How to Take Advantage Of The Current Heat Pump Grants Before They Disappear?
Contents:
1. What heat pump grants are available?
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) supports the decarbonisation of heat in buildings. It provides upfront capital grants to support the installation of heat pumps and biomass boilers in homes and non-domestic buildings in England and Wales.
Availability: England and Wales
Funding Available: £7,500 towards the cost and installation of an air source heat pump
There are a number of local heat pump grants available from local councils. Adlår tries to stay on top of these grants and share them with our customers, but we also recommend you contact your local council and see what extra funding is available.
Local governments have targets to achieve on emissions and are making money available for this purpose.
See below for an example from Hampshire.
An example of one of these grants is: The Energy Saving Trust (EST) Redress Grant:
Availability: Householders living in the Winchester and Petersfield area in Hampshire
Funding available: No single homeowner will be eligible for more than £10,000 for grant funding support.
- Heat pump essential enabling works e.g. radiator upgrades, rewires approved on a case by case basis – £1,000 or max 50% of the cost of the work
2. How much is available?
Acting on behalf of property owners, installers can apply for:
- £5000 off the cost and installation of an air source heat pump
- £5000 off the cost and installation of a biomass boiler
- £6000 off the cost and installation of a ground source heat pump, including water source heat pumps
3. When do the heat pump grants end?
The grant will end when the finance runs out or the allocated period of three years since the start date in April 2022, thus ending March 2025.
4. What is the total money allocated by the government?
£450 million of heat pump grant funding is available. This equates to ONLY 90,000 homes if all are installed with an air source heat pump or ONLY 75,000 homes if all installed with a ground source heat pump.
As of June 2023, 344 applications have been made for ground source heat pumps and 12,570 for the other forms. This means £63,056,400 has been applied for, leaving only £387 million remaining.
5. What does Adlår arrange for me?
Adlår arranges everything on your behalf.
- Adlår’s installers are MCS accredited
- We check your eligibility
- We do a detailed site survey under MCS guidelines
- We apply for your MCS BUS Scheme for you
- We certify and get you your £7,500
6. How to check my eligibility?
Apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Check if you’re eligible – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
You’re eligible for a grant if all the following are true. You must:
- own the property you’re applying for (including if it’s a business, a second home, or a property you rent out to tenants)
- have installed (or plan to install) your new heating system on or after 1 April 2022
- be replacing fossil fuel heating systems (such as oil, gas or electric)
You’re still eligible if you’ve already had funding to make your property more energy efficient, for example by insulating it.
Apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Check if you’re eligible – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Your property must have a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) with no outstanding recommendations for loft or cavity wall insulation.
Find out what to do if your property has recommendations for loft or cavity wall insulation.
If you’re not sure whether your property is suitable for a low carbon heating system, speak to an MCS certified installer (Adlår). They can tell you about your options.
Apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Check if you’re eligible – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
You cannot get a grant for:
- most new build properties
- social housing
- a property that’s already been given government funding or support for a heat pump or biomass boiler
- To replace a low carbon heating system.
Apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Get help – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
You can also contact Ofgem if you need help with the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
Ofgem
BUS.enquiry@ofgem.gov.uk
Telephone: 0330 053 2006
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30am to 4:30pm
Wednesday, 9:30am to 12:30pm
Friday, 9:30am to 4pm
7. Other checks?
You must have property rights to outdoor space at your property either on the:
- Ground floor (1m away from the property boundary);
- Wall space (on the ground floor if it will face a public highway, or any suitable wall facing away from a public highway);
- Flat roof (with 1m space to the edge of the roof) to place the pump?
*Dimensions required: 1,100 * 445 * 850 (L*D*H)
If your house is within a Conservation Area or World Heritage Site we cannot install the pump on a wall or roof facing a public highway. You must therefore have space not facing a highway.
Only your first ASHP is covered under permitted development. The heat pump must also be replacing an existing fossil fuel based system.
Permitted development does not apply for Listed Buildings or within a site designated as a Scheduled Monument.
If your EPC isn’t up-to-date we have partner companies who will survey your house and update your certificate. We make all the arrangements.
The only requirement is that the EPC doesn’t recommend you update your cavity wall or roof need insulation. Again, if it does, we can arrange this for you as well.
We recommend you check with the following parties before installing your ASHP
- The property owner
- Your mortgage provider
- Your mortgage provider may subsidise the cost of installation for you.
- Insurance provider
- Local planning authorities if your property falls under either of these categories:
- Listed building
- Conservation area
8. What other financial benefits can I get?
The other financial benefit you could receive from a heat pump is lower energy costs. To understand your specific home’s potential saving, we recommend you take our online simulation survey to get a detailed understanding of this.
Heat Pump Quote and Performance Simulation
Heat Pump Costs | Savings, Payback, Investment
A WWF report, in conjunction with Scottish Power (Better Homes, Cooler Planet) has shown a heat pump could add between 1.7% and 3.0% to the value of your home, or £5,015 (1.7%) to £8,850 (3.0%) based on the Office of National Statistics UK average house price of £295,000 in November 2022.
The Better Homes, Cooler Planet report also estimated that by installing a heat pump in your home you could reduce your heating costs by around 37%. or £1,290.90 on average.
The report also highlighted a heat pump outperforming other forms of renewables, such as electric vehicle charging or solar panels.
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According to Knight Frank’s Property Market Insights, improving your EPC rating can improve your home value by a further 20%.
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Additionally, as Adlår’s heat pumps can facilitate cooling, your property value could increase by as much as 2.5%.
Any work we do to get your home ready for a heat pump, including radiators, underfloor heating, insulation, fittings and fixtures, are all covered under the heat pump energy-saving material and heat equipment VAT exemption.
This means all this work can be reduced in cost by 20%.
9. Learn about the Boiler Upgrade Scheme:
From May 2022 the government launched the BUS Scheme. It is a three-year scheme with £450 million available, with the aim to hand out 30,000 grants per year.
Using data from MCS, the body in charge of the program, the scheme is currently far behind targets. The government grant gives roughly 50% of the cost, and combined with a cost of energy crisis this scheme should much more popular.
From our position, the core reasons for this are:
- Lack of publicity: The government hasn’t publicised the scheme nearly enough. There are finally now talks of a nationwide media campaign, but we are still yet to see this.
- Installers: we are also experiencing a shortage in skilled craftsmen. Getting to the government targets requires a lot more people are trained in this technology and to do this to the right standard takes time.
- The cost of living crisis: during tough times it is hard to want to invest in new heating systems. Planning ahead is very hard when the day-to-day is difficult enough. We understand this at Adlår and offer payment schedules and walk you through your payback periods to understand if it is right for you.
- Lobbying: unfortunately there is still a lot of lobbying by traditional gas boiler companies. Some of this is legitimate concern over their businesses, as they face difficult decisions about the future of employees and infrastructure invested in gas boilers. Regardless of this the gas boiler lobby is a strong one, and is definitely slowing down the adoption of heat pumps.
Comparing data from the EHPA, we can see the UK is quite far behind our cousins across the pond.
Heat pumps per 100,000 people:
- Norway – 29,745 heat pumps. With only a £1,100 grant the key to Norway’s success is information and a coordinated government push to renewables.
- Finland – 24,159 heat pumps. Finland installed 196,000 heat pumps in 2022, double from 2 years previously. This reduced greenhouse gas emissions by over 2 million tonnes.
- Sweden – 22,727 heat pumps.
The good news is Adlår comes out of Sweden and Holland, we use knowledge we obtained operating there in the UK. We’re investing in the UK because we believe the UK will become a leading nation in heat pumps.
The government wants to reach 600,000 installations by 2028, and we hope to help in achieving this.
Gas boilers will be banned in new builds from 2025, meaning all properties built after 2025 will not be allowed to fit gas boilers.
It will also apply to people replacing their old gas boilers. The natural choice for doing this will be heat pumps.
This move forms part of the government strategy on clean air and their heat and building strategy.
The UK government is committed to reducing carbon emissions and achieving net zero by 2050. Low carbon alternatives such as heat pumps are therefore going to be heavily promoted and gas boilers restricted in order to achieve this.
The UK government has committed to net zero by 2050.
Read more about the government strategies:
Adlår Castra
Our mission is to accelerate the transition to renewable energy by making it affordable for households in Western Europe. We understand that the transition to renewable energy is crucial for the future of our planet and we believe that everyone should have access to affordable and sustainable energy solutions.
That is why we offer a range of high-quality and cost-effective heat pumps designed to help households reduce their CO2 emissions and save money on their energy bills. We are committed to providing our customers with the best possible service and support, and we are determined to help them make the switch to renewable energy as easy and seamless as possible.
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