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Gizmosmum_2

Pincher wrote: »

I got the £400 for the boiler scrappage, which will probably disqualify me for RHI for ASHP. I think they also want you to REPLACE your gas boiler, which is a joke, because heat pumps don't work efficiently at higher temperatures, so you have to replace your perfectly good radiators with larger ones, or rip the whole house up for underfloor heating. And then the heat pump will fail just when you need it most, and the engineer is skiing so you end up using electric bar heaters over Christmas and New Year.
I am doing a hybrid, 1st floor will be heat pump, ground floor remains gas/radiator. Resilient configuration.

My roof is East-West, so I don't tick their boxes for solar thermal.
I have three dormer windows in the back of the house, which I have just re-enforced with ply and new felt. I only need one dormer to put an A frame up for mounting a south facing solar thermal panel. Because it's not visible from the front, I shouldn't need planning permission. I live in dread that they will simply reject me again because I don't tick the "south facing" box.

Basically, I will have to lie by ticking the "south facing" box when applying for RHI. And then they do a Google Map on my roof, and don't even bother to send a surveyor out. If they did send a surveyor out, it will be some moron who says "What's an A frame?", "We don't do none of that fancy stuff." REJECTED AGAIN.

I don't know anyone who would recommend ashp or gshp if you're on gas mains. It costs more to run than a gas condensing boiler so doesn't make economic sense at all. The £400 boiler scrappage has nothing to do with RHI and won't make any difference to whether you are eligible or not. But obviously if you have a south facing opportunity that is more difficult to achieve than another person's who has a straighforward installation then any commercial company in their right mind won't take on a more difficult installation. Particularly if there's queue round the block of people wanting to take advantage.

Not everyone in the industry is a moron and just because what they are offering doesn't apply to you it doesn't mean they have a lack of intelligence. On the contrary if you're looking at pure business sense not environmental or social conscience you could argue that they are actually quite shrewd.

Cardew

Gizmosmum wrote: »

I don't know anyone who would recommend ashp or gshp if you're on gas mains. It costs more to run than a gas condensing boiler so doesn't make economic sense at all. .

If you look at the threads on Heat pumps in the 'Green' forum on MSE there are quite a lot who do advocate fitting ASHPs instead of Gas CH - and that is before any possible RHI incentive. Indeed some have done just that - removed gas and use an ASHP.

Certainly I agree with your view re gas, albeit if you can tolerate a ducted warm air ASHP I suspect the running costs are much the same, and of course you do get the advantage of air-conditioning during these sweltering August days that we get in UK!

Gizmosmum_2

Cardew wrote: »

If you look at the threads on Heat pumps in the 'Green' forum on MSE there are quite a lot who do advocate fitting ASHPs instead of Gas CH - and that is before any possible RHI incentive. Indeed some have done just that - removed gas and use an ASHP.

Certainly I agree with your view re gas, albeit if you can tolerate a ducted warm air ASHP I suspect the running costs are much the same, and of course you do get the advantage of air-conditioning during these sweltering August days that we get in UK!

If the RHI follows the same theme as the Low Carbon Buildings Programme air con won't be allowed from ashp even though that was their original purpose. I can't quite decide if that's a good thing. In theory it is because you don't want to encourage the use of more energy but if we really are going to get warmer then it'a almost inevitable that air con will become much more desireable. Maybe not for a good few years tho .....

John_Pierpoint

You can put a Ground Source Heat Pump into neutral and cheaply pump the summer temperature more than a meter under your lawn (15 degrees?) into your home.
Come to that you could just put long lengths of drain pipe down there and blow air along them into your home.

[In passing, I have just come past this fine collection of buzz words, that we are most probably financing as social housing. I noticed several new homes with fairly steep roofs facing due east. This roof slope was fitted with Solar Thermal panels facing due East. Admittedly they were the expensive vacuum tube type of thermal tubes. Does this make sense].

http://showcase.homesandcommunities.co.uk/case-study/fryerns-craylands-regeneration.html#overview

Gizmosmum_2

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

You can put a Ground Source Heat Pump into neutral and cheaply pump the summer temperature more than a meter under your lawn (15 degrees?) into your home.
Come to that you could just put long lengths of drain pipe down there and blow air along them into your home.

Yes it's easy to do but MCS approved heat pumps aren't allowed to do this (unless you are prepared to void the guarantee and alter it yourself if you're that way inclined) because it still uses some energy to pump through cooler air although admittedly a lot less than using air con.

barneygumble

I also received an email yesterday saying our property was suitable and that the contract would be sent out before survey (ISIS). Would be interested to hear from others in the same situation about the experience if they are further along in the process than me.

Gizmosmum_2

Change in property ownership
22. What happens if I move house and the new owners don’t want to ‘inherit’ the deal?
If you move house the contract will pass to the new homeowner, and they will continue to receive free electricity. But if the new owners don’t want to inherit the deal, you or the new homeowners can buy the contract out. There are no penalties – it is just a straight-line depreciation from the first to the last day of the contract.

Found this hidden away in the small print on the Homesun website. There's loads of other FAQ's but this was the one that I've been intrigued by. Here's the link http://www.homesun.com/community-network/media-room

Btw - I'm waiting for ScottishPower to ring me back to tell me if I could remove my panels and move them to another location if I wanted to move. They were really good, said they hadn't been asked before and would get back to me as soon as they get a definitive answer. The answer from Ecotricity was - well I'm sure it'll be fine - it was Friday afternoon!

liquidity_2

Slightly off topic... Can anyone recommend a forum for semi-technical discussions of PV solar in the UK? Looking for real-world advice on issues such as impact from shading, orientation angle with respect to due south, roof pitch, different types/brands of panels, etc. Have had visits from 4 companies for a self-funded PV installation and the quoted annual energy output for the same kWp system varies wildly and several either ignored shading or were insistent that it would not be a problem. Still waiting on contact from Isis or HomeSun - I think I might trust their assessment of the suitability of my house the best as they actually care about it - most of the commercial sellers seem to care not one bit. With the advent of the FITs double glazing salesmen have found a new career opportunity.

Gizmosmum_2

liquidity wrote: »

Slightly off topic... Can anyone recommend a forum for semi-technical discussions of PV solar in the UK? Looking for real-world advice on issues such as impact from shading, orientation angle with respect to due south, roof pitch, different types/brands of panels, etc. Have had visits from 4 companies for a self-funded PV installation and the quoted annual energy output for the same kWp system varies wildly and several either ignored shading or were insistent that it would not be a problem. Still waiting on contact from Isis or HomeSun - I think I might trust their assessment of the suitability of my house the best as they actually care about it - most of the commercial sellers seem to care not one bit. With the advent of the FITs double glazing salesmen have found a new career opportunity.

Different brands have different efficiencies, panels seem to vary from 12% to about 19% and the inverters have different efficiencies too. If you've got 4 different companies with 4 different panels and inverters then you'll have 4 different outputs. If Isis and Homesun use different panels again their outputs will be different. To compare you need to dig around on the Internet and compare the prices and efficiencies of the panels against the extra cost for the different panels and the difference in returns from the FiT. If you've got the time it's worth it to save a few quid.

Jon_Tiffany

Gizmosmum wrote: »

Different brands have different efficiencies, panels seem to vary from 12% to about 19% and the inverters have different efficiencies too. If you've got 4 different companies with 4 different panels and inverters then you'll have 4 different outputs. If Isis and Homesun use different panels again their outputs will be different. To compare you need to dig around on the Internet and compare the prices and efficiencies of the panels against the extra cost for the different panels and the difference in returns from the FiT. If you've got the time it's worth it to save a few quid.

The efficiency of the panel only matters if space is an issue, a 180w is a 180w panel regardless of the efficiency.

E.g. the only difference between the following panels is that the second one will be a bit smaller

14% efficient 180w panel
16% efficient 180w panel

All MCS installer should be using the same method (SAP) to estimate annual output, so should be giving the same answer. Shading is very important, if you get any shading between 10am and 3pm it is really going to hurt the output. If a single panel get shaded it brings down the output of the whole array, some panels have bypass diodes to minimise this effect.