77. Revolution at Farlands...



No, we have not opened our doors to the great unwashed.

But, we have got RHI! The greatest (financial) risk of the whole project has been whether we would get it. We have and that could be worth £50 000 over the 20 years of the scheme.

A little detail? (Rhetorical I am afraid to anyone who knows me.) The Renewable Heat Incentive is the government's subsidy scheme similar to FIT (Feed in Tariffs; for electrical generation via solar energy). RHI concerns heat energy and can be generated in a number of (renewable) ways; including wind, solar, hydro, heat pumps and biomass (wood). We have a wood pellet boiler so we are eligible.

The RHI scheme is not yet open for domestic customers (it soon will be), but we are considered a district installation (ie non-domestic) as our one boiler feeds two council tax properties (ie our House and our Cottage). So we are eligible now.

Scores on the doors? The government will pay us 8.3p for every KW hour that we generate. Up to a yearly maximum; as we have a 25 KW boiler our maximum is 32 850 KW hours. So 8.3p x 32 850 is £2726. Pellets cost 4.2p a KW hour (approx) so taking pellet purchase away, that still leaves £1347. A year for 20 years. Not bad!

And paradoxically it means that it is more cost-effective for us to have our heating on, not off! And this is the revolution - Farlands has almost overnight gone from being cold and wet to almost tropical. Please imagine me writing this in shirt-sleeves, sipping a Pina Colada.

Of course, the reason for the generous subsidy is that the boiler cost a lot of money, and no-one would invest in it if there was not a generous subsidy.

If you want to know more, see http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/e-serve/RHI/Pages/RHI.aspx

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