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CIBSE Energy Performance Group

To improve energy performance of buildings by increasing awareness amongst all building professionals and supporting the implementation of relevant legislation aimed at reducing carbon emissions in buildings

Expert Zone

Current topic: Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)

In this area of the website we provide regular access to experts in their field by means of a Q&A environment. We provide the forum on the basis of one topic per quarter and allow website visitors to put questions to our topic expert(s) during that time. Expert answer/comment/opinion will be posted on this page below each question. We are also keen to harvest lessons learnt so if you have something to say about your experience with Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) that might be of value to others post using the question form. Once the topic has finished, the questions/answers and lessons learnt will be consolidated and posted into the Learning Zone.

This month we are delighted to welcome Neil Turner, Philip Wolfe and Andrej Miller, who are ready to answer your questions on Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). Biographical information about our experts together with a form for you to put your own question to them may be found below the current Q&A thread.

It normally takes a few days for submitted questions to be considered by our panel of experts and for their responses to be posted below. So if you have recently submitted a question please visit the Expert Zone again in a couple of days. However, if there is a need for clarification on a question, or if the question is off-topic etc., you will receive an email from us.

The Expert Zone is now closed for questions on RHI but the Q&A will remain viewable until a new topic is open.

If you have a topic suggestion for the Expert Zone please send an email to our Webmaster


Click on the green button beside the question to reveal/hide the expert response(s)

toggle button - I have asked several ASHP and CHP manufacturers for evidence of existing UK & EU installed sites using both CHP and ASHP together for non residential 24 hour use (eg hotels, hostels or other 24 hour use buildings). They have UK evidence of some in planning and some in construction, but none seem to have been built yet or have produced verifiable data. Are you aware of any significant smaller scale schemes (e.g. total heat output circa 100-150kW) which have been commissioned in the UK over the last 24 - 48 months? [ Tim Young, 26 September 2011 ]

toggle button - We have a large rural estate extending to over 1,000 acres. Many of the premises, although widely separated on our site, are covered by a single postcode. DECC in their draft of the legislation relating to the RHI indicated that a "site" would be determined by Ofgem with reference to one or more of the following: (a) Geographical proximity (b) Street address (c) Ordinance Survey grid reference (d) Any other factors which Ofgem in its discretion considers relevant What is this likely to mean in reality? [ John Fiske, 10 August 2011 ]

toggle button - A single building that contains two biomass boilers, each of 150kW rated output and both due to be commissioned some time in late 2011. For the purposes of tiered tariffs, is this considered as two boilers, each entitled to 7.9 p/kWh on their deemed (tier 1) output, or are they one installation which is only entitled to 4.9 p/kWh on the total tier 1 output? And would there be any difference in how the tier 1 output would be calculated? The boilers are a retrofit and have been sized to meet the heating season base load at a site with 24 hour and 7 day occupancy. They are therefore expected to run continously at full output for the majority of the time from October to March every year. [ Paul Hasley, 01 August 2011 ]

toggle button - Do you foresee the same price gouging happening with the RHI as has happened with the FITS scheme whereby participants in the state sponsored monopoly known as the MCS charge double or treble the going rate for any given installation? [ Norrie Crawford, 15 July 2011 ]

toggle button - We are in the construction stages of a new ‘Eco store’ supermarket for a well known chain. We are installing a water source heat pump to recover the waste refrigerant heat from the large freezers that operate in the sales areas. The predicted results of this is that all of the buildings DHW load and a large section of the buildings heating load will be met by free heat. Will this system be eligible for RHI, and how do we obtain it if it is? The building also has a solar wall that contributes to the AHU heating load but I don’t believe that this is eligible for RHI. [ Keith Ketchley, 13 July 2011 ]

toggle button - Will the RHI be administered through the government sponsored monopoly called the MCS scheme as with FITS? [ Norrie Crawford, 12 July 2011 ]

toggle button - I installed a wood (log) burning gasification boiler at my home almost 3 years ago. It is an Atmos DC25GS. I bought and paid for the boiler and installation myself with no assistance from grants. The log boiler was connected into the existing oil fired central heating system so that either boiler is able to supply the necessary heat with the preference of taking the heat from the log boiler. The boiler works very well providing the house with central heating and hot water. Will this installation qualify for RHI payments? [ Norrie Crawford, 12 July 2011 ]

toggle button - I have a four year old wood pellet boiler that has not been successful in its current location due mainly to installation and site conditions. I plan to move this to another more suitable site as part of a refurbishment there. Will this installation be eligible for RHI? [ D.Mattos, 11 July 2011 ]

toggle button - Why are air-source heat pumps (ASHPs) not included within the RHI for commercial (non-household) installations? When does DECC expect a decision to be made about this and should we continue to install ASHPs in the meantime in the expectation that they will be? If so, what guarantees will we have that these installations will be able to claim RHI in the future? [ Kirsty Rice, 07 July 2011 ]


Meet the experts

Image of Neil Turner Neil Turner is currently the Business Development Manager at RES. He is involved in the facilitation and promotion of building integrated renewable energy projects in the UK, providing a mixture of policy, planning and technical knowledge related to all renewable energy and the broader sustainability agenda to internal and external stakeholders. He is also responsible for delivering technical and commercial training to main contractors, mechanical & electrical consultants, sub- contractors and end users in respect to building-integrated renewable energy technology.
Image of Philip Wolfe Philip Wolfe is one of the pioneers of the UK renewable energy industry. He recently founded Ownergy Plc, to provide renewable electricity and heating systems to businesses and consumers, supported by the government’s new Renewable Energy Tariffs. He is also a Director of the Renewable Energy Association and the Aldersgate Group. Philip has installed renewable energy in his home for all of its heating and part of its electricity. A Cambridge first-class engineering graduate, Philip has been involved in the sector since the 1970’s when he became the first Chief Executive of what is now BP Solar. He later established his own photovoltaics company, Intersolar Group, which from 1993 to 2002 was the sole UK manufacturer of photovoltaic cells. He has served on the Boards of European and British industry bodies, and advised the European Commission and the British Government.
Image of Andrej Miller Andrej Miller is a policy manager in the Renewable Financial Incentives team at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. His role is policy development of the Renewable Heat Incentive and he leads on scheme criteria above household scale. He has worked in energy for 6 years in posts which included working on the Feed-in Tariffs for small scale electricity, the Energy Act 2008 and the Energy White Paper 2007.