Hello everyone - my first post (so greetings from North Devon) and I have a question relating to heat pump system design.
What we have at the moment is a system which incorporates solar thermal, a wood-fired Rayburn ( Model 345W @ 9kw) and an LPG gas boiler 1989 vintage- (Ideal Mexico Super2 C125P @35.5kw ), all linked to Gledhill Torrent ECO HP Sol heat bank . We also have a 10kw PV field array split into 2 x5kw phases.

The aim is to get rid of the ageing LPG gas boiler which is absolutely on it's last legs - and as the RHI is coming to an end next March, it seems an ideal time to consider a heat pump and move away from fossil fuels ( the simplest and cheapest thing we could do would be to just put a new LPG boiler in).

The question is about retaining the Rayburn (I appreciate that we won't actually need it to keep the place warm but it is great to cook on and I'm just being sentimental) :
I understand that if it remains attached and contributes to the central heating ( even in a very limited way)this would make the system ineligible for the RHI ( unless metered, which we want to avoid).
Does anyone know of any instances where a heat pump has been installed and something like a wood burning Rayburn is retained in the system by some jiggery-pokery to avoid conflicts between the inputs plus retaining the RHI?
We have had a couple of quotes for ground source and air source heat pumps and both installers have said it is not possible, so I'm pretty much resigned to losing the Rayburn, but who knows!!

Thanks and look forward to hearing from you

Thanks Nigel - I agree OFGEM are clear and though the Rayburn is not capable of heating the whole house it still counts ( basically it does one room and the hot water). I seem to remember seeing system diagrams where a biomass fuel source heated a separate tank and this could then be used to top up the main tank heated by the heat pump and solar - in which case it would not contribute to the heating system. Can't find any such diagram though, so maybe I imagined it...
I have nothing against metering, though both installers suggest that because of the way the current RHI is based on the EPC, real usage rarely meets the calculated figures and payback over the 7 years is unlikely with metering. I suspect metering will be mandatory once the current system ends.

Hi Pete
If you love your rayburn and dont want to give it up you could get it converted to Electric. With some cunning controls you could use it as a dump for your PV or on a time of use tariff it could be cheap to keep it hot when you need it.. they are a big lump so can even out the heat inputs nicely.
If you want details of the kit or installers local to you I can whisper..
Finn