Green Deal

ed110220

I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this, but does anyone know much about the Green Deal which is about to start?

Do you think it will be worthwhile for boiler replacement or not? I'm suspicious that it may simply be a government scheme to reward the type of big national chains that rip people off installing double glazing, central heating etc and that they'll charge rip off prices, the only difference being that it's paid back over a long period. Am I being over cynical?

rogerblack

It will never be worth it to get work done on the green deal if you can raise the money in other ways, and are not eligible for the grant side of the work, and you intend to stay in the property,

This is as it's a loan, paid back out of the energy bills, and due to the extra costs in the green deal process...

As a house purchaser, I'd be wanting to know how much is on any green deal loan against the property,
This makes my energy more expensive, and means my opportunities for savings are limited.

It's barking mad that this, and the renewable heat incentive are not in one coherent package.

Ectophile

In theory, the installer should ensure that the money you save every month is more than the payments that are added to your energy bill.

I have no idea who will be policing this.

rogerblack

The fact that you will 'always' save money does not mean that you cannot save money more effectively by other means.

Then there are thorny issues.
If you're not heating because you can't really afford it - the scheme doesn't work well.
And what if you stop being able to afford to heat to a level which repays the loan?

If you are not worried about future buyers reaction to the green deal loan, and are likely to move well before improvements would pay off, then it is clearly possibly attractive scheme.

ed110220

Thanks for the comments. My main thoughts were that the Green Deal installers may be the type of companies known for their inflated prices, and that it would be cheaper to have the work done by someone else.

My issue is I have an old Baxi Bermuda backboiler, working and reliable but inefficient. I'm thinking for the amount of gas we use (fairly little), replacing it wouldn't be a great use of money.

ed110220

7.5% interest?! What a gyp, I think that will kill it.

bikeman

Green Deal is basically it is a loan towards home energy improvements etc that is repaid via the properties gas/electricity bills.

The loan is not against the householder but is against the property and remains with the property if the homeowner moves.

Now house purchasers are going to have to factor in not just the headline sale price but also any green deal loans against the property. It's going to cause no end of problems to an already compressed housing market.

There needs to be more of a media backlash against this i'll thoughtout policy.

Martin?

munchkin88

Soooo much confusion around Green Deal at the moment. Technically its a loan but in other ways it could be seen differently.

Like someone else has already said, its money against the property, not the owner or tenant and also you wont miss the money you pay back as such.

A green deal assessor will come around and visit the property and if its said that you could say for example, save £1000 over 10 years on a new boiler and the new boiler costs £2,000, then Green Deal will provide you with that £1,000 to go towards the purchase. Now for the fun part, if that new boiler saves you £30 per month on your bills due to it being more efficient etc, then that £30 will go straight back to the Green Deal funder. So even though you are saving money, any money saved will go straight back to the provider to pay back the £1,000 "loan".

Same goes for any measure, if your told you can benefit from loft insulation, solar PV, and external wall insulation and told that you can save £6,000 over the next 10 or 20 years, then they will give you that £6k and you need to fund the rest. And the pay back method is the same as i said a min ago for the boiler.

They will only lend you the money if you can save energy. Its not about the money, its about the energy saving.

Really sorry if that doesnt make sense, i do tend to jabber on a bit.