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Posts in 2025

  • Half of UK homes need to have heat pumps by 2040

    Wednesday, February 26, 2025

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    Heat pumps are in the UK mainstream news today  as the country’s independent climate advisors, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), present their new pathway to a decarbonised UK . The CCC’s pathway sets out a model to reduce …

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Posts in 2024

  • F-gas scheme charge proposal

    Thursday, December 19, 2024

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    The Environment Agency (EA) has announced a consultation  on a proposal to charge users in order to meet the costs of administering the F-gas scheme. It would like to introduce the charges in April 2025. Up until now the cost of these services …

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  • Majority of homes are suitable for ASHPs

    Tuesday, September 24, 2024

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    Nesta  is a British foundation, registered as a charity, which supports innovation. Their initial research into the kinds of heating technologies that are suitable for neighbourhoods across England and Wales  shows that ‘… …

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  • More F-gas fines - including some big names

    Saturday, August 17, 2024

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    On the 16 August, the Environment Agency released details  of the £2.2 million civil penalties it has issued for F-gas regulation infringements over the period of February 2023 and August 2024. These included 11 fines totalling over £1m to an …

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  • Small business scams

    Wednesday, June 19, 2024

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    As part of being a small business, receiving calls and tests from companies saying they can ‘boost’ your business is par for the course. You simply have to do the analysis and decide if you’re interested. It’s usually a …

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  • British Gas cheap heat pump tariff - is there a catch?

    Friday, May 17, 2024

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    There’s quite a lot of ’noise’ in the industry news about British Gas introducing a heat pump electricity tariff at just 14p/kWh. At Checkmark we were quite excited - with a 4:1 efficiency on a heat pump that would bring the …

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  • Update to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme

    Wednesday, May 08, 2024

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    The changes the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in March 2024  have come into effect today, 8 May 2024. The changes include: Homeowners will no longer have to install cavity wall or loft …

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  • Can heat pumps only be installed by an MCS approved installer?

    Sunday, March 17, 2024

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    This post isn’t about Checkmark’s core market (helping keen DIYers to install an air-to-air mini-split air conditioner or heat pump in their home office, workshop, kitchen etc.). Instead, it’s about a misunderstanding that I often …

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  • Heat pumps with up to A+++ energy rating

    Thursday, March 07, 2024

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    Swedish company FläktGroup  has announced a new heat pump range which has a SCOP of up to 4.76. That’s incredibly efficient - 4.76kW of heat for 1kW of electricity. FläktGroup’s FGAH-AH models  are reversible air-to-water heat …

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  • Possible planning rule changes

    Wednesday, February 14, 2024

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    A new UK Government consultation on permitted development rights  was issued on 13 February 2024. The consultation seeks views on potential changes to several existing permitted development rights including those for electric vehicle charge …

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