£7.5k BUS heat pump grant for non-domestic premises

koru

Most of the discussion of the £7.5k BUS grant seems focused on homes, but I started looking into this for a scout hut and here is what I found:

The BUS (in England) is not limited to homes. (This might also be true in the rest of the UK, but I've only checked the rules in England.) So, if you have a smallish charity or business/commercial premises and are keen to reduce its carbon footprint, this might make a heat pump affordable.

The government website on the BUS (https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/grants/boiler-upgrade-scheme-1#eligibility) says "your property must be a home or small non-domestic building in England or Wales. The maximum installation capacity of 45 kWth covers the vast majority of these properties."

This wording sounds like there's a size limit for non-domestic buildings. But from what I can tell, there's no explicit requirement regarding the size of the property. It's just that the BUS only applies to heat pumps up to 45 kW output. Clearly, virtually all homes will require less than this (unless the size of Buckingham Palace), but some non-domestic properties will certainly be so big that they need higher heat output than this. So "small" seems just to be a loose reference to properties (domestic or not) that are big enough that they need more than 45kW heat. 

That's going to depend on the size of the property and how well insulated it is. But as a guide, my 4 bed 1970s house requires a 7kW heat pump, so a building 6 times bigger than this might still qualify for the BUS.

The reason I say there's no explicit limit on the size of building is the wording of the eligibility test in the actual BUS regulation: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2022/565/regulation/5

 

There are 4 conditions to be an "eligible property":

(a) It must be a "building".

(b) It must not be social housing.

(c) The property currently must have fossil fuel or electric heating, there hasn't been a previous grant, and the property has an EPC.

(d) Exclusion of certain situations where the heat pump is going in a new-build property.

As far as I can see, those are the only conditions relating to the property in which the heat pump is being installed. So, offices, workshops, meeting halls, shops, hotels could all potentially qualify, as long as a heat pump of 45kW would meet their needs.

***************************

No need to read the rest of this post unless you want to check up on my sources. Here's the pedantic explanation of why I summarised condition (c) in the way I did:

The above link to the regulations does not reflect some recent changes to the wording. The rules on eligible properties have recently been amended and are not yet amended in the link above. The changes are here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/524/regulation/5/made

If you start with the original condition (c) and reflect the changes, the current wording of condition (c) becomes:

" if it [the property] has had any heating system installed, and was, or will be, first occupied or used before the date on which the relevant eligible plant is commissioned—

(i) [deleted]

(ii)the system providing space heating or water heating, or both, of the property prior to the installation and commissioning of the eligible plant (the “original heating system”) is—

(aa)fuelled by fossil fuel, or

(bb)an electric heating system, and

(iii)there has not been a previous grant from public funds for a heat pump or biomass boiler at the same address, and

(iv)there has not been a previous installation of a heat pump, or biomass boiler at the property as a measure promoted by an electricity or gas supplier for the purpose of achieving their home-heating cost reduction obligation under section 41B of the Electricity Act 1989 or section 33BD of the Gas Act 1986, and

(v)there is a valid energy performance certificate for the property."

Similarly, condition (d) has been reworded, but as it relates to new-builds, I don't think it is relevant to this thread.

The 45kW limit is in regulation 9: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2022/565/regulation/9