Glossary of terms
ASHP - Air Source Heat Pump – a renewable technology that extracts heat from the air and uses it to heat your property.
Carbon Footprint - Your carbon footprint is the measure of the impact your activities have on the environment.
CERT - Carbon Emissions Reduction Target - The aim of CERT is to make a contribution to the UK's legally binding contract to cut carbon emissions by 12.5%
CHAS -The Contractor’s Health and Safety Assessment – Freesource Energy are competent under the CHAS guidelines, meaning we comply with the high standards of health and safety.
Energy Efficiency - The ratio of energy input to energy output. ‘Energy efficient’ usually refers to any change in energy use that results in becoming more economically friendly and reducing waste i.e. changing your light bulbs to LED or insulating your home.
FiT - Feed-in-Tariff – the government subsidy used to reward consumers for generating their own energy using solar PV systems.
GSHP - Ground Source Heat Pump – a renewable technology that extracts heat from the ground or a water source and uses it to heat your property.
kWh - Kilowatt hour – a unit of energy equal to 1000 watt hours. The most commonly used unit to describe energy delivery to consumers.
kWth - Kilowatt thermal – the most common unit of the measure of nominal power from a solar thermal system.
kWp - Kilowatt peak – the most common unit of the measure of nominal power from a solar PV system.
MCS accredited - The microgeneration certification scheme - this is the scheme that recognises quality installers of renewable technologies. Suppliers must be MCS accredited in order for your system to be eligible for grants or subsidies.
NAPIT - National Association for Professional Inspectors and Testers – Freesource Energy are competent under the NAPIT scheme. Our team have been trained by NAPIT in order to provide the highest standard of service for our consumers.
PV - Photovoltaic – the method of generating electric by changing solar radiation into DC (direct current) electricity. This method is used by solar panel systems, hence the term “solar PV”.
REAL - Renewable Energy Assurance Limited – Freesource Energy are members of the REAL assurance scheme. By abiding the the REAL consumer code, we provide a high standard of consumer service when selling renewable sources to domestic customers.
REIGA - The REIGA guarantee is a scheme set out to provide product guarantees on your solar panels should there be any problems with your installation later on. REIGA specifies that installers such as Freesource Energy should give the customer a standard 10 year guarantee.
Renewable Energy - Energy from natural sources such as water, sunlight or wind.
RHI - Renewable Heat Incentive – the government scheme used to reward consumers for generating their own energy through systems such as solar thermal, heat pumps and biomass. This scheme is currently only available to commercial customers.
RHPP - Renewable Heat Premium Payment – a government scheme that pays a one off lump sum in order to help fund the installation of systems such as solar thermal and heat pumps.
ROI - Return on Investment – the term used to assess the return on your initial capital example. E.g. If you paid £3,500 for a solar PV system, the ROI would consider your fuel savings and generation tariff payments in order to give a percentage rate of how quickly your initial investment would be paid back to you.
Solar PV - A system that uses the sun’s energy to produce electricity for your property.
Solar Thermal - A system that uses the sun’s energy to heat the hot water for your property.
