Phase 1 (available from August 2011) - RHI Premium Payment

The Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme is a government scheme that gives money to householders to help them buy renewable heating technologies.  This is worth around £15m and available to 25,000 householders in England, Soctland & Wales who install one of these techologies from August 2011.

The RHI Premium Payment scheme starts on 1st August 2011 and will run until 31 March 2012, or until the alloted money runs out.   As from next year, the Renewable Heat Incentive will expand to cover the domestic sector and the Green Deal will come into force, so this is a short-term scheme making one-off payments 

The grants available  are as follows:-

Solar Thermal -- £300 (voucher valid only for 3 months) for all house;

Biomass Boiler -- £950 (voucher valid for 6 months) for houses not on mains gas.

What are the conditions?

Your house must be your main home and it must have basic energy efficiency measures in place. This means you will need to confirm you have loft insulation to 250mm and cavity wall insulation, where these measures are practical. The renewable heat product you will be installing must be listed under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, and be installed by someone registered under the scheme, or equivalent.

Visit the MCS website [External link] for details.

Once the equipment is up and running, you will be asked to fill in two customer surveys. You may be chosen at random to have extra meters attached to your installation (free of charge)  to monitor and learn about how heating systems are used in practice in various different circumstances and types of home. It is a condition of the scheme that you are happy to have these meters installed.

All installations must be complete and vouchers redeemed by the expiry date on your voucher or 31 March 2012 – whichever is sooner. No vouchers will be valid beyond 31 March 2012.

How do I apply?

Anyone can apply from 1 August to the Energy Saving Trust. If you meet the conditions you will receive a voucher. You then have a set number of months to redeem the voucher by returning a signed version with a copy of the invoice and a certificate from the Microgeneration Certification Scheme. You will then have the money paid into your bank account.

What can I do before 1 August?

There may also be some local schemes to help finance renewable energy. Check with your local authority.

Renewable Heat Incentive

When does it start?

The RHI is due to start in October 2012 for domestic users, however for commercial and businesses users the scheme starts in October 2011.

What is the Renewable Heat Incentive?

The Renewable Heat Incentive is the heat part of what some people call Clean Energy Cashback, a scheme that pays people for creating their own "green electricity". The part of the scheme is similar to the Feed-In Tariffs (also known as FITs) for electricity.

How much money is the Renewable Heat Incentive worth?

You will save money by not needing to use any gas or oil, both of which are becoming increasingly expensive year-on-year.

The government has not yet set the RHI but it is anticipated that the payment will be up to 18p/kWhr for the hot water and heat you generate and use yourself. It depends on exactly what systems you use and how large they are as to what the exact tariff level is.

How long do the tariffs last?

Between 10 and 23 years depending on which type of system you use.

Is that long enough to cover the installation costs?

Yes, in fact, we estimate that most of our customers will earn enough money from the tariffs to pay off their installation costs in about seven to nine years. According to the Government, which has set the tariff levels, the average user will earn a return of around 8 to 12% per annum with higher band tax payers seeing almost double that.