Green Deal MSE Guide Discussion

thomasfreed

You could find me so ignorant, but I will surely ask this for I find a great interest on this thing. What does "Green Deals" mean? What are the products or the service it offers to us consumers? Hope you will help me figure it out. Thanks

Cardew

thomasfreed wrote: »

You could find me so ignorant, but I will surely ask this for I find a great interest on this thing. What does "Green Deals" mean? What are the products or the service it offers to us consumers? Hope you will help me figure it out. Thanks

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/green-deal

Essentially a scheme where a householder can borrow money to pay for improvements to house that will lower energy bills.

The theory is that the projected savings on energy costs will repay the loan.

Adrian60

Hi
We had our Green Deal assesment yesterday we had to use british gas due to no one else interested in our area.

Not received our report yet but at the moment feel its a waste of money.

1 We have a repayment meter and on this website and the goverments green deal website it says that you can have green deal on a prepayment meter. The advisor informed if I wished to use the green deal I will need to change to a credit meter.

2 We have very old double glazing that you can feel the cold comming through in the winter and was hoping that we would get help in replacing this but the advisor in formed if i had double glazing the rport would show that the is no need to replace.

3 We have a boiler that british gas told us 3 years ago was obserleat but the advisor said it will proberly ecomend upgradind but will be low on the list as its regarded as 70 efficent

I will update when I receive my report

Coulsdon_Town

The following link is to a govt. document listing all local authorities in England which recently won funding for energy-saving. If you look for your local council, then down the column for 'Green Deal Pioneer Places Funding', any council with a £ figure there is likely to be offering a free green deal assessment for a short time i.e.this month. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/68859/7473-decc-local-authority-competition-201213-projects-.pdf

Size66

Ive just moved into ( 5 months ago ) a 110 year old solid wall house with big high rooms that can be very very cold - it has a 25 year old boiler and more draughts than a wind tunnel. Part of the plan when moving in was to upgrade the boiler, install new front and rear doors to draughtless UPVC and maybe do some underfloor insulation as we have a cellar that sucks warn air out through the floor. we have double glazing so that is fine but our gas and elecytricity bill is £200 / month in a house that is empty all day - gas heating is on between 5 pm and 10 pm only - GD assessment is booked via british gas for £99 - will keep you posted :beer:

John_Pierpoint

hms85 wrote: »

Hello,

Was wondering if anybody thinking of signing up to the green deal is in a similar situation, as I am planning on having an assessment in the next three weeks.

I own a one bedroom flat in a grade 2 listed town house (it's the middle flat with one above and one below). I bought it in October. I am renovating it at present and it currently does not have any central heating. There is an old immersion tank in the bedroom that I am taking out. The windows on the flat are all subject to getting listed building consent, initially I thought I would need them all replacing (the are original) however the only one that needs replacing is the bathroom window.

Something like this might stop all your draughts and then cut out half the heat going out through the glass of the single glazed windows. As it is stuck on most local authorities agree than no damage to the "heritage" is being done.

If you want to screw down something you will need the permission of the ground landlord and the local authority.

http://www.magneglaze.co.uk/index.php

As you are DIY, why would you want to borrow (more) money to pay all the overheads of the Green Deal industry.

For more information about heritage windows put this into Google - this is the definitive information for the British Isles, unfortunately the terminology is Scottish, and so the designs have some north of the border standards; the but it is the best place to start.
Glasgow university sash window Paul Baker

The flat currently has pre payment electric meter, ideally I would this to be a monthly DD. (However this isn't a big issue). Do you have gas?

I haven't moved in yet (no water, no bathroom, kitchen etc) so I am unsure how I can make a saving on my bill using the Green Deal? I have no experience of living there full time (save for topping up the electricity meter for tools/lights etc). Will they base it on an average one bed flat?

Is anybody thinking of using the Green Deal for a listed or very old property they are currently renovating? (I am not a property developer; plan on living in it as soon as it is complete)

Any advice prior to assessment would be helpful

Why not start your own thread with technical details & a floor plan of your flat ?

Thanks

sashman wrote: »

Firstly MSE great summary of the Green Deal in your guide.

Having met ministers about this subject I am still at a loss why it is being promoted.

GD windows cost consumers MORE, see you guide notes work is £2,500 in repayments, more than twice as much! That’s a rip off.

GD saves money, NOT guaranteed. If the thermostat stays at the same level there is NO SAVING, the reduction of energy to save the costs has to come from lower usage, it is not automatic.

In theory it should, be as the new condensing boiler creates more heat for the same amount of gas and the insulating of the "thermal envelope" should mean the room heats up quicker and so the thermostat(s) then turns off the radiators and the boiler.

GD isn’t personal debt TRUE is belongs to the house, but you try selling your house with a 25 year loan against it, it's PERSONAL THEN, when you cannot sell the thing!

Don’t get me wrong, I admire the coalition for doing something different,but there will be two winners with GD, firstly the banks and lending authorities charging high rates of interest (more than the goods themselves in your illustration) and Landlords: people with money and properties will get improvements made. Their tenants will pay for it via their electricity bills, NICE con!

It is sweeter than that see below

Such a pity the government didn't listen to industry because we came up with a number of better solutions....oh yes they went to consultation and that will be their "get out of jail card" but they didn’t incorporate the suggestions.

Mark my words, mis-selling of the GD will be the next fiasco because nobody understands it and savings are not guaranteed.

sashman

Coulsdon_Town wrote: »

The following link is to a govt. document listing all local authorities in England which recently won funding for energy-saving. If you look for your local council, then down the column for 'Green Deal Pioneer Places Funding', any council with a £ figure there is likely to be offering a free green deal assessment for a short time i.e.this month. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/68859/7473-decc-local-authority-competition-201213-projects-.pdf

Typical my local authority "Thurrock" is not in the list.

What is the Eden Project going to do with its £900,000 (approx) of my money ? What is "switch funding"?

LANDLORDS & TENANTS FILL YOUR BOOTS

This property has an energy performance rating of "G" with night storage electric heating. In 2018 it will become illegal to let out homes with an "F" or a "G" rating. So if you are a slum landlord you have to act now, grab a Green Deal and renovate your Victorian slum. You get a more valuable asset and your tenants pay for it in their electricity bill - sweet.
So what are you tenants complaining about? You will be using so much less electricity & gas, so your bills will stay the same !!!!!!!

The reality is that the occupants will take half the saving in the form of more comfort and lounge about in "T" shirts into the winter until the bill comes in and they realise they are facing fuel poverty - British Gas realised this back in the second oil crisis, when the standards for loft insulation went up from one inch to three inches.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257101/Three-bedroom-WWII-Nissen-hut-home-wartime-land-girls-56-years-emerges-sale.html

wilkinsondavid

Adrian60 wrote: »

Hi
We had our Green Deal assesment yesterday we had to use british gas due to no one else interested in our area.

I will update when I receive my report

We had our Green Deal done by British Gas on 22 January, but still not received the report. I have since phoned the assessor directly and been on hold twice for more than 10 mins to BG. Finally I get through today and am told that there have been "system issues" and they will now prioritise my account. Which means: nothing, we will try and get your report to you in some unspecified timeframe.

Get onto BG as soon as you can to chase your report, I get the sense this is something they have lost the plot with.

pd001

wilkinsondavid wrote: »

We had our Green Deal done by British Gas on 22 January, but still not received the report. I have since phoned the assessor directly and been on hold twice for more than 10 mins to BG. Finally I get through today and am told that there have been "system issues" and they will now prioritise my account. Which means: nothing, we will try and get your report to you in some unspecified timeframe.

Get onto BG as soon as you can to chase your report, I get the sense this is something they have lost the plot with.

Did you pay for your report?
If you did, and if you used a card for the payment, then why not tell them that if you dont get the report within 7 working days then you will do a chargeback, on the basis that you have paid for something and not received it.

dingle1979

we took the advice from this web site and went on to the green deal, we have spent £115 on anassessement over two weeks ago, and today we got the report through, and i must say i'm not happy, according to the epc we have been recommended to up grade our boiler, windows, solar panels, under floor insulation, it also reccomends that we put a new hot water jacket on our hot water tank which would not be needed if we relace the boiler, so why mention it?, it also reccomends we add a hot water tank thermostat again not needed whit a replacement boiler, and thermostatic rad vavles, and draught proofing again not needed when you replace the windows, out of all those thing the only ones we could get for free were,

hot water jacket at a cost of £15-£30

draught proofing at a cost of £80-£120

hot water thermostat at a cost of £200-£400

theses would not be needed if we relpaced my boiler, now the cost of the bolier and windows( 6 windows needed and two of those are less that 2 feet tall and wide)

windows at a cost of £3300-6500

boiler at a cost of £2200-£3000

these we would have to put money towards which it does state on this web site, but you have two read right down the page to find it, this information should really be towards the top of the page, now back to my rant the money quoted for theses two items is stupid, im a joiner and have also fitted double glazing for me to do the windows would not cost anywhere near that price, the boiler price is about right nothing to rant about there,.
now the the report its self has some really silly things that would cost more than quoted like insulation under my floors, with me coming from the building industry and having worked for my self for the last ten years i konw a little about the cost of materials, they have quoted £800-£1200 for all my ground floor it would cost more that that just for the concrete let alone digging up the floor or the cost of insualtion, and as for the solar panels you can get them for free the cost on the report is £9000-£14000 ive already tried to get them but unfortunatley my roof faces the wrong way and this means it would not generate alot of electric again i would have to put money towards theses if i wanted them pointless anyway.
i'm having this rant becuase me and my wife dont earn alot of money ive had to take a part time job becuase the building trade is on it knees and theres no work and to many trades men looking for work, im only on min wage and my wife is on part time just over min wage, we spend stupid amounts of money on gas and electric each week becuase were on pre payment meters for both, we have spent £115 on this report for nothing we can not afford to put money towards any of these improvements and the ones that we would get for free wont really save us that much, so if you are doing this please dont get ur hopes up becuase unless you have money to put towards the things like windows and boilers you will be spending £115 oand epc that if look around you can get foir less that £50,
i needed to let people know about this as that money could of gone on food or gas or fuel for my car etc etc, i'm not dising this site but it would be more help full if the information about us having to put towards was at the begining rather that at the end, people need to see this first it might save the wasting there time like we have.


ps


sorry for the rant

monstereyebrows

I am am an Energy Assessor and trainee Green Deal Advisor.

Sadly I fear that many will experience being let down by the Green Deal assessment like the poster above.

If you are having any issuse with the Green Deal please PM with the details and I may be able to give some useful advice.