Warm Front Grant saved me a fortune!

margaretclare

Hi all

Have been to the carpet shop, chosen new carpet for the hall so that is all in train. (Back to the way we normally do things ourselves, not going through Government agencies!! Still, as the title of the thread says, this grant has saved us a fortune which we can use for other things.)

I am seriously impressed with the way this heating is working. Lady_K, you mentioned your radiators going cold. Yes, they will, once the ambient temperature that you've set has been reached, then if the temperature falls they will kick in again. DH has programmed the wireless control for different temperatures at different times of the day - I had no idea it was going to be so sensitive and such detail would be possible.

On Monday evening we had set the heating to go off at 10.30 pm, but the radiators started to cool down before that. I mentioned it to DH and he explained that the ambient temperature of 21 C had been reached and therefore that's what would happen. 21 C is approx 70 F and we need that in the evenings when we're sitting still. It comes on at 6.30 am at 21 C to warm the house up when we're getting up, showered, dressed etc, and thereafter it's at different temperatures. It goes down to 16 C from 10.30 pm to 6.30 am the next morning. There's a 'holiday over-ride' for when we go away. It is so sensitive, I'm having to get used to it because our previous heating was faulty, the temperature couldn't be controlled and it was far too hot most of the time. It would come on early in the morning and I would wake up sweating and with a headache.

Next thing is, we may need to replace the shower with a temperature-controlled one. Our existing Triton shower worked OK with water coming from the tank in the loft, we no longer have that, water is coming through at mains pressure. OK, you get a lovely shower, but controlling the temperature is a bit of an art form. We're going out this morning to see someone about it, what we need, what can be done. Interglow's installers made it clear that they could not guarantee anything to do with the shower, and that's fine - that wasn't what we asked them to do.

DH has agreed to pay for a new temperature-controlled shower and I've agreed to pay for the hall carpet. We're away this weekend so we'll set the 'holiday over-ride'. Oh, and we've just got a refund from Npower for electricity over-payment, £79.95 just dropped into the joint account, so that can be used for something nice. We're now going to be paying £20 a month instead of £28.50 for electricity, all good news.

Best wishes

Margaret

Lady_K

Thanx Margaretclare

I know thats the way they work but the problem is the temperature does not reach the default temperature of 21 degrees anyway unless I switch off completely at least 2 large radiators so it isnt because they are reaching the correct temperature its more because the boiler hasnt got a big enough output on the heating side to run so many radiators... I knew this before it was put in thats why I rang them. It works fine when the other radiators are completely turned off its ok when I'm not using the rooms coz it saves monet aswell but if I need to use all the rooms its a bit inconvenient really

The insurance you mentioned I will ask my local broker first and also do some searches on the net but my buildings is more than your buildings and contents put together because I have old subsidence they really bang it up for that and it was an enormous problem getting cover in the first place. Mainly because of the subsidence as I had to produce plans from the coal board and solicitors papers etc before they would even cover me but it made it worse because I hadnt even had buildings insurance for 4 years as I couldnt afford it so that didnt go down too well, I guess they were suspicious why I hadnt. I cant even believe I did it.

margaretclare

Hi Lady_K

Re your boiler output etc in your first paragraph above - there's something wrong and you should complain and get it put right. You shouldn't be left being colder than you were with the original boiler! DH says that either the thermostat programmer is in the wrong place or it has been programmed incorrectly.

It's probably easier for us as we don't have any rooms that we don't use. We live in a 2-bedroom bungalow, we sleep in one of the bedrooms and use the other as the 'office'. We never close any of the internal doors apart from the bathroom door, so the temperature is the same throughout all the rooms. I can see that, as far as the heating is concerned, we're going to be very pleased with the way it works. Modifications to the temperature control on the shower is probably going to cost us £150 - £200 but it's worth it for safety's sake.

Can't suggest anything else I'm afraid!

Margaret

missdpd

Hi Elhall,

I did have loft ladders that were fitted already but they failed on me when i was up in the attic (the plastic stoppers at top to stop them coming off the brackets broke) and the ladders collapsed with me at the top of them. I ended up with a hole through my chin into my mouth and i bit through my lip. All this happened 2 days before the surveyor came out and i told him when he came there was no way i would let him or any engineer he sent out use the ladders. With regards to the boiler, it was fitted 3 yrs ago by an independant company and about 2 months ago packed in and as i am a lone parent and currently on long term sick, someone told me about the warmfront grant. They agreed to either repair the boiler or install a new one. Once the surveyor had been out he said he would get me an engineer to do a repair as it wasnt that old. If they wanted to install a new one i wouldnt have complained either but that was their choice. As we speak i sent a very strong letter out to their company and at 8.05am yesterday apologising profusely to me and told me an engineer was on his way out with ladders. The engineer spent a good part of the day here and is due back tomorrow with the required parts to fix the boiler so hopefully by tomorrow night i will be a very happy bunny with regards to heating and hot water, now if only i could get my ex husband sorted............

margaretclare

Hi misspd

Does your home insurance cover the failure of the loft ladder? If so, it would be a good idea to get the ladder repaired.

HTH

Margaret

Lady_K

Ive gone and done a bit of a boo boo.

The inspector came round and I really wasnt ready for him coming what with the burglary and everything my minds been all over the place this week and we have been trying to sort my daughter out with the loan of a laptop for her uni work and shes lost all her uni work which is a dissaster so there have been other things on my mind. I wasnt ready for him but I just felt bad saying no, I knew I should have let him come next week instead but he was in this area.

Anyway I just didnt tell him everything, I was concerned as my daughter was in bed asleep as shes been on nights on her nursing placement. Hes telling them to come back and do the bricks outside that they did not make good after pulling the old pipe away and they have to come and remove a thermostat from the radiator in the hall.

I did tell him that it doesnt ever go up to 21 degrees but he didnt say anything and I told him the new radiator was smaller than the one previously in the beroom and that it keeps going off even when the others are on and the temp was still below 21 degrees. I told him I have to turn at least 2 radiators off for it to work a bit more efficiently and reach max 20 degrees but not 21. I did say that the water side of it was working perfectly fine. I forgot to show him the pipes in the bathroom prob as I was worried in case my daughter woke up as shes a light sleeper. He did not go up the loft to check things up there not sure if he should have done but I asked him if he needed to and he said no.

Now I'm worried coz the bedroom radiator really isnt right and when it does warm up its not really hot and stays cold at the bottom but its a new radiator. I didnt say anything about the mess they left but I'm mad with myself because of that as I'm just flabbergasted to read people being left the way they found it I'm shocked at that with the mess I had.

I'm going to contact warmfront on Monday and just tell them all this, maybe the inspector may come back I dont know. I'm sitting next to the radiator now its next to the computer and its just luke warm and the thermostats on 5. It can get hot but it only does that for very short periods say 5 minutes then it goes cold for ages 50-60 minds sometimes more then the cycle goes on. Yet in the bathroom its hot and other bedroom its hot. I dont know if its because the radiator is the last one to get heated in the system or not but theres def a problem and there was a radiator in before they put that one in that worked. I will try warmfront tomorrow too just in case they are open on Saturdays

margaretclare

Hi Lady_K

I think you will have to contact WarmFront as a matter of urgency and tell them of all your concerns. It would have been a good idea to make a list beforehand - you knew the inspector would be coming at some time soon, didn't you?

I can't understand how your heating is working. It's nothing like ours! We can set the temp above 21 C if we want, in fact we did that last evening when it felt very cold with the high winds outside. There's a 'holiday over-ride' which can be set from one day to 99, and we're going to set that because we're away soon (wedding anniversary tomorrow!) and won't be back until the middle of Monday.

We've decided we don't really need a new shower control either. It works perfectly well - we just have to be a little bit careful with it, turn it on gently not violently - and as long as one of us is here, we know about it.

I hope to get the new hall carpet fitted within the next few days. Oh, and DH has just had yet another letter from the Pensions Service saying they want to make a visit to check all our entitlements to make sure he's claiming all he's entitled to. He's going to phone them Monday, yet again, to say 'thank you but you've really no need to bother'.

Margaret

Lady_K

Yes I knew he was coming but I thought he would come after the draught proofing was done which hasnt been done yet so I thought I had plenty of time to sort a list out after the draught proofing man has been. The inspector rang the night before to tell me he was coming and then he came earlier than the time slot he gave me, I was in the shower. The heating also wasnt on at the time he came so he couldnt really get an idea of the way it is although he did put it on but you cant judge it in 10 mins it takes a while to heat up. Its just been a bad week and I've been so worried about getting my daughter sorted after the burglary.

The controls may even be the same as yours I can take it off the wall to set it and that has a holiday thing too but I havent looked into that yet. The actual control will allow up to 35 degrees but whatever I set it at it doesnt go up to the pre set and recommended 21 degrees. I meant the max temp it has got to is 20 degrees in the house only when I turn off 2 radiators other than that it stays usually around 19 or 18.5 degrees or less. I dont know whats wrong with the bedroom one I'm hoping it could be something as simple as the thermostat isnt working right or something. I havent rang them yet I have my grandson with me at the moment

margaretclare

Hi Lady_K

When you wrote that the radiators only get hot at the top and not at the bottom, this could be because they need 'bleeding'. Have you got a bleeder key - if not, it would be a good idea to get one and keep it handy. They're a small brass key that you can easily get from B&Q, Homebase or a local ironmonger (yes, there are a few still left). I've often had to bleed radiators in old systems in the past, not with this new modern system, but we have a bleeder key that's there in case we ever need it.

I only got this WarmFront grant because of being on Attendance Allowance. I was awarded that for 2 years and it expires early July. I've just been sent a form to re-claim it and - in all conscience - I can't. The things that applied 2 years ago no longer apply, since I had major hip surgery a year ago in December 2005, I've got better of all the problems that I had then. So from July I'll be back to SRP, SERPS and the annuities, about £62 a week less than for the last 2 years. So we were lucky to get the WarmFront grant when we did, and how useful it has been.

I've budgeted for the few things we need - carpet approx £450, pay for it out of January's money. My pine chest-of-drawers £204.05, it's on the credit card, pay for it from February's money. The only other thing I want is a new shed, probably another £350 or so, pay for that out of March money.

Our 2-week trip to Niagara in July will probably cost about £3K in all, but we have that money sitting in savings already.

We don't know what council tax will go to from April, but we're already paying less for electricity and it's likely that we'll be paying 1/3rd less for gas thanks to the new boiler. So, it was good to get AA for those 2 years and good to get the WarmFront grant. We haven't heard from their inspector yet, but we're absolutely pleased and delighted with the work that was done and the effects of it.

Best wishes

Margaret

margaretclare

I'm wondering how Lady_K is getting on.

We've just got a card from the WarmFront inspector with an appointment to call on Wednesday this week. We are absolutely delighted with the work that the 2 men from Interglow of Chelmsford did, and the heating is all working well. DH went up into the loft on Saturday following the recent gales, and all is well up there, boiler working well, no tiles shifted on the new roof, everything is fine. We got our new carpet fitted last week and the old one rolled up and taken away. £460 for a very good-quality carpet which is important because, being a bungalow, the hall carpet gets walked on a lot - bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and sitting-room all lead off the hall. Also the hall carpet is the first thing that anyone sees when they come into the house.

New 4-drawer chest-of-drawers being delivered today, and I don't intend for things to be left cluttered about as they have been. I want it all kept nice and tidy. http://www.pinesolutions.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_copy_of_copy_of_English_Heritage_4_Drawer_Chest.html

Nothing else needs doing indoors, although there are a few jobs outside that need doing. New shed, some of the fencing needs replacing and the drive needs doing. We had a lady from the Pensions Service visited last week to make sure we were claiming all we were entitled to. Nice lady, but yes, she was wasting her time!!!

Margaret