Warmer Homes Scotland - first annual review

4.0 Specification review

4.1 Overview

As part of our brief we have been asked to review a number of measures that were not fully specified when the new scheme opened. A draft specification (See Appendix 1) has been produced by the Scottish Government's previous technical support on the following measures -

• Bio-Mass Stove No Central Heating
• Ground Source Heat Pumps
• Micro Hydro Systems
• Micro Wind Systems
• Micro Combined Heat and Power

Our assessment will review these specifications and suggest refinements where deemed beneficial in terms of clarity or technical competence.

4.2 Specification Review

We have carried out the requested review of the current specifications set out for the proposed measures. These measures specified have been approved by the Micro-generation Certificate Scheme ( MCS), the measures are; Biomass Stove, Micro Combined Heat & Power, Micro Hydro, Micro Wind and Ground Source Heat Pumps. These measures are subject to the stated industry standards in terms of materials, equipment and competent installers. We cross referenced the specification provided by the Scottish Government to the up to date version of the specifications which are available on the official MCS website. We have provided a table breakdown showing the current specification used and the updated version, detailing any amendments made in updated versions in Appendix 3.

4.3 Considerations

The addition of the above measures in our opinion should be subject to a further 'demand review'. Whilst we acknowledge the importance of offering a diverse range of measures across the scheme it would be prudent to reality test the demand for such measures. It is expected that the measures identified would be subject to a significant contribution from respective homeowners. The Warmer Homes Scotland scheme is aimed at households living in fuel poverty and measures that require a significant contribution from the household may not in reality, be practical.

The 'demand review' may identify specific regions where the measures could be marketed and delivered successfully.

It is also recommended that in conjunction with the 'demand review' the Scottish Government also task Warmworks to carry out a 'supply chain review' to again determine the availability of materials, equipment and competent installers across all regions.