MCS explained

MCS — the Microgeneration Certification Scheme — certifies both renewable energy products and the companies that install them: heat pumps, solar PV, wind and biomass.

For an installation to be MCS certified, both the installer and the products being installed generally need to meet MCS requirements. For heat pumps those cover far more than connecting the equipment: system design, installation quality, installer competence, quality management, consumer protection, documentation and planning.

Why it matters

Households can need an MCS-certified installation to get grants such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. And because a heat pump’s performance depends on the heating system around it, the standards set out how that system should be designed, installed and documented.

The scheme is changing

MCS is moving every certified installer onto its redeveloped scheme, MCS:2025, by 31 March 2027. The redeveloped scheme has its own scheme documents in place of the MCS 001 contractor standard, and installers certified to it no longer need consumer-code membership for Boiler Upgrade Scheme work.

How certification works

1. 01
   Choose the technology you’ll be certified for — for heat pumps, air source or ground source.
2. 02
   Learn the standards: the MCS scheme requirements plus MIS 3005-D (design) and MIS 3005-I (installation).
3. 03
   Show competence: heating, G3 unvented, Water Regulations and heat pump training, plus installation experience.
4. 04
   Put a Quality Management System in place — design, commissioning, records, complaints and training.
5. 05
   Sort out consumer protection: a consumer code such as RECC or HIES, or the redeveloped scheme’s requirements.
6. 06
   Apply to a certification body that covers heat pumps, such as NICEIC (Certsure), NAPIT or OFTEC.
7. 07
   Pass the assessment of your technical work and your Quality Management System.
8. 08
   Keep it up: ongoing assessments, continuing professional development and new versions of the standards.

Smaller firms can work through an MCS umbrella scheme instead, which handles much of the compliance and paperwork for a fee.

A useful next step.

Read the full guide to becoming MCS certified, then check the current documents in the MCS standards library.