What is the Renewable Heat Incentive or Domestic RHI?
If you have been looking into renewable heating then you may have come across the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive or Domestic RHI to use its acronym. In short, the Renewable Heat Incentive is a government-funded financial program aimed to incentivise homeowners to upgrade their central heating to a low-carbon heating system, such as an Air Source Heat Pump.
Domestic RHI was launched in the year 2011 alongside the non-domestic RHI scheme meant for non-domestic properties like offices, shops and supermarkets. Domestic RHI was seen as an improved replacement for the Low Carbon Building Program which ended in 2010.
Domestic RHI payments…
With Domestic RHI, homeowners can receive up to £13,700 (depending on the heat demand of their property) over the course of 7 years in quarterly payments every 3 months. With the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive, you can claim your incentive for installing either a biomass boiler, a solar water heating system or an Air/Ground Source Heat Pump. Most people opt for an Air Source Heat Pump because of its efficacy, cost-effectiveness, ability to heat an entire large home to a comfortable level and the fact that often the RHI payments cover the cost of the system.
Get paid to upgrade…
To register for the Renewable Heat Incentive, you first need to have installed your renewable heating system by using a registered installer, such as ourselves. These installers need to have passed the assessment and be accredited by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) and the Home Insulation and Energy Systems Quality Assured Contractors Scheme (HIES). These bodies regulate and assess the installers to ensure that they adhere to a high standard of workmanship, so you know that the system that they have installed and paid for is going to work correctly. Your installer should have made sure that you have all of the necessary paperwork for you to start your application, such as an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) and an MCS Certificate. As part of our service, we provide you access to our RHI helpdesk where one of our agents will be with you every step of the way.
The terms of the Domestic RHI require you to have your heating system serviced on an annual basis to ensure that your system is operating efficiently. As a registered installer, this is also a service that we offer for Air Source Heat Pumps. If you already have an Air Source Heat Pump installed and it is not currently being survived then you may wish to book a service seeing as a badly neglected heat pump can lose up to 25% of its heating efficacy.
There is no better time to apply for RHI…
The Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive was due to expire in 2021, but due to its ongoing popularity with over 400,000 Air Source Heat Pumps installed in the UK alone, RHI has been extended to the 31st of March, 2022. Click here to get a quote for installing an RHI qualifiable heating system.
