The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Renewables => Topic started by: oor wullie on August 12, 2016, 02:26:42 pm
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So, in order to claim RHI for my small log boiler we have to use BSL certified logs.
I partially use wood from my own land and so am registered with BSL as a self supplier. I also occasionally (once every couple of years) buy logs direct out of a local forest and so have had to register as a firewood trader. It is not that onerous, it is just for my own use and I only use a total of 3tons a year for all my heating and hot water.
No problems so far....
Got an email the other day from BSL to say that now that DECC has been abolished (a strong signal that this government doesn't care about the environment) they are to be self funding - ie they are going to charge fees to everyone who is registered.
Now that might be insignificant for the business that supplies 50,000 tons a year, or even for a wee business that supplies 500tons of logs a year but I am not a business and I am only using 3tons a year, this fee will account for a significant proportion of my RHI payment. In effect I will be paying £30-35 per ton just to burn my own wood discouraging me from using home sourced fuel and pushing me towards buying it in from elsewhere, which is surely less good for the environment.
It seems that the government wants to hear everything for (big) businesses and forgets about actual people.
Glad that's off my chest...........
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Crazy. Is the compliance onerous or can you just lie about where you get your logs from? Seems a white lie in the circumstances would be the moral thing to do...
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Oor Wullie, you're what's known as an 'outlier' in the data, so I'm afraid nobody in government cares about you :-[ (very sorry!) ::) That's what worries me about these long term schemes TBH - there's too much temptation for the government to move the goalposts after folks like you and I have already committed to them.
Presumably there are many others in the same boat? Have you checked the green energy / green building forums to see what the chat is over there?
If you think things are bizarre here though, check out the mess they've made with it in Northern Ireland! (http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/farmer-gets-1m-of-public-cash-to-heat-empty-shed-catastrophic-blunder-threatening-to-drain-hundreds-of-millions-from-northern-irelands-block-grant-34856610.html)! >:(
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The reporting is not onerous at all but if I don't have my own BSL certification I have to show that I have bought logs from a certified dealer (which in itself makes some sense as doubtless someone would be cutting down Virgin rain forests to ship across the world just to burn).
Thinking about it I might be best stockpiling the next 5 yrs worth of fuel, declaring it on my BSL account then closing the account. Then I would have enough certified fuel to last me 'till the end of the RHI scheme and wouldn't have to pay the recurring fees.
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As you're such a small wood user you may also find that you can claim an exemption from the register and have a certificated number to prove it for the rest of your forms . If you haven't already done it .... it's worth checking it out to see if such a beast exists .
Five years worth of wood .... ?
:idea: ;) Don't make your wood pile too big , lest some nerdy type gets a Site of Special Scientific Interests or some other preservation type of order on it that prevents you from using it ..
ie A nesting site for bats or hedgehogs breeding area. :roflanim: