Overview
The Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme was designed to incentivise the uptake of renewable heat generating technologies across Great Britain. As part of this nationwide initiative, Decerna was appointed by BRE Global to provide specialist technical surveying and auditing services for a selection of domestic heat pump installations throughout northern England.
The project formed a critical component of the government’s efforts to gather real-world performance data on heat pump technologies. While the overall RHPP programme aimed to monitor 1,200 installations nationally, Decerna was contracted to support a portion of this initiative.
Outline & Objectives
Under this contract, Decerna was tasked with surveying between 25-65 domestic sites and completing audits on installations where monitoring equipment had been installed. The company conducted two key activities:
Technical Surveys
- Completed site assessments of both air source and ground source heat pump installations to determine monitoring equipment requirements
- Evaluated installation suitability against technical criteria
- Identified appropriate monitoring schematic configurations for each site
- Estimated installation timeframes for monitoring equipment
- Documented system configurations with photographic evidence
- Completed detailed checklists for quality assurance
System Audits
- Performed in-depth technical audits of installed monitoring equipment
- Diagnosed and rectified sensor location issues and system faults
- Verified correct placement of temperature sensors, flow meters and energy meters
- Corrected technical issues to ensure accurate performance data collection
- Provided comprehensive reporting of audit findings with coded documentation for trend analysis
Decerna engineers worked across diverse property types, from newly built detached homes to refurbished farmhouses, covering both rural and urban settings. The installations included a balanced mix of air source and ground source heat pumps from various manufacturers, coupled with different heating distribution systems including radiators and underfloor heating.
Outcomes
Decerna successfully completed technical surveys across multiple sites and conducted detailed audits on 14 heat pump installations (7 ground source and 7 air source systems), with key achievements including:
- Identification of common installation issues across different heat pump configurations
- Development of standardised fault-finding methodologies for monitoring equipment
- Creation of technical solutions that could be implemented with minimal disruption
- Correction of sensor placement issues to ensure accurate performance data
- Provision of valuable technical insights to improve future monitoring installations
The audit work revealed several consistent technical challenges, particularly around temperature sensor placement, which Decerna was able to rectify during site visits. This significantly improved data quality and reliability, enhancing the overall value of the monitoring programme.
The knowledge and experience gained through this project contributed to the wider understanding of heat pump performance monitoring requirements and informed subsequent renewable heat policy development. It also established Decerna as a technical leader in heat pump monitoring and auditing services.
The programme demonstrated that with proper monitoring and setup verification, heat pumps could deliver significant customer satisfaction and energy cost reductions compared to traditional fossil fuel systems, particularly in off-gas areas where oil or LPG had previously been used.
