EPC for RHI and Electricity Tarrif

[canalsiderenovation]

So we are looking ahead to moving back in the house, hopefully for Christmas. The ASHP gets commissioned on 7 December and I've got a couple of questions.

 

EPC for RHI - so I'm planning to get the cheapest one I can find online. How 'finished' does the house need to be? E.g. we may not have all appliances installed like tumble dryer etc. I also think the external wall insulation won't be finished til next spring (so it's probably good getting an EPC before that). The solar panels are likely to be in.

 

Electricity - in light of the ASHP/solar and an all electric house should I change our electricity tarrif? I'm currently paying 14.594p p/kWh and 13.780p daily standing charge.

[A_L]

58 minutes ago, canalsiderenovation said:

So we are looking ahead to moving back in the house

 

Since it is not a new build  it can be done 'as is' at any time. Appliances are irrelevant. There are some minimum insulation requirements but EWI is not one of them. PV panels do not affect the CH and DHW loads in an EPC.

[canalsiderenovation]

9 minutes ago, A_L said:

 

Since it is not a new build  it can be done 'as is' at any time. Appliances are irrelevant. There are some minimum insulation requirements but EWI is not one of them. PV panels do not affect the CH and DHW loads in an EPC.

 

Brilliant, I mean the structural work is done so I'm presuming this will be OK for the RHI, as in it's not going to change the floor space now where pre extension it was half the size.

Edited November 16, 2020 by canalsiderenovation

[joth]

3 hours ago, canalsiderenovation said:

. I also think the external wall insulation won't be finished til next spring (so it's probably good getting an EPC before that)

 

Your point here being you want the worst rating of EPC permissible to maximize the RHI payments, per this ?

I believe the snag with that is you need to validate your RHI claim annually, and every time you need to confirm that no material changes have been made to your property that would alter the EPC rating. Now, I'm sure an awful lot of people forget  to declare some changes made, but thought I'd flag the wrinkle in the system. (This is one reason why on paper getting £5k in the GHG is preferable to getting that much RHI, as it does not come with the same strings attached, AFAIK. Like "no cooling" requirements.  Snag is GHG is a mythical beast that will probably never arrive at all....)

 

[canalsiderenovation]

11 minutes ago, joth said:

 

Your point here being you want the worst rating of EPC permissible to maximize the RHI payments, per this ?

I believe the snag with that is you need to validate your RHI claim annually, and every time you need to confirm that no material changes have been made to your property that would alter the EPC rating. Now, I'm sure an awful lot of people forget  to declare some changes made, but thought I'd flag the wrinkle in the system. (This is one reason why on paper getting £5k in the GHG is preferable to getting that much RHI, as it does not come with the same strings attached, AFAIK. Like "no cooling" requirements.  Snag is GHG is a mythical beast that will probably never arrive at all....)

 

 

Oh blast, this RHI system is so flawed.

[J1mbo]

Cooling is allowed, but needs metering. The annual reporting requirements are here:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/key-term-explained/annual-declarations

[joth]

6 minutes ago, J1mbo said:

Cooling is allowed, but needs metering. The annual reporting requirements are here:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/key-term-explained/annual-declarations

Indeed - thank you for the correction, I did know this, but over abbreviated my comment on it