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Heat metering in the UK hasn’t been terribly popular, it’s quite a niche market. Traditionally it belongs to the district heating environment and we don’t have a lot of that in the UK. It’s very prevalent in Europe, but not so much in the UK and consequently there’s very little knowledge or understanding about heat metering. Now that’s all going to have to change.
DEC, the Department of Energy and Climate change and OFGEM introduced the Renewable Heat Incentive last year, November Last year (2011). They brought in an incentive for installing renewable heat generators. This could be biomass boilers, solar thermal, or heat pumps that kind of thing. So, for every kilowatt of heat generates you get paid a tariff. Currently that’s for non-domestic premises, so farms, businesses, factories, offices, you name it, they can apply for the renewable heat incentive.
OFGEM and DEC in their wisdom have decided that the taxpayer who is funding this incentive has to be protected. And they have to be protected by making sure we measure all the heat that’s being produced.
We don’t have the expertise in the country, its building, but very slowly so there are lots of pitfalls. The incentive has been going for a year now, and about 75% of the applications are pushed back. They are pushed back because more information is required, and because heat metering in a large part, is to blame because people don’t understand the requirements. They are not installing the equipment correctly, they’re specifying the wrong equipment and it just causes delays.
So if you’re thinking of applying for the Renewable Heat Incentive and you might be concerned that there are parts about heat metering that you don’t fully understand we carry out training. We can assist you with your independent report on metering arrangements this is required when you’ve got anything that can be described as a complex installation, and unless it’s extremely simple you will need one of these. We can also train and assist in understanding how the heat metering installation should be carried out. Heat metering is unfamiliar, currently in the UK, but it’s going to get very common and installers will begin to understand. But some really fundamental mistakes are being made at the moment.
Find out more about how TEAM can support with Legislation and Compliance here.
More about TEAM’s RHI Author
Justine Grant is the Energy Services Renewable Heat Incentive expert and course leader. Justine’s expertise lies in IRMA for RHI applications, non-domestic Display Energy Certificates and Advisory Reports, she is a technical author and trainer and Justine qualified as a CIBSE certified ESOS Lead Assessor.