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New General Data Protection Regulation
The new General Data Protection Regulation which will be implemented in the UK from the 25th May 2018.
This legislation requires all organisations that process personal data, or engage others to do so on their behalf, to adopt certain practices to safeguard personal data. This will take effect in relation to all our contract(s) with you, from 25 May.
We have updated our privacy policy
RHI update August 2017
In March this year, the Government published a draft amendment to the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Regulations. The amendment proposes an increase in the tariff for both air source and ground source heat pumps, with air source heat pumps proposed to be 10.18p/kWh (up from 7.63p) and ground source 19.86p/kWh (up from 19.64p). The increase for air source heat pumps is particularly significant, returning over 33% more on tariff payments. Any heat pump systems installed from December 2016 will be paid the RHI at these new, increased tariffs as soon as they are implemented.
Also in the Government’s draft amendment is a proposal to set a limit on the annual heat demand against which the RHI can be claimed. The heat demand limits would be set at 20,000kWh for ASHPs, and 30,000kWh for GSHPs. This will not affect the vast majority of households, with the average annual demand of UK homes being significantly less than 20,000kWh at around 12.000kWh (www.ovoenergy.com). Due to the snap General election in May and the ongoing Brexit negotiations the draft proposals have not yet been implemented, though will likely be after parliament reconvenes after the summer recess. So, for people with larger homes thinking of installing a heat pump system, it is better to act sooner rather than later and be paid for the heat demand of your entire home.
The tariff rates for heat pumps from 1 July 2017 (until new proposals are implemented) are:
| Ground source heat pump | Air source heat pump | |
| Domestic | 19.64p/kWh | 7.63p/kWh |
| Non-domestic | 9.09p/kWh | 2.61p/kWh |
Use this RHI calculator to find out what the RHI payments could be worth to you.
As well as the great financial benefits of the RHI payments, switching to a renewable heat source like a ground or air source heat pump could also save you hundreds of pounds a year on your heating bills, compared to an oil or LPG system. Heat pumps are a highly efficient way of heating your home, taking the latent heat energy of the ground or air to produce thermal energy ideal for heating or hot water.
All this, and you’ll be drastically reducing your carbon footprint. A well-designed domestic Ground Source Heat Pump system will produce 32% less CO² than a mains gas boiler, 40% less than an LPG boiler and 49% less than oil.
Further Information
Find out more about how heat pumps work and if they’d be suitable for your home or workplace.
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Case Studies
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Ground Source Heat Pump, Worcestershire
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Air Source Heat Pump, Newport
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Solar photovoltaic (PV), Cardiff
More efficient heat pumps, bigger returns
This month the way in which a heat pump’s efficiency is measured changed to a seasonal co-efficient of performance (SCOP) rating. Certification bodies use this rating to determine if a heat pump meets the requirements for the Renewable Heat Incentive, which pays users a quarterly income based on the heat pump’s efficiency of heat produced against electricity used.
The good news? Under the new calculations, the vast majority of the heat pumps we install have become more efficient, meaning even bigger returns to the user. Find out more about the Renewable Heat Incentive and how heat pumps can save money on your bills while at the same time earning you an income.
Further Information
Find out more about how heat pumps work and if they’d be suitable for your home or workplace.
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Case Studies
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Air Source Heat Pump, Newport
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Ground Source Heat Pump, Gloucestershire
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Solar photovoltaic (PV), Cardiff
Heat pump finance for social landlords & housing associations
Social landlords and housing associations – make you and your tenants’ money go further with renewable heating from air source heat pumps, financed by MyGreenHeating Finance.
High energy prices and spiralling bills mean more and more people are finding themselves in fuel poverty. Air source heat pumps are cheap to run and maintain, deliver a comfortable and efficient heat output and have very low carbon emissions, providing an effective alternative to fossil fuel heating for social housing providers and their tenants. However, the initial setup cost can often put people off taking the leap to renewables.
WDS Green Energy have teamed up with MyGreenHeating Finance, a Dimplex company delivering heat pump installations for social housing providers to make installing a renewable heating system at your properties easy, efficient and cost-effective. MyGreenHeating Finance combines the Renewable Heat Incentive with flexible financing for the design, installation, commissioning and servicing – delivered by WDS Green Energy – of air source heat pump and hot water cylinder systems. Low cost financing can be spread over a 7 year period, with first year payments as low as £2,000. All installations come with the peace of mind of an extended 7 year Dimplex warranty and a 3 Star emergency response service.
Housing associations benefit from lower capital expenditure costs, flexible payments terms, a 7 year parts and labour warranty with 3* emergency response, an increase in SAP ratings and a carbon reduction of approximately 60% per property. Householders benefit from enhanced comfort and control of their heat and hot water while saving money.
Contact us to find out more about air source heat pumps and MyGreenHeating
Call us on 029 2019 0290
Email info@wdsgreenenergy.co.uk
WDS Green Energy supporting National Trust pledge for 50% renewables
The National Trust have turned to WDS Green Energy to support their pledge to source 50% of their energy usage from renewable sources by 2020. Three of the Trust’s properties in Wales and South West have been fitted out with state of the art air source and ground source heat pumps to offset the high running costs of stately buildings. Tredegar House, Dyffryn House and Croome Court all previously ran of expensive and inefficient oil systems. WDS looked at each individual property and arrangement to design systems suited perfectly to heating the buildings from the heat energy in the ground and air. Now, with hugely reduced bills and payments from the Government’s RHI scheme, these National Trust properties are much more efficient, economical to run and have a vastly reduced carbon footprint.
Paul Southall, National Trust Environmental Advisor said: “We have been working closely with WDS Green Energy at reducing the National Trust’s use of fossil fuel heating at our South Wales and West sites. Renewable heating is an important part of the National Trust’s pledge to source 50% of our energy from renewables by 2020, and by installing air source heat pumps at Dyffryn Gardens and Tredegar House, together with a ground source heat pump at Croome Court, each to a bespoke design for each property, we’ve drastically reduced our reliance on fossil fuels to heat these special places.
“WDS’s professionalism and expertise in renewable heating has been invaluable during the process, giving us great confidence in the design and installation of the systems. Working on older buildings like these can sometimes be perceived as problematic, but WDS worked closely with our own teams at each site to make sure the installations ran smoothly, and we’re very pleased with the results.”
It pays to go green with a heat pump
Great news! The Renewable Heat Incentive, the government scheme that pays you for using renewable heat sources in your home or place of work, is set to continue beyond 2021.
What does this mean for you?
Well, it means the financial incentive for going green and installing renewable heating systems in your home (like Ground Source or Air Source Heat Pumps) is set to continue for many years to come. When you install an eligible renewable heating system with an MCS accredited installer (like WDS Green Energy) the RHI scheme give you quarterly payments for 7 years. These payments will generally cover the cost of the installation, and then continue to deliver tax-free money to you pocket as well as big savings on your heating bill. WDS Green Energy will guide you through every stage of applying for the RHI.
The tariff rates for heat pumps from 1 January 2016 are:
| Ground source heat pump | Air source heat pump | |
| Domestic | 19.10p/kWh | 7.42p/kWh |
| Non-domestic | 8.84p/kWh | 2.54p/kWh |
Use this RHI calculator to find out what the RHI payments could be worth to you.
As well as the great financial benefits of the RHI payments, switching to a renewable heat source like a ground or air source heat pump could also save you hundreds of pounds a year on your heating bills, compared to an oil or LPG system. Heat pumps are a highly efficient way of heating your home, taking the latent heat energy of the ground or air to produce thermal energy ideal for heating or hot water.
All this, and you’ll be drastically reducing your carbon footprint. A well-designed domestic Ground Source Heat Pump system will produce 32% less CO² than a mains gas boiler, 40% less than an LPG boiler and 49% less than oil.
Further Information
Find out more about how heat pumps work and if they’d be suitable for your home or workplace.
-
Case Studies
-
Air Source Heat Pump, Newport
-
Ground Source Heat Pump, Gloucestershire
-
Solar photovoltaic (PV), Cardiff
Solar PV Feed-In Tariff drop explained – still great value for money
When the government announced a 65% reduction in the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) for solar energy, down from 12.03pkWh to 4.39p/kWh, it didn’t sound good. The Feed-In Tariff offers guaranteed cash payments for households generating their own electricity from renewable sources, such as Solar PV. The lower tariff will come into effect on 15 January and, at first glance, it looks like a big blow to the solar PV industry and users looking to save money and reduce their carbon foot print. But it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds – solar PV will still save and even make you money while you go green.
Solar PV systems deliver much of their value by saving you money on your existing electricity bill, rather than from the Feed-in Tariff. So, while the tariff has been slashed by 65%, the money you save on your bill still means that a 4kW system will return a total of around £550 a year, down from £800 under the 2015 tariff – an actual decrease of 30%.
With optimum usage of electricity in your home it’s quite possible to reach a total annual return of £800 or more. Even at £550 a year, you can expect to pay for the price of the system within 10-12 years and be making tax-free money for the remaining 8 years of the Feed-In Tariff. And even after the tariff drops off after 20 years, you’ll still be saving money on your electricity.
Find out more about how solar PV works and if it’d be suitable for your home or workplace.
Could Cardiff be sitting on an underground heating system?
WDS Green Energy is working in partnership with City of Cardiff Council and the British Geological Survey on an Innovate UK funded project which aims to show how heat within shallow groundwater under the Welsh capital can be used to provide a renewable low carbon heating source for homes and businesses in the city.
Ground source heat pumps have become increasingly common in the UK over the last 10 years, taking heat from the ground to provide heating and hot water for domestic and commercial properties at a relatively small scale. This project will investigate whether the technology could be used to support the design and implementation of a district and potentially city scale heat network in the future.
David Tucker of WDS Green Energy, said:
“As a specialist in ground source heat pump engineering, we’re looking forward to working with the City of Cardiff Council and British Geological Survey on this unique project, and demonstrating to the public the benefits of low carbon, renewable technology in an urban environment using free ground water from beneath the city.”
City of Cardiff Council Cabinet Member for Transport, Planning and Sustainability, Cllr Ramesh Patel, said:
“This project forms part of Cardiff’s energy prospectus and showcases the city’s commitment to exploring and adapting renewable energy technology to help meet the city’s growing demand for locally sourced renewable energy.”
“Schemes of this type are relatively unheard of in the UK but similar technology has been successfully used in Norway, taking water from local fjords as a source and using it to generate annual savings of around €2 million and 1.5 million tonnes of carbon – that’s the equivalent of taking 300,000 cars off the roads.”
“Figures like that clearly warrant further investigation and this project will allow us to do just that. If successful the project will represent a step-change in the UK renewable energy market and will help directly address the challenges of Carbon reduction, energy security and fuel costs.”
Project background
Temperature monitoring of the shallow groundwater in Cardiff using a city-wide array of boreholes has showed the groundwater to be around 14˚C in April when the ground is at its coldest, this is some 2 ˚C warmer than expected in a non-urban area. Heat lost from buildings, sewers and other underground infrastructure contributes to these elevated temperatures and contributed to the ‘Urban Heat Island’ effect. With the groundwater in Cardiff lying only 3 to 4m below the ground surface, abstraction of the shallow water for use by ground source heat pumps can become a more cost effective solution, compared to drilling many deep boreholes, for delivering heat to individual buildings and to district and city-scale urban heat networks.
Ground Source Heat Pump
To contribute to ‘proof of concept’ for urban groundwater heat capture and storage, a Nursery School in the Grangetown suburb of Cardiff has been retrofitted with an experimental heat pump system. Groundwater is pumped from one 20 deep borehole and passed through a heat exchanger. With only 2˚C removed by the heat pump system the spent water is then returned to the aquifer via a second re-injection borehole in an ‘open loop’ format. This demonstration trial has improved confidence in this low-carbon energy technology.
Project research
Renewable energy is critical to the long-term energy needs of the nation and the City of Cardiff Council is taking a lead in the investigation of new systems for the benefit of all residents under the Government’s energy trilemma objectives of reducing carbon emissions, improving security of supply and reducing costs.
To improve GSHP system design the BGS has developed a 3D computer model of the shallow geology beneath the city using historic borehole records. This model, along with constant monitoring, is enabling prediction of ground conditions in the top 50m, and can be used to simulate the long- term sustainability of up-scaling open loop heat pump technology to supply heat networks at the city scale.
Solar PV Panel Prices Set to Increase
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Renewable Heat Incentive Early Tariff Review
Details of the Renewable Heat Incentive Early Tariff Review have been announced which propose to increase the rates for all
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