Launched in April 2014, the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme for the domestic market has proven to be a big success for home owner David Taylor from rural Northamptonshire.
Mr. Taylor lives in a 300-year-old four-bedroom stone cottage, which was previously heated by an oil fired boiler. He and his wife decided to upgrade and convert to a biomass boiler supplied and installed by MCS registered and Windhager trained installers Plumb-line Plumbing and Heating from Northampton. The chosen boiler was a Windhager BioWIN Exklusiv wood pellet boiler, which provides all the heating and hot water to the property.
The Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme is the first scheme of its kind in the world and is designed to give those early adopters a return on their investment of 12%. The scheme is designed to encourage individual homeowners to reduce their carbon emissions and to help UK plc. meet the very challenging target of reducing the UK’s carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.
According to reported figures within the Carbon Plan, Low Carbon Futures, switching from oil fired heating to biomass provides a reduction of four tonne of carbon for a typical UK domestic rural home. When the figures are replicated in a small percentage of homes (1 million) over the next ten years the carbon savings and consequential environmental benefits would be significant.
The current domestic RHI payments for biomass are set at 12.2 pence per kWh of renewable heat generated with eligible participants receiving money-back for installing and running a biomass heating systems. In addition fuel savings in excess of £1,000 per annum are not uncommon, particularly in rural properties previously heated by oil, LPG or electricity.
“We’re thrilled to have received our first quarterly RHI payment following the installation of our new biomass boiler. The additional benefit to this conversion is the significant reduction we have seen in the amount we are spending on our heating. The conversion to a biomass boiler was very quick and easy and Plumb-line made the whole process incredibly simple for us,” commented David Taylor.
The property’s old and inefficient oil boiler’s annual consumption was circa 4,000ltr costing £2,400 per year. Windhager boilers are 94.4% efficient and fuelled by wood pellets, which are approximately 30% cheaper than oil.
“Our annual pellet consumption we estimate will be between six & seven tonne costing approximately £1,550 per annum giving an additional saving of £850 as well as receiving the quarterly RHI payments for the next seven years,” added Mr. Taylor.
Windhager BioWIN range of innovative pellet boilers are compact, durable and built with low maintenance requirements. Fully equipped with a high quality stainless-steel burner, LowDust technology and unique self-cleaning function, these highly efficient boilers provide long-term, hassle-free comfortable heating to all homeowners.
“The main driver in our decision to install a Windhager boiler was the high efficiency and high quality of their boilers. With my background I always look for quality and reliability and that’s what we have with the Windhager pellet boiler coupled with the great service and advice we received from Plumb-line,” he finished.
