Green Deal MSE Guide Discussion

Coko_247

Last June I had a company called Get Green Today ltd. They took £349 off my credit card for an assessment. I was told it would be refunded when the works were done!! Someone visited the next week and took vague details of an assessment. Then in September I had another assessor from Lets Go Green who said the details were passed to them and apologized for delay. The assessor took specific measurements and left saying I would get a report about what works would go ahead. To date I have heard from neither company and they are not replying to my e-mails. What should I do? Has anyone had the same problem.:mad::(

pd001

Coko_24/7 wrote: »

Last June I had a company called Get Green Today ltd. They took £349 off my credit card for an assessment. I was told it would be refunded when the works were done!! Someone visited the next week and took vague details of an assessment. Then in September I had another assessor from Lets Go Green who said the details were passed to them and apologized for delay. The assessor took specific measurements and left saying I would get a report about what works would go ahead. To date I have heard from neither company and they are not replying to my e-mails. What should I do? Has anyone had the same problem.:mad::(

You paid by credit card and NOT by a debit card?
If 'yes' then get your money back from the credit card company. Dont mess about any further with either of the companies that you have been dealing with.

You dont appear to have had what you paid for so you should be trying to get your money back.

Coko_247

Thank you pd001. I will apply for my money back from my credit card company. I think I will complain via trading standards too.!!

Smolli

I'm a Domestic Energy Assessor (someone who does EPCs) AND I work for a Green Deal Installer, but we don't do Green Deal, we do ECO (Energy Companies Obligation) which is mentioned in part 13 of the MSE Green Deal article.

Firstly, a few people seem to have been confused between an EPC and a Green Deal Assessment. An assessment for an EPC costs about £50 and gives you recommendations about measures for your home (as well as telling you which of them MAY be available to you under Green Deal), but does NOT give you access to the Green Deal. £120 is what you pay for the full Green Deal Assessment, which includes an EPC.

My opinion is that Green Deal has been hideously managed. People keep on saying there have been over 120,000 Green Deal Assessment carried out, BUT most of these have been to access funding under ECO, not Green Deal! (And under ECO, the installer usually either foots the cost of the Green Deal Assessment, or will have gone for the cheaper option of using a Chartered Surveyors Report)

I'd recommend everyone ask around to see if you could get measures under ECO before considering Green Deal. It's basically free money towards your chosen measures; no loan, no catch.

The only drawback is that it's been badly hit by an announcement last December, whereby the Big 6 basically bullied the government into extending their carbon obligation targets. This means ECO Installers get about half the money per carbon-tonne that they used to, meaning the carbon savings are less likely to pay the entire cost of whatever measure you get. Especially solid wall insulation. (We used to be able to offer over £11,000 worth of SWI to certain houses completed ECO funded, nowadays it's rare that we have to ask the householder to contribute less than £3000 themselves just to break even on an install...all because of the tonnage rate.)

The same is true for boilers. Under the HHCRO brance of ECO, Installers get paid so many pence in the pound of what a heating upgrade is expected to save you. So if it's expected to save you £13000 over the lifetime of the boiler, under the NEW rate the installer gets a grant of £780. Which probably won't pay for a new boiler install, so you'll still have to contribute. Which is embarassing when you consider that HHCRO was supposed to target people in fuel poverty!

The good news is that from April, the criteria for cavity wall insulation and loft insulation is broadening, so everyone will be eligible regardless of benefits or the area you live in. So it's a very good time to start considering ECO.

In short, consider ECO first, because it's an outright grant, rather than a loan. If you can't get the measure for free under ECO, consider Green Deal. But don't fork out £120 expecting miracles. There's a reason so few Green Deals have been taken out.

Frankly, your best bet is to sit tight for another year or two, when the energy companies will once again be facing their carbon deadline, they will panic, start outbidding each other for carbon, the tonnage price rate will go up and suddenly ECO installers will be able to give you pretty much anything for free.

[Deleted User]

ECO = Free boiler swaps for get rich quick private landlords while lining the pockets of some grubby boiler installation company that only appeared when ECO was launched.

RajaStyle

Smolli wrote: »

The good news is that from April, the criteria for cavity wall insulation and loft insulation is broadening, so everyone will be eligible regardless of benefits or the area you live in. So it's a very good time to start considering ECO.

In short, consider ECO first, because it's an outright grant, rather than a loan. If you can't get the measure for free under ECO, consider Green Deal. But don't fork out £120 expecting miracles. There's a reason so few Green Deals have been taken out.

Frankly, your best bet is to sit tight for another year or two, when the energy companies will once again be facing their carbon deadline, they will panic, start outbidding each other for carbon, the tonnage price rate will go up and suddenly ECO installers will be able to give you pretty much anything for free.

Any advise on when to apply for solid wall insulation grant or internal wall insulation grant as a last resort if external not available ?

Smolli

LeeUK - you seem to be a bit hung up on the idea that ECO installers are after a quick buck; if the government allowed these schemes to create a stable market then they wouldn't need to ask for contributions from the customers at all. I don't know much about the boiler side of things, but if it was ever a gravy train (which I doubt) it's over now.

RajaStyle - not too sure what you mean as SWI and EWI are usually used synonymously, but the cash back grants on Green Deal are available NOW and will only be so until July. So now's the time if you want to go down that route, but tbh it's best if you have the £4000 up front to get the additional grant. You won't get SWI under ECO for a long time until the rates go up.

John_Pierpoint

I always have a problem with TLAs, but I think I've sussed it:
SWI & EWI mean Solid Wall Insulation and External Wall Insulation?

Here is an attempt by a thinly disguised Travis Perkins builders merchants to explain what is needed:
http://www.sustainablebuildingsolutions.co.uk/
http://www.sustainablebuildingsolutions.co.uk/solutions/retrofit

matelodave

I've just had a Green Deal Assessment done, not because I specifically want to upgrade but because I need one if I am going to claim Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for my heat pump which I had installed three and a half years ago.
What a total and utter waste of time & money. The assessor was here for about 2 hours (it would have been less if he'd been a bit more organised). He took a load of photos, made some measurements and entered stuff into his Ipad app which did all the calculating for him. My six year old granddaughter could have done what he did.
The app struggled with the fact that a heatpump doesn't really work like a normal boiler (so did he). He struggled with the idea of zone controls in all the rooms and weather compensation for the boiler flow and wanted to concentrate on how often we used the Tumble Dryer but ignored the fact that we've gor a washing machine & dishwasher.
The upshot of it all is that if I spend something like 15-25k I can save about £400 a year which is highly unlikely as I only spend about £500 on heating & hotwater anyway. Non of the recommendations would pay back in less than about 10-15 years except perhaps PV panels and that's only because of the FIT
I did get recommendations like closing my curtains at night save energy, turning off lights when not in use, turning stuff off instead of leaving it on standby and only using the washing machine with full loads. He couldn't even suggest low energy lightbulbs as 80% of ours are LED anyway.


So all in all another government initiative that's badly thought out and even more badly implemented - it's not surprising that not many people have taken it up

CUSTARD

I am trying to book a Green Deal Assessment. Our house is leaking vast sums of money. I called NWS after clicking the link through MSE. MSE say I could even get a free assessment being in an LE postcode and some extra discount. The person I spoke to hadn't got a clue and went away to talk to a colleague and came back and said they do not cover the LE area. This contradicts what is shown on the MSE site.
I then called the Green Deal Advice Service and I had to leave a message and they have not called back.
I am already frustrated about trying to get an assessment, let alone any improvements to save energy.