ErP is here so what changes will it bring

The simple answer is NONE, we will be installing the same boilers and same controls we always have and homeowners will be facing the same energy costs as they did before ErP, it is absolute nonsense for anyone to claim the ErP will reduce homeowners bills.

Some of the figures that get banded about, 30%, 40% energy savings are in my opinion just blatant lies, a modulating pump and some extra controls will not reduce your running costs by 40%, running your heating at a lower room temperatures and improving your homes insulation levels will do far more to save on energy bills than expensive controls or a new boiler and just because a boiler now has a label saying it is A rated, (which they have been for 10 years, or have we been lied to) will not make any difference to energy costs.

We now have to complete a Fiche if we install a boiler and controls, or add solar etc, the Fiche is to give an energy rating to the "system", although it takes no notice of the, heat loss,  heat emitters, or the insulation levels of the property, so I fail to see how it can be energy rating the system, but lets ignore that for now, what is the actual benefit to rating the system A or A+ well we would be told fuel savings, but how much? will the extra costs of controls that can move the system from A to A+ be worth the additional capital outlay by the homeowner, I am not so sure.

As installers the main thing we need to be aware of when deciding on controls is, if you want to make the system A+ and you are using external controls, not the manufacturers controls, then these controls MUST communicate with the boiler to control its modulation and temperature and this is not possible with all boilers, lets take Honeywell for example, only because they are one of the main control manufacturers installers use, now they have the Evohome system, quite a nice system, if as the homeowner you want to control your rooms or zones at different temperatures and times, now it is been said that adding the Evohome to a new boiler install will give the system rating via the Fiche an A+, well yes, BUT not quite as simple as that, wiring the Evohome as most have up to now, using the switch live from the wireless relay box to the boiler WILL NOT make the system A+, as this is just switching the boiler ON & OFF, to achieve A+ the Evohome has to communicate directly with the boiler, to do this you have to use the communication protocol Honeywell uses, which is Opentherm, this is a very good system, but unfortunately quite a lot of boilers don't have Opentherm in their boilers, so you would have to ensure that the boiler you are installing has the Opentherm capability built in, you then need the Honeywell Opentherm bridge and when connected the Evohome now modulates the boiler based on the demands from the zones, and so becomes the boiler control, this will be the same with any other control you use, to get the control to the class that allows you to move the system to an A+ it does not matter how smart the controller says it is, it has to be connected to the boiler correctly to use it in the higher Class rating.

Moving into the control Classes, we have even more nonsense from what I can see and what I have heard, the classification of some controls make no sense, in case you are not familiar with the classification of the controls, we have Class 1 - Class 8 each class takes the controls ability to function with the boiler to reduce energy consumption, Class 1 would be your standard on/off room stat and class 8 would be the Honeywell Evohome with Opentherm communication with the boiler and 3 or more zones. The classes add a % of efficiency, so controls in Class 1 are said to add 1% to the efficiency, Class 2 add 2%, Class 3 adds 1.5%, Class 4 adds 2%, Class 5 adds 3%, Class 6 adds 4%, Class 7 adds 3.5% and Class 8 adds 5%, now to get your boiler from A to A+ the only classes of controls that will do this are  6,7 & 8, but the difference in what these controls do is huge, so it is quite unfair that they achieve the same Energy rating via the Fiche. Now weather compensation on its own is not permitted and actually contravenes UK building regulations, it must have an internal temperature sensor as well, but if we take this type of control, when added to a boiler with an efficiency sufficiently rated so when the % of control efficiency is added takes it high enough to make the system rating via the Fiche A+, but what about zoning, once you start zoning you lose 100% weather compensation, boiler manufacturers will start pushing their own controls, but these tend to be weather compensation with internal sensor but if the property is over 150m2 it has to be zoned under Building Regulations, so what happens to the controls when zoning is added, will this effect that Class of the controller via the ErP, because at the end of the day, we as the installers will be the ones taking the responsibility, but we will only be adding data supplied by others

How exactly will the ErP be policed, or will it be the usual, installers who comply, as they want to do things right and installers who ignore it and just don't care, just want the money and go, and we will I am sure get those who give a system label showing A+ or even A++ when the system is not actually in that bracket, as you can put anything into the ErP tools I have seen on manufacturers websites, you don't have to be registered to use the tools

Gas Safety Week?????

Well as I write this it is one day until Gas Safety Week 2015, I'm a little confused by this, as all the installers I know have a Gas Safety Week, every week, 52 weeks of the year, we don't just have one week of promoting Gas Safety.

It seems to be a scheme where us the little installer are overshadowed yet again by the usual do gooders, MP's and those who jump on any bandwagon that comes along, so they can fill themselves with their own self importance and pretend they give a s*@t, then when the ability to self promote has gone they disappear, never to be heard from again until its time to jump on the next bandwagon.

I am all for supporting Gas Safety, but we do that all year round, I have previously joined the Gas Safety Week in the past, but I refuse now, don't get me wrong I am not complaining about Gas Safe, I don't have a problem with having to be a registered gas installer, I do have issues with the ACS scheme, but thats another Blog.

It was pointed out to me by a fellow installer on Twitter, that B&Q have jumped on the Gas Safe Week band Wagon, B&Q???? Really? a DIY store that sells gas products to the unqualified, I'm sorry, but I think Gas Safe should NOT permit the likes of B&Q to promote themselves via Gas Safe, its a kick in the teeth for all us installers who have to be qualified and pay to allow us to work on gas, whereas B&Q sell gas products to anyone and everyone, untrained and unqualified regardless, it makes a mockery of the whole Gas Safe scheme.

If Gas Safety Week was just about promoting Gas Safe Registered installers, in conjunction with manufacturers, promoting the importance of using qualified Gas Safe tradesmen, then it would get my support, but when it permits a DIY chain to promote themselves on the back of all us Gas Safe installers, then sorry, its not for me
  

ErP is Flawed

ErP is nearly upon us and now we have more information at our hands in my opinion it is flawed

If we install a gas boiler the boiler will come with a label and with condensing boilers this label will give a rating of A, no change there, we have been forced to fit A rated boilers for over 10 years, not a problem as far as I am concerned, old style boilers were poor, so far so good, the problem for me is when we add controls,  we now have to complete a Fiche and rate the SYSTEM, this is where the flaw is, we are now rating the energy efficiency of the heating system, although we may just be changing the boiler and adding new controls, how do we know that the radiators are correctly sized to cover the heat loss of the rooms, how do we know the insulation levels of the property, how do we know the quality of the windows, yet we will be rating the system and producing a label telling the customer the energy rating of their system, now the two images below are miles apart and I know is a bit OTT, but to prove a point, both properties with say a gas boiler and a Honeywell Evohome control system would be given a energy efficient rating under ErP of A+ now its obvious that the igloo will not be energy efficient, but ErP does not allow for heat emitters, or insulation levels to be taken into consideration, so both will be rated A+

Now in reality we will not get such extremes, but we can get a property that requires a new boiler, well insulated with triple glazing, we fit a new boiler with quality rated controls and from the Fiche we get a system rating of A+ we could probably feel quite comfortable with that, but we could fit the exact same system to a house with poor quality insulation, single glazed windows and draughty, the Fiche would still produce a rating of A+ this is giving false information to the public and we should not be giving A+ energy efficient ratings to uninsulated or poorly insulated properties, just to tick some EU boxes, this is not how we should allow our industry to go.

Another example, I worked on a project last year, an old house in Kent built in 1921, no insulation in roof space, single pane windows, draughty external doors etc, it had heating with very old cast iron radiators, not in every room and had two hot water cylinders in different parts of the house, both uninsulated, now I worked on this project with a builder, we dug up the ground floor to put in 100mm of insulation for UFH 

We renewed all the heating system UFH on the ground and new quality radiators on the upper floors

We fitted a new centralised plant room with weather compensation controls

All windows were renewed with energy efficient double glazed windows and all external doors were changed, along with new bathrooms etc

The builder also heavily insulated the roof space, walls and anywhere he could, along with we insulated all pipes, now this is not just self promotion here, there is a point, if ErP had been around then, with the system installed and the property insulation levels and windows, along with the weather compensated controls, via the Fiche I would of happily given the customer a label rating the system A+, but on the other hand an installer could of come to the same property, changed the boiler onto the existing system, added Honeywell Evohome controls and the fiche would of still produced an label rating the efficiency of the heating system A+ this is so very wrong, ErP is flawed and needs to be stopped before it even starts at the very least the Fiche needs to have insulation levels and window type within it to produce a system label, otherwise we will have lots of mis informed members of the public and lots of false claims of efficient heating systems.

STOP ErP and get it right before launching