Green Deal MSE Guide Discussion

slaterio

slaterio wrote: »

Hi

I have arranged for someone to come out to me from the company listed on Martin's site (NWS) at the end of November. Does anyone have any experience of any involvement with this company? Is it really free to have an assessment?

Well I have had the assessment and am awaiting the report. The bloke was very good and said that this would be with me within two weeks. NWS have recommended the following items, cavity wall, boiler replacement ( ours is 20 years old), under floor insulation ( but he told me I was probably not going to take up that suggestion, as it would involve ripping up the kitchen floor!) and solar panels. Let's see what happens from here!

Nenen

Well, after all the confusion and delays following our assessment (please see previous post) we finally received an estimate of what we can put on the Greendeal and what we will need to pay up front. The total cost for all the improvements (although we probably won't be doing them all as we cannot afford it) amounts to just under £20,000 and the Greendeal will advance us around £7600, leaving us to find just over £12,000 up front. So far so good.

However, in among all the details from the Finance provider was dropped the bombshell, and I quote,
"Our arrangement fee to manage the full process through is 10% of the purchase price + vat with a minimum fee of £700 + vat. Because of the differing vat elements we will factor this proportionately, dependent on the improvements you choose."

Perhaps I was being naive but I thought the finance providers made their money via the interest on the loan. I had no idea that they chared an arrangement fee, which in our case would amount to a fee of almost £2,000 if we had everything done.

Is this the norm? Do all Greendeal providers charge such extortionate fees?

If not, can I take my assessment and go elsewhere for the finance?

I am so confused and disheartened with no idea which way to jump or who to trust.

John_Pierpoint

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

You and Yours at noon today BBC Radio 4 will further investigate the drying up of ECO funding.

Well the item turned out to be the boss of the UK branch of Knauf insulation explaining that his German masters were very unhappy. The investments had been made, the training had been set up, but now the ECO funding of Knauf's customers was drying up.

http://www.ribacpd.com/RPSFiles/8/05838/external/CPD05838.pdf

Nenen wrote: »

Is this the norm? Do all Greendeal providers charge such extortionate fees?

If not, can I take my assessment and go elsewhere for the finance?
.

Name and shame the finance provider. We would not want to think it must be "good old Amigo loans"

When this golden rule Greed Deal stuff started, the lucky customers of Nationwide BS were offered a much better deal - I have not kept up to date with developments since.

I could pay cash tomorrow if I could decide who to trust with the installation of a ground source heat pump - think I will install a DIY log burner instead to go green.

Stop Press

The BBC new has just announced that the probable outcome will be:

Green Deal to be relaunched.

ECO funding to be stretched over four years rather than current two.[Sorry Knauf]

Warm Homes discount to be moved to general taxation. [Someone explain - could this mean a different divi up of the pensioner's winter fuel payment].

There will be an investigation into the costs of the distribution chain [Generate - Sell - Distribute - Deliver each allowing a different company to skim the pot].

I wonder if the government will wait for Gideon's autumn statement to add the details?

I wonder why there has been such a fuss about the cost of how we heat for 4 months of the year. But almost a total silence on the costs of eating 12 months of the year, where the tax and subsidy effects are that much greater and being decided this year?

Nenen

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Name and shame the finance provider. We would not want to think it must be "good old Amigo loans"

The company who is quoting a Greendeal arrangement fee of 10% of the purchase price + VAT (minimum £700) is:
Your Green Deal Provider Limited (registered number 08244800) and Your Green Deal Software Limited (registered number 08244903) are companies registered in England and Wales. The registered office for both is Morton House, Morton Lane, Beverley, East Yorkshire, HU17 9DD.
https://www.yourgdp.com/Other-Financing.aspx

Has anyone else used yourgdp or have any knowledge or information about them?
Yourgdp.com is the company the building contractors/greendeal provider (who did our assessment) are working in partnership with. The original website we looked at for the contractors/assessors/providers, which we submitted our inquiry through is: http://www.kkfsolar.co.uk/
However, recent emails have given the company web address as:
http://kkfltd.co.uk/

Has anyone else had experience with either of these two companies?

Does anyone have any idea if we can take the assessment that has been done and go to another finance provider and/or contractor?

John_Pierpoint

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

........... - think I will install a DIY log burner instead to go green.

A couple of statistics from the BBC Farming programme:

Wood burning applications are now being installed at a record rate - log burners are going in at 200,000 a year up 50% on five years ago.

[If you go back in time a hundred years or more, to poor country areas not benefitting from the Industrial Revolution, in some ways suffering as better transport forced down food prices and factory production bankrupted cottage industries, the still large rural population kept the coppices and hedges "tidy" because they needed the cheap/free firewood - faggots anyone?]

Vox Pop.:

This is a boon for owners of neglected hardwood coppice

Realistically there is no other demand tor such hardwood in small quantities from the timber trade (and cut price competition from the third world for barbecue charcoal).

There is a lot of unofficial collection of logs going on;
I am meant to leave some lengths of trunk to rot for bio diversity reasons but I dare not leave anything stacked within sight of the road or it goes missing.

So those of you thinking a log burner might be a low cost heating choice, be aware that wood has only half the calorific content of the same weighty of top of grade coal and it would be advisable to have a reliable source of wood, as prices may well rise as fast if not faster than other fuels.

http://www.biomassenergycentre.org.uk/portal/page?_pageid=75,59188&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

matchmade

I had a Green Deal assessment done on my nice-looking Edwardian detached house: solid walls, new combi boiler, mostly d/glazed, loft insulation have already been done to the max. The only options to lift the house above an E-rating on its EPC seemed to be solid-wall insulation, PV on the roof, some basic draught-proofing and a couple of extra double-glazed windows. I'm not prepared to have internal insulation as it will considerably reduce my room sizes, require re-wiring and re-doing the radiators, and require the loss of dado rails and plaster cornicing, which is wantonly destructive of original features.


What I was struck by when the lad came round to do the assessment was how little he knew about building work. All he really wanted to do was count a few windows and electrical points and plug the information into his iPad. All my questions about how the external insulation would affect the appearance of my house were left unanswered; he hadn't the faintest idea what to do about the external cornicing under the eaves, or the main and feature brickwork, or the stone window cills, or the cast-iron original drainpipes, or the small half-timbered sections above the gabled windows. As far as he was concerned, external insulation just meant slapping a white rendered insulated layer around the house, deepening the window reveals, and adding black plastic guttering. The whole appearance of the house would have been ruined.


If Green Deal-specified external insulation really gets going, we are going to do untold damage to the nation's historic built environment, akin to the hideous disasters of pebble-dashing and stone cladding.

John_Pierpoint

Do you still have the wooden ground floor? Can a body get underneath it?

I have seen homes internally insulated where the historic features have been left exposed as a sort of exhibit with clever lighting - but I agree I had a battle to persuade my son not to buy an Edwardian house, They must offer the biggest rooms for the money..

AeroGel might come to your rescue - there is some research at the moment to see if production could be scaled up to the point where it becomes an economically feasible option.

Your other choice might be burning wood pellets to reduce your carbon footprint..

peat

There is a fault in the green deal calculation programme, introducing a pellet boiler into the system currently produces a negative result compared to electric storage heaters.
Which makes a mockery of the whole thing.

Careful_Shopper

Hello, as someone who hates UPVC windows in old houses, I want to have secondary glazing or wooden double glazing. I have even looked into energy efficient glass where you can keep existing frames but as it is made in Japan it is very expensive. I haven't seen secondary glazing listed in the Green Deal options, or the energy efficient glass recommended.

My neighbour had her secondary glazing ripped out and replaced with double glazing and her house is much colder now: she regrets the work. I have seen so many houses near us having lovely wooden windows replaced by badly designed UPVC windows. I only intend to buy another house with wooden double glazing or secondary glazing, or I would want to replace the UPVC with wood so I would never consider buying a house where I had to pay off a loan for work I did not like and would want to replace. Even if the work was what I wanted I am concerned about taking on a loan that I did not originally take out. I would want it paid off before I bought the house.

I think it is a shame that the Government didn't introduce a better system as I really want to have an eco home.

coxeey

Got a free assessment for a detached house from Energy Care Group (c 1905, that looks like a terraced with all the others knocked down) for exterior solid wall insulation.
£10,100 for me to pay because there was a gas boiler heating it.
I was told the deal had changed and it cant be taken from savings from the fuel bills and that the subsidy was only 30%.
This was 6th November in Stoke on Trent.
Five inches of insulation to be put on all exterior walls (including the original house walls of the conservatory because it didnt have any permanent form of heating). The down pipes and gas pipes and any other fitting on the wall would be removed and replaced after. The insulation would be out past the window sills by a few inches.
In my case with a narrow entry one side and an access road the other, I would need permission to 'build out' into those spaces by, I presume, the council.
Its not a good idea in my case and I cant tell you how ugly it would look.

I asked what the U value of the insulating material was and he didnt know but it wasnt on the paperwork either.

Advice....ask a lot of questions.