Grants to install green heating in homes were finally made available by government today.
Called the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), it will pay people for the green heat they generate.
Anyone from home owners and social and private landlords are eligible, both on and off the gas grid.
The domestic RHI includes biomass heating systems, which burn fuel such as wood pellets, chips or logs, ground or water source heat pumps, which extract heat from the ground or water, as well as air to water heat pumps.
Also counted in the scheme are solar thermal panels which trap the sun’s heat to heat water stored in a hot water cylinder. The two types of panels that are eligible are evacuated tube panels and liquid-filled flat plate panels.
Only one space heating system is allowed per property but homeowners can apply for solar thermal for hot water and a space heating system.
Payments under the scheme are made every three months over seven years for households in England, Wales and Scotland.
Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: “This is the first scheme of its kind in the world – showing yet again that the UK is leading the way in the clean energy sector.
“Not only will people have warmer homes and cheaper fuel bills, they will reduce their carbon emissions and will also get cash payments for installing these new technologies.”
Renewable heating company Organic Energy estimates a household which gets a wood pellet boiler will receive between £1,874 for an 8KW boiler to £10,540 for our larger 45KW systems per year.
It follows a non-domestic scheme for commercial businesses.
Andy Boroughs, the firm’s managing director said: “Domestic customers will also be able to access a quarterly payment, both for those installing renewable technologies in the coming months and those who have installed an eligible system since 2009.”
There are some concerns about the scheme, from fears it may fall foul of hold-ups which the business RHI scheme ran into, while others want to make sure all technologies have equal billing in it.
Roger Webb, Director of Heating and Hot water Industry Council’s (HHIC) said: “Favouring one technology over another will not help the UK consumer in the long term, we need a mix.”
