Bob Long, MD Eco Innovate Ltd With the domestic market for heat pumps remaining sluggish, heat pump specialist Bob Long looks at the merits of focusing greater business attention on commercial-sized installs

Jon Muldoon is  national business development manager for domestic building services REI: What have you got planned for 2015? JM: In 2015 one of our key focus areas is to support our customers by offering them the most advanced energy efficient products.  We have launched our Comfort range of hot water recirculation pumps, with the patented Autoadapt function, this allows them to only operate when required, saving energy and optimising water usage.

When it comes to wind turbine developments, size matters. At the top end of the scale, an initial outlay of around £25M could buy a modest 10-turbine onshore wind farm.  However, you would want to make sure that your turbines were performing as expected in order to safeguard your expected returns. That is exactly what the IEC61400-12-1 standard is for – to provide an objective procedure for measuring turbine performance that is recognised by manufacturers, developers and investors alike.

Somewhat predictably, an announcement was made late last year that the RHI tariff for domestic biomass installations was to be reduced by 10 percent from 01 January because accreditations have exceeded the well published ‘trigger point’. Now I know that this will be met by howls of despair by all those with an interest, including us at Plumb Center, since anything which may be harmful to a fledgling growing market is not desirable.