As the biomass heating industry cautiously welcomes the recent reprieve of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), Rural Energy has launched a handy online tool to help users quickly calculate the expected return on their RHI projects.
Hosted on the newly-updated Rural Energy website, the non-domestic RHI Calculator provides a quick reference guide to expected savings and payback periods – as well as estimating the cumulative cash flow throughout the RHI period.
The calculator allows users to select the size of boiler, the expected usage level, the fuel type (ie woodchip or wood pellets) and the current fuel, such as gas, oil, LPG or electricity. The cost of the project is also selected using a simple slider tab.
This information is then used to estimate the payback period, the net cash benefit over 20 years and the internal rate of return – all calculated instantly at the click of a button.
Paul Clark, managing director at Rural Energy, said: “We were pleased to welcome the news that the RHI is set to continue beyond its initial end date of March 2016, which was announced in Chancellor George Osborne’s Comprehensive Spending Review at the end of last year.
“The RHI makes accessing biomass energy simpler and more affordable for a wide variety of large-scale applications, but it’s not always immediately clear what the cost implications and savings might be.
“Our aim with the RHI Calculator was to create a handy reference tool that could give a quick insight into these questions – but of course there’s no substitute for proper professional advice and guidance, which we are more than happy to provide.”
