Is anyone MCS accredited for solar thermal aswell as Pv?

matt25 · Feb 27, 2012

Hi, im planning to add solar thermal to our accreditations and wondered what mods are required to the quality plan? Has anyone done this!?
many thanks in advance,
Matt

BruceB · Feb 27, 2012

I have solar thermal and heat pump accreditations also. Once you have one then others are very easy to add on. Just get the subject documents you need together and the appropriate training records then follow the MIS.

MCS Renewables · Feb 27, 2012

Its a similar amount of paperwork as PV plus you need to do a thermal course, plus extra insurance for blowtorches etc. ( replacing cylinders etc)
You will need an unvented cylinder course and loads more reference books to buy etc etc.

The current goverment have done similar damage to the thermal industry with the Renewable Heat Incentive and Premium payment scheme.
Thermal is not such an easy sale as PV but customers on oil and tank gas love it !

You need to employ a decent plumber as very high pressure very hot water systems are as dangerous as PV and water leaks can do more damage.

We sell at least two a month as obviously PV is where customers interest has been up to now, however you can do a thermal offer to all of your PV customers.

The biggest gripe is that the RHI is not attractive enough and we get undercut by solar thermal installers installing any old rubbish ( not MCS approved ) gear as the customer is not interested in spending a lot more to receive a minimal amount back. So you may need to do non MCS registered thermal projects as well !

babba · Feb 27, 2012

I was going to say is there any life in thermal as I know people who have their mcs and not doing a lot if any installs, plus the return is not the best compared to pv but I think * MCS Renewables* above scared you enough.

matt25 · Feb 27, 2012

Thanks chaps, very helpful advice. Bruce, what do you mean by subject documents??
I have got my bpec unvented and solar thermal certs, just need to find a job!! When i went on the bpec for pv there were examples for quotes, survey and commissioning forms but this time there doesnt seem to be anything apart from a sample benchmark cert, what do u guys use??
Thanks again, matt

BruceB · Feb 27, 2012

Just checking what I hold, it is not many for solar thermal on top of heat pumps and pv:
- CE131 - solar water heating systems (a DTI Guide equivalent for solar thermal)
- HSE guidance on legionnaires disease (The control of legionella bacteria in water systems Approved Code of Practice and guidance)
- MIS 3001

I made up my own commissioning report:
- list main components
- list tests carried out
- list settings (eg pump on, pump off temperatures, timings etc)

matt25 · Feb 27, 2012

Thanks bruce, no set guidlines for survey etc then? Seems odd, maybe we should br greatfull! Did u find any commissioning forms online as a starting point, must be hard from scratch? Do u use the benchmark certs aswell? Any regrets with thermal or heat pumps? Any advice lol!

BruceB · Feb 27, 2012

If you make your survey documentation match the standards of your PV stuff then you ought to be fine.
Yes you need to use the benchmark docs if you are installing any components that come with them, for example a solar cylinder.
On the commissioning form, it is not hard to create, just expand the 3 points I put above - under a side of A4. It is simply a factual record of what you did in order to switch it on. You need to document yourself a standard commissioning procedure if I recall the MIS correctly - have not checked.

This is really Easy MCS's territory rather than mine, but remember the assessment will simply take every sentence they can in the MIS and turn it into a requirement for you to meet and provide evidence for. It is not rocket science, just tedious. But if you can get yourself into the assessor's mindset it is all understandable.

solarsavings · Feb 27, 2012

We have solar thermal too and saw a sharp down turn in ST sales when the FIT came in, it will probably pick up once the RHI kicks off but................................I'm not going to hold my breath.

matt25 · Feb 28, 2012

Bruce .... thanks for your help, much appreciated
Solarsavings .... did you make many alterations to your mcs quality plan?

BruceB · Apr 18, 2012

In case the OP is still around, I realise there is another document that mentions solar thermal commissioning, the Domestic Building Services Compliance Guide 2010:

[ElectriciansForums.net] Is anyone MCS accredited for solar thermal aswell as Pv?

Glen Powell · Apr 18, 2012

We have MCS for solar themal, PV, Biomass, wind no change to QM much justed added extra work instructions and additional forms to the master list and added the working MIS standards to the "all work to be carried out to MIS xxxx standards.

very straight forward if you keep your QM as generic as possible.

Gavin A · Apr 18, 2012

we allegedly do solar thermal.

Oddly, we actually seem to be getting the most inquiries about servicing existing systems, which we don't really offer, but am thinking we might have to start doing. virtually every inquiry for the last year about solar thermal has turned into a PV job or not gone ahead, as without RHI in the picture it doesn't really make sense for anyone on the gas grid.