MCS certified products and the Renewable Heat Incentive RHI

The Renewable Heat Incentive - RHI

The Renewable Heat Incentive is a grant scheme targeted at renewable heating systems. Biomass boilers, solar thermal, ground and water-source heat pumps are covered but not air source heat pumps.
The RHI is centrally funded, unlike the FIT PV scheme which is funded by additions to utility bills (and so can be viewed as a sort of stealth tax if you were feeling cynical).

Renewable Heat Premium Payment Scheme

Applies to: Domestic installations.
When: From the May 1st 2012 till the 31st March 2013.
What is it: You can apply for a one-off Premium Payment voucher of £950 towards the installation of your biomass boiler. There are also payments towards solar thermal and heat pumps available.
Criteria: The biomass boiler must be MCS registered, as must be your installer. Your house will also need to meet certain minimum insulation criteria and be off the gas grid.
Voucher values:

Biomass boilers - £950.
Solar thermal - £300.
Air source heat pump - £850.
Ground or water source heat pump - £1250.

What to do: You can pre-register for the Premium Payment scheme

RHI Phase I Commercial

If you are a business or part of a community that want to provide heat to a group of houses then Phase I of the RHI is for you. For a biomass boiler you would get a payment of 7.5p per kWh up to a pre-defined ceiling (they call it a "Tier") after which the rate drops. In the calculations I have done recently it would appear that the ceiling is pretty generous and so you would usually expect to stay within the 7.5p/kWh ceiling as long as the system is correctly sized, and run as it should be.

RHI Phase II Domestic

Phase II of the RHI would apply to domestic installations and may start late in 2012. It is likely that you will need to have an energy survey of your property and take up any measures as recommended through the Green Deal scheme.

If you are considering Phase II of the scheme then I would advise that you make sure that the installation makes sense, regardless of the possible grant payments. Until they are formally announced no-one is totally sure of the final structure or the criteria of the scheme so it would be best to make sure that the install itself meets the criteria as we believe them to be at present but not to rely on the scheme for the figures to add up. That way when, and if, the scheme goes live and when, and if, you end up qualifying then it will come as a bonus.

MCS registered pellet, log gasification and biomass boilers

MCS certified products have been certified to ensure that they are of a high quality and meet the standards expected when the are to be supported by a government grant scheme. Several Extraflame wood pellet boilers listed on Stovesonline are MCS certified, as well as several log gasification boilers. Often certification is through the BRE but there are some other equilalent standards, for example the Solar Keymark for solar thermal systems.

Please find a list below of the pellet boiler stoves, pellet boilers, and log gasification boilers on our site which are MCS registered.