For Martin, the true believing, and in fact the solar business, came well before the industry-approval. "I used to see MCS certification as a little pointless" he says. "You had to qualify at great expense, so that purchasers were eligible for £200 grant" from the government's now-defunct Low Carbon Buildings Programme. "Most people added the cost of certification straight back onto their work, so work by MCS installers was more expensive, and consumers got no greater protection."
Now, the Renewable Heat Incentive is imminent, and this is expected to reward purchasers for each KWh of heat they produce, in a similar way to the feed-in tariff for solar PV and small-scale wind.
In some ways solar water heating is more effective than solar PV. The power ratio - energy out for each unit of energy in - is better than solar PV. Solar thermal equipment is very low carbon to produce, so you make back the carbon cost in next-to-no-time. But heat is less valuable a commodity than electricity - you can't move it around, or send it back to the grid, and gas is cheaper per unit of energy than electricity. Whether it will stay cheap is another matter. And for folks off the gas main and relying on oil, who knows what will happen as the economy picks up (in Germany and the developing world - not here, no worry on that score right now) and oil prices sharply crunch upward.
So right now, we are waiting to see what form the incentive will take. All we know is that there will be one. And it will apply to installations that you take out now. So contact Martin on 01665 604310 if you are interested today. He's likely to be busier soon.
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