Advice on Warm Front

v.rajput

Hello to you all, and thank you in advance for any tips you can give, hopefully i have this in the right forum.

I have just applied to Warm Front, for a grant my wife are in reciept of Child Benefit and Tax Credits.(i also have a war pension come in but i dont think that counts as i am not disabled).

Now i believe that they can help in many ways, but what i really need is the boiler replacing, and ideally moved from the bedroom to the loft.


I also need loft insulation but, i as that is not as costly as boiler work, i dont mind paying that myself.

What i need to know is? Has anyone used them before, how do they work, what does it cost you. Is it one job or another, or will they qoute for the whole house.

ust dont wont to sell myself short really.

I did get a qoute of Southeren Electric to replace the boiler and thermosat etc, 5k they wanted: so i just thought id check it this way.
Just any sort of tips before the assessor comes round.

everything would be helpfull

Classy_Chick06

v.rajput wrote: »

Hello to you all, and thank you in advance for any tips you can give, hopefully i have this in the right forum.

I have just applied to Warm Front, for a grant my wife are in reciept of Child Benefit and Tax Credits.(i also have a war pension come in but i dont think that counts as i am not disabled).

Now i believe that they can help in many ways, but what i really need is the boiler replacing, and ideally moved from the bedroom to the loft.


I also need loft insulation but, i as that is not as costly as boiler work, i dont mind paying that myself.

What i need to know is? Has anyone used them before, how do they work, what does it cost you. Is it one job or another, or will they qoute for the whole house.

ust dont wont to sell myself short really.

I did get a qoute of Southeren Electric to replace the boiler and thermosat etc, 5k they wanted: so i just thought id check it this way.
Just any sort of tips before the assessor comes round.

everything would be helpfull

Hi there, i have recently had a brand new boiler fitted (and relocated) with the warm front project.
First off a guy from warm front came to see me and needed to see proof of benefits (child tax and working tax in my case).
He then gave me loads of leaflets on money saving ways to cut costs on heating, including telling me about this site.He also went into my loft but as i have already got insulation said that it didnt need replacing but did sugest cavity wall insulation which would have been for free too.
Then within a couple of days an engineer from a local gas company came to access my old boiler, i explained to him that i would like it in the spare bedroom which he said was not a problem.
then within 2 weeks the engineers came and did an absolute brilliant job..
i was well impressed.
About a week later another guy called to survey for the cavity wall insulation, but upon inspection discovered that i already had that too, (Must have been done before i moved in the house)
All in all, i couldnt belive that i actually managed to get a brand new boiler fitted and relocated for free and with fantastic workmanship too
I have recommended this warm front to many many friends.
Hope all goes well for you too and that you have a pleasant experience as i have.

notlongnow_2

I thought they would only replace the boiler if the existing one was totally beyond repair? I may be wrong.

mary43

A while back I had my loft insulated by them and about two years ago they phoned me to see if I needed a new boiler. As it happened ours was on the way out and when they came and inspected it they said as much and it was replaced with no hassle at all. The old boiler was on the floor but they put the new one on the wall which was what I wanted (though I think it was meant to be wall mounted anyway)
You loose nothing by contacting them to find out.
Good luck.

specsappeal

i had warmfront replace a boiler in december and had to pay £875 on top of the grant of £2,700. Southern electric did it and they were the worst company i have ever had to deal with. First of all they cancelled one appointment on the day, rearranged it for a week later and again cancelled on the day of that appointment too. did it two weeks later (about 3 weeks ago now). they put in the new boiler and it worked for exactly one hour and then broke down. They came back out and couldn't fix it. The guy at their head office then told me over the phone that they were paid to put in a new boiler and the fact that it didnt work was not their problem - he even had the cheek to laugh down the phone at me. We contacted baxi (boiler company) who were great but we had to go 7 days with no heating and 4 of those days it was below freezing. Southern electric did not even offer to lend us heaters in the meantime. we are still waiting for southern electric to finish the work with the power flush and chemicals for the system. They also damaged a water pipe which we only realised on christmas eve when we noticed a water stain starting to appear on our bedroom ceiling. I am grateful that we had help via the warmfront grant but the whole thing was an absolute nightmare from start to finish and i would never consider using southern electric ever again.

simpywimpy

Ive had cavity wall insulation and loft insulation from them. Didnt need a new boiler but they do service the one I have every year which is a fair saving.

oystercatcher

We wanted a new boiler from Warmfront , ours is approx 20+ years old but because it was still working albeit unreliable they wouldn't replace it.
All we got was 4 low energy light bulbs , we already have them everywhere possible anyway!

Oystercatcher

Jake'sGran

oystercatcher wrote: »

We wanted a new boiler from Warmfront , ours is approx 20+ years old but because it was still working albeit unreliable they wouldn't replace it.
All we got was 4 low energy light bulbs , we already have them everywhere possible anyway!

Oystercatcher

Our boiler was over 30 years old and the surveyor said they would not replace it as it still worked. I phoned their office and said there was a smell of gas near it. The lady on the phone got excited and said they wouldn't come in the house again and we must tell Transco. Transco condemned it immediately and made it unusable so Warmfront had to replace it and quickly. Their engineer (nice man) spent a week here. We received a new boiler but he had the last word on where it went plus two new radiators, new cystern (?spelling)and lagging plus all the other necessary parts. It was a big job and he said it would have cost a fortune if he had done it privately. That was in 2007 I think. This year we have had loft insulation and cavity wall done and it has really made a difference. So, Oystercatcher, if there is even a slight whiff of gas from your 20 yr old one contact them again.

oystercatcher

Jake'sGran wrote: »

Our boiler was over 30 years old and the surveyor said they would not replace it as it still worked. I phoned their office and said there was a smell of gas near it. The lady on the phone got excited and said they wouldn't come in the house again and we must tell Transco. Transco condemned it immediately and made it unusable so Warmfront had to replace it and quickly. Their engineer (nice man) spent a week here. We received a new boiler but he had the last word on where it went plus two new radiators, new cystern (?spelling)and lagging plus all the other necessary parts. It was a big job and he said it would have cost a fortune if he had done it privately. That was in 2007 I think. This year we have had loft insulation and cavity wall done and it has really made a difference. So, Oystercatcher, if there is even a slight whiff of gas from your 20 yr old one contact them again.

Thanks JakesGran,
Actually when we had the boiler serviced the man said he'd happily come and condemn our boiler anytime but it was probably better to wait until the warmer weather before we smelled gas as it can take ages for warmfront to get organised. So there may well be some fumes forcast for the spring

Oystercatcher

binnie

Our boiler is as old as this house which was built in the 60's. Ok it is still working but last Sunday I had to call National Grid as I could smell gas in the house. The man who came out found we had 3 gas leaks, one near the boiler, one near the fire, and not sure where the other one was..
He capped the gas meter and we were without gas until Tuesday.

The man from British Gas fixed all the leaks and just condemned the fire as the flames weren't drawing up the flue properly.

What I want to know is, could I get a grant for a new boiler?? My husband works full time and I work 30 hours a week, we have no kids and don't claim any benefits?

The Gas Board can't cover us for the boiler on their homeserve contract as they can't get many parts for this boiler...

Jake'sGran

Unfortunately you cannot get a grant unless you are receiving certain benefits (I never thought I would ever be in this position!). You can check the list of benefits on the Warm Front site. I get Attendance Allowance as I have a serious heart condition and am not able to do much. The cavity wall job was free because we are over 70.