Many jobs in the home need to be notified to and approved as being compliant with building regulations by a building control body. This could either be your local authority’s building control or a private sector approved inspector. However if the work is carried out by installers registered with a Competent Person Scheme, they can self-certify that their own work is compliant.

The building regulations are designed to ensure buildings meet health, safety, welfare, convenience and sustainability standards.

Below is a list of the types of work covered by Competent Person Schemes:

 

If you want to confirm that your chosen installer is registered with a competent person scheme, or want to check if the work you are planning requires building regulation approval please visit: www.competentperson.co.uk

If you are planning to install a renewable heat or electricity generating technology you can employ an installer who is accredited with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme(MCS). Only MCS certified installations qualify for the governments financial incentives the ‘feed in tariff’ and ‘renewable heat incentive’. We also strongly recommend that your chosen installer is registered with the RECC Consumer code.

 

Microgeneration Certification Scheme

This scheme certifies both technologies and installers, and enables consumers to receive the government’s financial incentives for installing renewable heat and electricity generating technologies. If the installer is not Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) certified, then a certified company must commission the installation.

There are equivalent accreditations for solar thermal technologies (but not for the installers) such as the CEN Solar Keymark. A solar thermal system approved under Solar Keymark may still be eligible for the Renewable Heat Incentive, as long as an MCS accredited installer has completed the installation.

For more information, visit www.solarkeymark.org
www.microgenerationcertification.org

The Renewable Energy Consumer Code

The Renewable Energy Consumer Code (RECC) is backed by the Office of Fair Trading as part of its self-regulation initiative, the Consumer Codes Approval Scheme. It was set up by the Renewable Energy Association and aims to guarantee “a high quality experience for consumers wishing to buy or lease small-scale energy generation systems for their homes”.
Installer and supplier members of this scheme are companies selling or leasing these technologies and by showing the RECC logo, they have agreed to comply with the Renewable Energy Consumer Code.
www.recc.org.uk