Gas or electric?

[wilco88]

I understand from looking into the EPC that providing you can provide evidence of installing insulation then a certificate from a company isn't necessary. That evidence (according to NRLA and the assessor I used) is Receipts for the materials and photographs of the various stages of the installation work.

Hopefully if you do go to an assessor they will do the assessment, supply you with the results but not register the assessment for the property. That is what the guy I used did and had him return when I'd completed the work.

What do you mean by "not register the assessment"?

Do you mean, he comes to see the before but does not produce the EPC report until the upgrade work has been done?

 

[Bodgedbuild]

RHI is still available in Scotland

https://www.gov.uk/domestic-renewable-heat-incentive

 

[wilco88]

RHI is still available in Scotland

https://www.gov.uk/domestic-renewable-heat-incentive

"Green deal for solid wall insulation? I'm not sure on the rules wmfor what's presumably an investment but worth a check.."

I think they are referring to grants rather than RHI, right?

 

[Bodgedbuild]

Regarding the EPC, to claim the Grant an EPC needs to be done, this is remarkably simple to arrange and most ASHP suppliers will not only do this for you but they will normally fill in and set up an account for your grant money to be paid into each quarter. As far as insulating, you are expected to carry out work where it is simple and cheap to do so such as loft insulation etc but if you cannot or the house is otherwise less efficient, you will actually get a higher grant amount as the scheme will take into account your extra heating costs.

 

[Diver Fred]

What do you mean by "not register the assessment"?

Do you mean, he comes to see the before but does not produce the EPC report until the upgrade work has been done?

The assessor comes, does the work and produces a report purely for yourself. I had that done on the first visit which proved to be most useful. Bu not registering the assessment I saved money and gained useful knowledge in being able to focus the money I had to spend on allocating the improvements with the most benefit before having a registered EPC completed. I didn't have to pay the registration fee follwing the first assessment.

 

[wilco88]

Regarding the EPC, to claim the Grant an EPC needs to be done, this is remarkably simple to arrange and most ASHP suppliers will not only do this for you but they will normally fill in and set up an account for your grant money to be paid into each quarter. As far as insulating, you are expected to carry out work where it is simple and cheap to do so such as loft insulation etc but if you cannot or the house is otherwise less efficient, you will actually get a higher grant amount as the scheme will take into account your extra heating costs.

Show me a grant that exists in Scotland that isnt for those on benefits, low income etc.....

 

[Bodgedbuild]

"Green deal for solid wall insulation? I'm not sure on the rules wmfor what's presumably an investment but worth a check.."

I think they are referring to grants rather than RHI, right?

he link I inserted was for Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive and the part that would apply to air source heating is for heat pumps because that is the type of heating we are talking about and it is that link that is applicable if you wish to install Air Source Heating and wish to claim a grant which is payable quarterly for 7 years. I'm not sure what "wmfor" relates to or why "Green deal blah blah" is relevant to this thread?

 

[Bodgedbuild]

Show me a grant that exists in Scotland that isnt for those on benefits, low income etc.....

I just did. I'm not on a low income, I had Air Source Heating installed, followed all the steps on the link I sent you and I now get a little under £800 per year paid direct into my bank account by the Government.

 

[Bodgedbuild]

I made some assumptions about your property so I went through the calculator and assumed 3 bedrooms, medium loft insulation and solid walls.....

 

[StephenOak]

Right now, electric heating creates less CO2 than gas because so little of the electricity comes from fossil fuel

I'm not sure I would call c.50% "so little".

 

[mrrusty]

Our EPC inspector accepted photos of insulation being installed.

 

[endecotp]

I'm not sure I would call c.50% "so little".

OK, “right right now” it’s cold and dark and not windy...

 

[StephenOak]

OK, “right right now” it’s cold and dark and not windy...

Who said anything about right now?

Gas is the biggest source of electricity. I have not looked at the figures recently and so I was going from memory. It is actually a less than I thought. For the whole of 2020 gas supplied 38.09% of the electricity.

Less than I said but still a lot more, IMO, than "so little".

 

[endecotp]

Who said anything about right now?

I had assumed that was where your 50% number was coming from. Right now, gas is 23 GW of 46 GW total.

still a lot more, IMO, than "so little".

My claim was that we now use so little fossil fuel in electricity generation that electric domestic heating (not heat pumps) would produce less CO2 than a gas boiler.

The threshold for that would depend on the efficiency of the gas power stations compared to gas boilers. I don’t know exactly what the threshold is.

 

[StephenOak]

I had assumed that was where your 50% number was coming from. Right now, gas is 23 GW of 46 GW total.

Assumptions, always dangerous things.

My claim was that we now use so little fossil fuel in electricity generation that electric domestic heating (not heat pumps) would produce less CO2 than a gas boiler.

Lots of variables there.
The power companies are, de facto, forced to give precedence to the unreliables, if that coercion stopped so would their purchasing.
You said FF not CO2 producers, so I excluded biomass, that is >6% ATM and I think pretty constant as the plant was not designed to vary rapidly.
When the unreliables aren't producing the use of gas goes up, in 2020 156 days it was more than 40% and 68 days more than 50%. If more electric heating is used then I would expect the amount of gas used to increase as it is common for huge swathes of the unreliables to stop at the same time so it does not matter how many are installed.