How we started

 

Haskins Associates Ltd was formed in August 2009 by Father and Son team, Simon and Stuart Haskins. The remit was to use our combined skills in the plumbing and heating sector to offer customers something different and to try and move away from some of the bad press and working practices inherent in the sector. We set to, installing complete bathrooms, heating systems and all manner of other plumbing tasks. As a company working in the rural community, heating solutions usually involved using oil, LPG or electricity. Traditional building methods have left us with a large number of rural properties with poor levels of insulation and upgrading the insulation is inherently difficult due to solid walls and floors etc. The owners of such properties have suffered due to the rise in the cost of the fossil fuels used to heat their homes, often leading to them not being able to afford to stay warm. Our initial emphasis was on using the heat produced in a more efficient way by zoning properties so rooms weren't heated when they were not in use but there was no getting around the fact that rural homes need a lot of heat.

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What came next

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As a member of a sustainable organisation, Simon travelled to London to attend an exhibition of sustainable products and it was there he was introduced to log gasification boilers. They are by no means a modern product, more a throw back to what we used before fossil fuels became cheap and home owners became complacent about cheaply heating the whole of their properties. It was an interesting concept and by sheer chance, soon after,  we were contacted by a local homeowner asking us if we knew any way he could heat his large property using wood as his oil bills were crippling. One thing led to another and in Spring 2010 we installed our first log gasification boiler - straight in the deep end with a 60kW boiler attached to three 1000L accumulators. We were also able to replace the radiators in the property and upgrade the controls to more effectively use the heat produced. Once installed the system worked like a dream heating the property to a much higher level than what was possible with oil and producing copious amounts of instantaneous domestic hot water.

 

Renewable Heat Incentive

 

Enter the coalition Government, the Liberal Democrat part of which had decided that they needed to incentivise the installation of renewable heat technologies in order to help hit their carbon reduction targets. They decided to do this by paying quarterly sums to anybody who had an eligible appliance installed by an accredited installer. The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) followed divided into two schemes - Domestic and Non-Domestic. They have separate tariffs, joining conditions, rules and application processes. The Non-Domestic scheme launched first with a very lucrative tariff designed to generate interest in the scheme by providing very high returns on investment. 

 

How we developed

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To move in to the renewables sector we decided to expand our expertise into installing Biomass boilers, Solar Thermal and Solar Photovoltaic technologies. The company took on the trading name of SandS Microgeneration and expanded to meet the demand created by the RHI and FiT schemes. We became a member of the NAPIT competent persons scheme and also the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) for renewable technologies. This carried on until a new Conservative Government lost interest in incentivising renewable technologies and started cutting back on subsidies. The Feed-in-Tariff for solar PV was decimated destroying that part of the sector. Solar thermal had never really took off so we decided to come out of these technologies and concentrate on Biomass and smart heating controls, changing our trading name to SandS Heating Solutions.  

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The Company today

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BIOMASS

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By remaining 'lean and mean' and not over expanding when times were good we find ourselves in a much less crowded market for our services. Companies who built their businesses on the 'pack of cards' which was the Governments incentive schemes have either gone out of business or simply can't be bothered with the sector and have gone elsewhere now the pack of cards has collapsed and the high returns have vanished. Customers have found themselves high and dry with boilers they have to keep going for 20 years and no installer to look after them. We remain committed to our past, present and future customers and will always try to help the customers of other installers who don't exist any more. The RHI scheme is due to be closed for all new applicants on 31st March 2021. The Domestic RHI scheme remains cost effective in the meantime with typical returns on investment of £425 per quarter for a duration of 7 years (£11,900 in total).

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HEATING SYSTEMS

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We can supply and install most types of heating systems including radiators and underfloor along with the controls required to get the most out of them. We can install unvented and open domestic hot water systems as well as instantaneous domestic hot water from accumulators or heat exchangers.

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BATHROOMS

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We offer a complete design, supply and installation service for all types of bathrooms including wet rooms.

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PLUMBING

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Whilst a lot of the work we carry out is within specific sectors we retain the ability to work on the 'coal face' carrying out routine plumbing and heating tasks. 

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WOOD PROCESSING

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We are developing a wood supply service and are capable of processing wood on-site for customers who have a large volume of wood to split into the correct format for their boiler or stove type.

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