Homeowners can apply for eco-heating funding
Thursday, 21 July 2011 12:18 PM
The Government could provide homeowners across the country with up to £1,250 of government funding per household to help towards the cost of installing renewable heating systems.
A new £15 million ‘Renewable Heat Premium Payment’ scheme will open for applications on 1st August this year until March next year to support up to 25,000 installations of biomass boilers, air and ground source heat pumps and solar thermal panels.
Unvieling the plans this morning, the Department of Energy and Climate change said the scheme will focus on the four million households in Great Britain not heated by mains gas, who have to rely on expensive, high-carbon heating such as oil and electric fires.
The Premium Payment scheme will be run by the Energy Saving Trust and from today an information line and website will go live to provide people with more information.
Participants in the scheme will be asked to provide detailed feedback on their experience. This will allow the Government to gather information to better understand renewable heat technologies.
Greg Barker, Climate Change Minister, said: “Today starts a new era in home heating because we’re making it more economical for people to go green by providing discounts off the cost of eco heaters. This should be great news for people who are reliant on expensive oil or electric heating as the Premium Payment scheme is really aimed at them.
“Getting money off an eco heater will not just cut carbon emissions, it will also help create a market in developing, selling and installing kit like solar thermal panels or heat pumps.”
Specifically, grants for the following technologies will be available:
• Ground Source Heat Pump: £1,250 grant (for homes without mains gas heating)
• Biomass boiler: £950 grant (for homes without mains gas heating)
• Air source heat pump: £850 grant (for homes without mains gas heating)
• Solar thermal hot water panels: £300 grant (available to all households regardless of the type of heating system used)
To qualify to receive the funding, householders need to have basic energy efficiency measures in place.
The Department said that £3 million will be set aside for registered social landlords, with more details set to be announced soon.
Application for private residential funding opens on August 1st 2011 and grants will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Call 0800 512 012 or visit EnergySavingTrust.org.uk for more info.
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