Grants For Heating

What is the Renewable Heat Premium Payment?

This is a UK Government scheme designed to help you afford renewable technologies for your home, such as:

* solar thermal panels
* heat pumps ( air to water, ground source or water source but excluding air to air and exhaust air heat pumps), and
* biomass boilers.

The amount received as part of the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme depends on which technology you are applying for:
Technology Voucher value
Solar thermal hot water £300
Air-to-water heat pump £850
Ground-source or water-source heat pump £1250
Biomass boiler £950

The Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme – Phase 2 will run from 1st May 2012 to 31st March 2013, subject to available funding.

Who can apply for the Renewable Heat Premium Payment?

If you live in England, Scotland or Wales and your installation did not receive funding under RHPP Phase 1 you are eligible to apply for the Renewable Heat Premium Payment.Your installation must also not have been commissioned for the first time, as detailed on your MCS certificate, before 21st July 2011.

If you live in Northern Ireland, find out more about the Renewable Heat Premium Payment at the DETI website.

How you currently heat your home will depend on which technologies you are able to apply for:

* if you have recently removed a mains gas heating system or currently heat your home with mains gas, you are only eligible to apply for solar thermal
* if you currently rely on oil, liquid gas, solid fuel or electricity then you could also apply for air-to-water heat pumps, ground-source or water-source heat pumps and biomass boilers.

If you have any further questions about whether you can apply, call our helpline:

* in England, Northern Ireland and Wales: 0300 123 1234
* in Scotland: 0800 512 012.

What do you have to do before applying?

It is important to understand the full eligibility criteria before applying.

* The property must be owned by you and continue to be owned by you for the duration of the metering and survey requirements or if you are a tenant you must be purchasing the system yourself and have permission from the owner of the property;

* If the property is a new build, then you must retain ownership of the property either as the occupier or as the Private Landlord. Please note applications from installers, builder/developers or householders in relation to “off-plan” developments, are not eligible for support under this scheme;

* The property must have loft insulation to 250mm and cavity wall insulation (where practical);

* You should have all necessary planning and environmental permissions in place;

* The product and installer you go with must be certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) or Solar Keymark (or equivalent).

* Read the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme FAQ.

If you have any further questions, please email these to RHPremium@est.org.uk

The main difference between Phase 1 and Phase 2 (heat pumps only)

Installations of biomass boilers and solar thermal panels are not affected by this change.

In order to help increase the rate of meter installation relative to Phase 1, a small change will be made to the voucher payment process. For heat pump installations, all householders will receive 80% of their voucher value when a valid claim is submitted, together with a signed checklist from the installer confirming whether or not the installation can be fitted with a meter. Householders will receive the final 20% following a visit from the metering team to check that the installation is really ‘meter ready’ and install a set of equipment, or if their installer has been trained to install monitoring equipment and installs it on EST’s behalf. If a householder has indicated that they are not meter ready, they will receive the final 20% of the grant at the end of the scheme.

* Download your own copy of the installer checklist.

It is important you understand the full eligibility criteria before applying and read the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme FAQ. If you have any further questions, please email these to RHPremium@est.org.uk.

As the applicant it is your responsibility to ensure that all information supplied at application and claim stage is accurate and complete. Any information that you provided to the Energy Saving Trust that is subsequently found to be untrue, inaccurate or incomplete may affect your ability to claim your rebate. Accordingly, applications should not be submitted by your installer.

Posted on Sep 10, 2012.