ventilation services for each zone, including details of the type of system, metering, controls and fuel used.
• The lighting and controls used for each zone.
• The construction of the fabric of the building and the thermal efficiency of the materials used.

*If plans for the building are not available, the energy assessor will need to survey the building. Even where plans are available, the energy assessor may need to inspect the building to verify information.

With the construction type of the building, heating an ventilation systems being the main contributors to the overall rating. There are not any short terms measures that you can take to improve the rating.

At current there is no pass or fail for a property only a actual rating and a potential rating,  however there are plans to start imposing penalty’s  on low scoring buildings in the near future.

The popular feed-in tariff programme  sees that people with solar panels in the UK are  guaranteed a set price for electricity they generate and sell to the National Grid.

The previous tariff was just above 43p per KWh, with  new tariff of 21p KWh  expected to be brought into force as of 1 April 2012. This was turned on its head in October 2011 when the government announced that the reduced tariff would apply to all panels installed after 12th Dec 2011.

This caused uproar in the solar panel industry, with installers particularly upset about the impact on projects that had been commissioned but not yet installed.

The government carried out a consultation on the proposals that closed on 23 December 2011, 11 days after the decision was scheduled to be implemented. The High Court ruled that it was illegal to change the tariffs in this way, a decision that the Court of Appeal has today upheld.

The Government has announced that the current tariff of 43p KWh will now remain in place untill the start of March this year, however they are also considering whether to refer the case to the Supreme Court, potentially returning the cut off date for the higher tariff back to 12th Dec 2012.

The Renewable Energy Association chief executive Gaynor Hartnell states that ”The government’s action and the subsequent court case had together thrown the solar industry into a state of extreme uncertainty,” These latest developments seem only likely to add to the confusion.

In summary, this includes new requirements for additional ‘consequential’ energy efficiency improvements where work (such as an extension or replacement windows or boilers) is already planned to an existing building and Green Deal funding is available as an option to meet the up-front costs.

Given that in the UK the DCLG estimates there are 200,000 extensions built per year, 1.4 million boiler replacements and 1 million window replacements, this has the potential to be a significant demand driver for the Green Deal.

The proposals include;

From October 2012 (to include with the introduction of the Green Deal framework) DCLG are proposing that extensions and increases in habitable space (i.e. loft or integral garage conversions) in existing homes would trigger a requirement to carry out consequential energy efficiency improvements where these were technically, economically and functionally feasible.