The Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive: The Closed Heat Payment Scheme

The Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive was a government scheme that paid households in Great Britain for the renewable heat their systems produced. It opened in April 2014 and closed to new applicants at midnight on 31 March 2022¹. Payments were quarterly, ran for seven years, and were based on the estimated heat a system was expected to produce rather than on what a meter recorded, in most cases¹.

The scheme accredited 117,203 installations and generated around 10,745 GWh of heat over its life, with £93.8 million paid in Scheme Year 12, covering 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026³. Ofgem administers the scheme on behalf of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and the only applications it now accepts are those following a change of ownership¹.

For a household, the Domestic RHI was a payment for heat, not a grant towards a boiler. It rewarded the switch to a heat pump, biomass boiler or solar thermal system, but it did not remove the running costs of that system, the electricity or fuel it consumes, or the dependence on a supplier and the grid. What it did was shorten the payback period on a technology that most homes would otherwise have funded entirely themselves.

The Domestic RHI in brief: a closed scheme that paid for renewable heat

The Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive was introduced in 2014 as a financial incentive to promote renewable heat³. It was set out in legislation under the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme Regulations 2014, as amended, and it applied across Great Britain: England, Scotland and Wales⁴. Northern Ireland was not covered by the scheme, and households there had no equivalent domestic renewable heat tariff.

The scheme was extended by two years at one point, and the domestic RHI was due to close in March 2022¹. It closed to new applications on 31 March 2022, and the government named the Boiler Upgrade Scheme as its successor⁷. The non-domestic RHI, which served businesses and larger installations, had already closed to new applicants at midnight on 31 March 2021⁹.

The distinction matters for anyone searching for the scheme today. The Domestic RHI is not dormant: it still has active participants receiving payments, and Ofgem continues to administer accreditations, audits and change of ownership applications⁴. What has ended is the ability to join it. The scheme's own closure guidance states the position plainly: "Only applications following a change of ownership can be made now that the scheme has closed."¹

For a household's energy independence, the scheme's legacy is a stock of homes with heat pumps, biomass boilers and solar thermal systems that were installed with a subsidy attached. Those systems still run, and the households that own them still depend on electricity, fuel deliveries or the grid to operate them. The RHI paid for the heat; it did not make the home self-sufficient.

What the scheme paid and how: quarterly payments for seven years

Payments were made every three months for up to seven years, described in the scheme rules as the tariff lifetime, running from the application date². The seven-year period is consistent across the scheme's documentation: participants received quarterly payments over seven years for the clean, green, renewable heat their systems produced¹.

The basis of payment varied by technology. For most installations, payments were based on the annual heat demand of the property, taken from its Energy Performance Certificate². Solar thermal was the exception, paid on the Estimated Annual Heat Generation found on the MCS certificate². Installations metered for payment were paid on meter readings instead².

Tariff rates were set by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and once an accreditation was granted the tariff rate was secured². It changed each year in line with inflation but never decreased⁴. The index used depended on when the application was submitted: applications before 1 April 2016 were adjusted by the Retail Prices Index, and applications on or after that date by the Consumer Prices Index⁴.

The first payment arrived three months after the date of application, and payments accrued from the date Ofgem received the complete application². That date also fixed the tariff rate¹⁴. The scheme was funded from general taxation, along with Ofgem's audit and compliance programme⁴.

Eligibility and the MCS certification requirement

Eligibility rested on certification as much as on technology. A renewable heating system had to be issued with an MCS certificate by the installer, and certificates could only be issued for systems using an MCS certified product⁷. The technology had to be installed and commissioned by an MCS certified installer able to provide that certificate⁸.

The Microgeneration Certification Scheme was a requirement for heat pump installations made under the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive, the Green Homes Grant and the Clean Heat Grant¹⁵. The same certification principle carried into later schemes: the Warm Homes: Local Grant requires MCS certification for low carbon heating measures, with the exception of high heat retention storage heaters covered by PAS 2030¹⁶.

The scheme was available to any household off and on the gas grid that could meet the eligibility criteria, so a mains gas connection was not a bar⁸. Applicants had to own the renewable heating system at the application stage and throughout their Domestic RHI membership¹³. They also had to complete the application themselves: third parties such as installers were not permitted to complete it on their behalf, because applicants had to make declarations and understand their ongoing obligations¹⁴.

The application window depended on commissioning date. Installations commissioned before 1 March 2019 had one year from the commissioning date shown on the MCS certificate to submit an application¹³. Installations commissioned on or after 1 March 2019 could apply at any time before the scheme closed at midnight at the end of 31 March 2022¹³.

Metering: when deemed payments end and meters begin

Most Domestic RHI participants were paid on a deemed basis, meaning payments followed the estimated heat demand of the property rather than a meter². Metering for payment changed that. If certain circumstances changed during an accreditation, a participant might need to install meters to carry on receiving payments⁶.

The triggers are specific. Metering could be required where a separate installation provides heat to the property, where the installation combines a heat pump with a fossil-fuel system, where a biomass installation's capacity does not provide 100% of the property's space heating requirement, or where the property has been occupied for less than 183 days in the last 12 months⁶.

Some installations were excluded from metering. Solar thermal is excluded, as are systems designed and installed to heat only one room, such as a fireplace or plug-in heater, or those in a partition wall radiating heat directly to two rooms⁶. Systems generating heat only for domestic hot water, such as an immersion heater, are excluded, as are supplementary electric heaters controlled by the same control system as the installation, another installation of the same technology type commissioned by the installer on the same date, and systems that capture heat expelled from the property and transfer it back without generating additional heat⁶.

Once metered, the position is permanent. Ofgem states: "Once you are required to install metering for payment, you cannot return to being deemed for payment."⁶ Metered installations are paid on the renewable heat produced, up to the annual heat demand on the EPC or the relevant heat demand limit, whichever is lower¹⁴. Restarted payments are not backdated¹⁴.

Ongoing obligations for existing participants

Accreditation carried duties that continued for the full seven years. Participants must complete and submit an annual declaration every year, confirming they continue to meet the ongoing obligations⁴. To ensure payments are not suspended, the declaration must be submitted within 28 days¹³. If a participant is unable to meet any obligation, Ofgem must be told within 28 days⁴.

Ofgem may carry out an audit of the property and installation to check compliance with ongoing obligations and eligibility criteria⁴. In Scheme Year 11, Ofgem reported a statistical desk audit compliance rate of 85.04%⁴. The scheme's compliance work prevented £578,530 of public funds from being paid out incorrectly in that year, and a further £591,609 was identified for recovery through the debt recovery process⁴. Ofgem reported safeguarding over £1.17 million of public funds during the scheme year⁴.

Participants with biomass technologies must use fuel that meets specific sustainability requirements, a condition applying to existing and new participants since 2015¹. Participants are also advised to retain all documentation for the duration of the scheme, a point Ofgem made when the non-domestic scheme closed¹⁷.

The scheme had over 60,000 participants still accredited as of the 2023 to 2024 annual report¹². There have been no new accreditations since Scheme Year 9, and the one outstanding application from the last scheme year has been resolved and accredited⁴. Ofgem's customer service team handles queries on 0300 003 0744 or by email at domesticrhi@ofgem.gov.uk⁴.

How the scheme performed: installations, heat generated and payments

The Domestic RHI accredited 117,203 installations and generated around 10,745 GWh of heat since the scheme began in 2014³. Ofgem's Scheme Year 11 report put lifetime heat generation at over 10,121.7 GWh, with 10.1 TWh estimated heat generation in domestic properties since 2014⁴. The two figures come from different reporting dates and different annual reports, and they disagree; the later figure of around 10,745 GWh reflects an additional year of generation.

Payments followed the same pattern. Lifetime support reached almost £1.2 billion since the scheme began in 2014, with almost £106.2 million paid in Scheme Year 11⁴. The Scheme Year 12 figure was £93.8 million³. Ofgem's earlier blog on the Boiler Upgrade Scheme cited over 110,281 installations accredited and £819.3m paid to consumers, a figure overtaken by later reporting¹⁸.

The technology split is uneven. Across the scheme's lifetime, air source heat pumps received £442,272,047 (38.0% of payments), biomass £358,872,897 (30.8%), ground source heat pumps £342,592,524 (29.4%) and solar thermal £19,776,937 (1.7%), totalling £1,163,514,406⁴. Heat generation followed a similar order: air source heat pumps 4,829 GWh (47.7%), biomass 3,498 GWh (34.6%), ground source heat pumps 1,692 GWh (16.7%) and solar thermal 103 GWh (1.0%)⁴.

The scheme replaced fossil fuel heating at scale. A total of 78,553 boilers using fossil fuels were replaced by lower carbon alternatives under the scheme⁴. Boilers accounted for just over half of total accreditations at 82,000, or 52.0%, and 95.8% of those replaced boilers used fossil fuels such as oil, gas, coal and LPG⁴. Oil was the most common at 52.6%, followed by gas at 28.6%, LPG at 7.8% and coal at 6.8%⁴. First heating systems in eligible new builds, where no heating technology was being replaced, accounted for 21.9% of all installations, and storage heaters a further 16.4%⁴.

Where the scheme operated: Great Britain and regional take-up

The Domestic RHI applied to England, Scotland and Wales, and was designed to encourage consumers there to switch to renewable heating systems⁸. Northern Ireland was outside it. The scheme is described in Ofgem's guidance as operating in Great Britain, which is the same territorial extent¹.

Take-up was concentrated in England but proportionally strongest in Scotland. Of accredited installations, 75.1% are in England, 18.0% in Scotland and 6.9% in Wales⁴. Measured against household numbers, penetration is highest in Scotland with 0.8% of households, then Wales at 0.6% and England at 0.4%⁴.

Within England, the South West has the highest number of accredited installations at 17,967, while London has the lowest at 1,217⁴. The pattern reflects the off-gas geography of the South West and the prevalence of oil heating in rural areas, which the replacement fuel data supports: oil was the single most common fuel displaced.

Scotland's higher penetration sits alongside a distinct policy direction. The Scottish Government's heat in buildings strategy set out that the domestic RHI was due to close in March 2022, and the strategy covers heat technologies such as ground and air source heat pumps and biomass boilers¹⁹. Scotland has continued to run its own domestic support through Home Energy Scotland, separate from the GB-wide scheme.

For households in Wales, the scheme operated on the same terms as England, and the Welsh take-up share of 6.9% is the smallest of the three nations⁴. Northern Ireland households had no access to the Domestic RHI at any point, and any renewable heat support there came from separate Northern Ireland arrangements.

What closure means, and what replaced it

The Domestic RHI closed to new applicants at midnight on 31 March 2022¹. The government added a note about the closure of the DRHI scheme and its successor, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme⁷. Ofgem's own blog described the closure of the key green heat scheme and what came next²¹.

Closure did not end the scheme's obligations. Existing participants continue to receive payments as usual until their seven-year accreditation ends, as long as they continue to meet their ongoing obligations⁹. Ofgem will continue to support participants until the last one completes their seven-year support period in March 2029⁴. Annual reports will continue until all accredited installations have reached the end of their support period, projected to be Scheme Year 15, covering 2028 to 2029⁴.

The Regulations require Ofgem to publish an annual report by 31 July following the end of each scheme year, and each scheme year runs from 1 April to 31 March⁴. That timetable explains why the most recent figures cover the year to 31 March 2026 and were published in July 2026.

For households that missed the scheme, the successor is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which provides capital grants rather than heat tariffs. The two work differently: the RHI paid over time for heat produced, while the Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays a fixed amount towards installation. Households weighing the options can compare the Boiler Upgrade Scheme against ECO4, or look at the wider picture of home energy grants and schemes still open.

Selling a property with an accredited system

Accreditation can outlive the household that applied for it. Where a property with a renewable heating system is sold, the DRHI accreditation may be transferred to the new owner⁴. The seller must contact Ofgem at least 28 days before the sale goes through⁴. The new owner must apply for accreditation within 12 months from the date of sale⁴.

The mechanics matter because the remaining payments are attached to the accreditation, not to the person. A new owner who does not apply within the 12-month window loses the remaining tariff lifetime. Ofgem's closure guidance puts the same deadline in terms of notification: from the date of sale, new owners have 12 months to notify Ofgem and confirm they wish to continue with the accreditation⁹.

Where a product is replaced, an MCS certified installer is needed to complete a product replacement declaration form⁴. That keeps the certification chain intact for the remainder of the accreditation.

Contact, references and reviews

Ofgem administers the scheme, and its customer service team handles participant queries on 0300 003 0744 or at domesticrhi@ofgem.gov.uk⁴. A reference number is given when an application is created, and Ofgem asks participants to have it ready when getting in touch¹⁶. The number identifies the accreditation and speeds up any query about payments, metering or obligations.

Where a participant disagrees with a decision, a Right of Review application must be made in writing within 28 days of receiving notice of the decision being appealed¹³. Ofgem also publishes a glossary of key terms for participants who need a definition before responding²².

The scheme's legal basis remains in force for existing accreditations. It is set out in legislation under the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme Regulations 2014 and subsequent amendments, and the scheme is underpinned by the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme Regulations 2014, as amended⁴. Those regulations govern the ongoing obligations, the audit powers and the payment terms that continue until March 2029.