There are new rules around how heating controls should be reported in the full ECO4 Delivery Guidance. These apply retrospectively to all measures installed from July 2022 onwards. They are not common sense or intuitive, so please take the time to understand as they will have a major impact on your projects. Please note that heating control measures are not products but features of products that contribute to a score.

For example, a Smart thermostat does the job of a P&RT and the job of being smart. If there was already a P&RT in the property and we install a Smart Thermostat we gain the benefit and score of the Smart Thermostat and claim it but do not gain the benefit and score of the P&RT which was already there.

If there was no P&RT present we claim both a P&RT and a Smart Thermostat as we have gained the benefit and score of both. That is two measures with one product.

A Smart TRV product does the job of TTZC and also a TRV. If neither were present both would be claimed. If full TRVs were already present only the TTZC would be claimed.

Please review the Heating Controls section within the Ofgem Delivery Guidance for further information – Page 122.

Possible Combinations:

• First Time Central Heating boilers must always have a P&RT and TRV installed because these would not already be present in a property that did not have central heating before.
• For boiler upgrades preHCs means that there was a full set of functioning heating controls in the property before the project. P&RT and TRV must not be claimed as they were already present.
• For boiler upgrades nopreHCs means there was less than a full set of functioning heating controls in the property before the project. P&RT and / or TRV must be claimed so that there is a full set of heating controls.
• For compensators preHCs means that there was a P&RT in the property before the project. P&RT cannot claimed as it is already present.
• For compensators nopreHCs means that there was no P&RT in the property before the project. P&RT must be claimed if a boiler has been installed.
• Compensators and Smart Thermostats cannot be installed together, or if one is already present neither can be installed.
• Standalone heating controls with no boiler can only be installed in Owner Occupied properties.
• In the list the measures with preHcs / nopreHCs are determined by the data provided to ECO Hub in the Pre-Existing Heating Controls field.

This ECO4 Heating Control Measure Types update was originally published on 24th October 2022