Behind the headlines


is harder to embed best practice right across the board.


There is also a great opportu- nity for B&ES Wales/Cymru to attract wider membership from the renewables community to help embed high technical standards and financial stability – using Wales as a showcase for wider adoption across the UK.


Guarantee


There is a problem with the quality of work in the renew- ables sector as a whole. Accredi- tation under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) is no guarantee that the finished project will perform and my company is often called in to put things right after others have failed due to lack of experience and understanding.


MCS will only take you so far and we encourage companies to join B&ES because membership involves the third party Compe- tence Assessment Scheme (CAS)


that can reassure clients they are employing reputable firms. B&ES members are also backed by the association’s double guarantee insurance scheme; they are also deemed to satisfy the consumer protection Trustmark quality assurance scheme and several health & safety qualifications, via Safety Schemes in Procurement [SSiP]. The technical challenge is to make sure renewables integrate successfully with the rest of the building, conventional building engineering systems in particular. As demand increases the need for engineers to adopt a ‘whole proj- ect’ approach will be vital. Solar thermal and photo- voltaics (PV) are proving popu- lar, along with heat pumps in combination with low tempera- ture underfloor heating. The Renewable Heat Incen- tive (RHI) has had some impact on end user demand, but the re- turns on solar thermal are not


that great – it is still a 10 or 11 year payback and domestic RHI payments are only guaranteed for seven years. The customer could be better selecting PV to receive feed-in tariff payments, which are promised for 20 years, to offset their carbon emissions. Also, in a large number of proj- ects consultants forget to include heat meters in the specification so the contractor will refuse to fit them. This means the end user cannot claim RHI payments. We often raise this with the contractor because it only costs a few hundred pounds to fit the meters as the system is being in- stalled and it is much more ex- pensive to add them later. However, many will simply say if they are not included in the specification they will not be fit- ted. Ecofit will put space panels where the meters should be to make it easier for the customer to retrofit them, but it is a major oversight in the system that they


are not specified as standard. In fact, the main driver for growth in the solar thermal mar- ket – in our experience – is in new build where the client is looking to achieve a BREEAM Ex- cellent rating. Using solar to pro- duce hot water gains valuable BREEAM points because it cuts long-term running costs. Progress is being made and some excellent projects deliv- ered. However, late payment and the amount of PQQ administra- tion remain big headaches for specialist contractors and there must be no let-up in the cam- paign to improve procurement practices and the adoption of fair payment mechanisms like PBAs. The Wales government – and Mrs Hutt – deserve congratula- tions because they recognise that, without a secure supply chain, it will be hard to maintain standards in an expanding mar- ket and, in the end, everyonet will suffer.


For more information on the B&ES and its members, contact Val O’Reilly on 020 7313 4907 or email val.oreilly@b-es.org


www.b-es.org


THE COMPLETE SOLUTION


Econoplate H Series - Heat Interface Units


Solar thermal panels and vessels


Econoplate - comprehensive range of


R40 wall mounted, fully modulating, condensing boilers - 5 models range from 65 to 145KW


Econoflame 6000 and 3000, fully modulating condensing boilers - 16 models range from 142 to 1189 KW


Econopress - complete range of electronic pressurisation sets


packaged plate heat exchangers


Heatpak - totally packaged plantrooms


THE CONSULTANTS AND CONTRACTORS CHOICE. For further information or to receive a technical guide tel: 0208 783 3050 or email: info@stokvisboilers.com


www.stokvisboilers.com Daily news update at www.heatingandventilating.net HVR | October 2014 | 13 | October 2014 |


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