FAQs
What heat meter readings will be required?
In principle you may have to meter both the heat produced by the installation and the heat delivered to the useful applications.
Chapter 7 of the government’s RHI announcement says
Metering of heat generated and used
The RHI regulations will describe the circumstances in which participants will be allowed to meter heat at the point of generation only and describe the circumstances where participants will be able to meter the heat generated by more than one plant using a single meter. In systems where only the heat generated is metered, heat meters will be need to be located to ensure that the contribution of the renewable plant can be calculated. Fossil fuel installations on the system do not need to be metered, but their generation must be kept separate for metering purposes from the generation of each metered renewable heat installation. Where different renewable technologies are installed (for instance biomass boilers and heat pumps), separate meters will be required to determine the heat generated by each renewable technologies. Where additional capacity is added to a heating system later, participants will have to meter the additional capacity separately from the originally installed capacity.
Participants using heat pumps to provide both heating and cooling will need to ensure that their metering arrangement does not count any cooling generated by the reverse operation of the heat pump. Participants will need to measure the eligible renewable heat generated, and provide the appropriate cumulative meter reading(s) to Ofgem. They may also need to provide an explanation of how their metering arrangement has enabled this figure to be calculated.
Where additional meters are required for the RHI, all generating installations feeding heat into the heating system (including fossil fuel plants) will need to be metered. Participants will be required to meter the proportion of heat used for space, water or process heating to ensure that payments are not made for heat that is wasted or ineligible for RHI support.