Green deal - to do or not to do

con1888

background, house owned.
Have combi boiler (timing broken on it)
gas and electric we pay a total of £180 a month
semi detached 2 bed ex council house..

Heating always on full ( even at night) house is never toasty, radiotors may be burny to touch but don't seem to heat house in fact I would say the house is pretty cold.

Not sure what to do we don't have lots of savings to buy a new system outright but we are paying a fortune and for what ? A cold house.

ic

Is your house insulated? Cavity wall, loft?

con1888

ic wrote: »

Is your house insulated? Cavity wall, loft?

I don't think so , we have been here just over a year and it's not been done in that time.

macman

How can the heating be on 'burny" 24/7 and yet the house still cold?
If you are paying £180pm, wouldn't it be worth the small investment required to sort out the programmer-they're about £50 new?
Post your actual annual kWh figures and more meaningful advice can be given. ££'s DD tell us nothing about your actual usage.
But if you have no loft insulation then you might as well set fire to £10 notes-it's an afternoon's work to install it. You've missed the boat on free or subsidised insulation now I'm afraid, but it's still worth your own money to sort out the basics like the loft and CWI.
When was the boiler and CH last serviced? Is it correctly pressurised? Do the rads need bleeding?

rogerblack

Fixing the timer is an inexpensive first step.
This can vary from something you can DIY - if you can find a compatible replacement - up to a callout for an electrician plus the cost of a new timer.
Is this a timer external to the boiler?

Green deal is at its core a non-subsidised (for most) program where you pay for an expensive loan through a surcharge on your energy bills.
Replacing a working gas heating system will never pay back through the green deal unless you're in the most unusual circumstances.

Even if your circumstances change dramatically, it removes all flexibility, as for example you simply can't choose to live in one room and have nearly no heating, while having 90% less bills.
The green deal payments can be deducted from benefits.

If you have a clear attic - or even if you can clear it - installing loft insulation yourself is not a hard job.

Ecodave

Not all the grants for insulation have gone, though they are no longer universally available.

I would suggest you call the Energy Savings Advice Service to establish whether you or your house would qualify you for further assistance. Their number is 0300 1231234.

I also understand that there are grants available for the replacement of 'broken' boilers. ESAS may be able to confirm this for you.

Richie-from-the-Boro

con1888 wrote: »

background, house owned.
Have combi boiler (timing broken on it)
gas and electric we pay a total of £180 a month
semi detached 2 bed ex council house..

Heating always on full ( even at night) house is never toasty, radiotors may be burny to touch but don't seem to heat house in fact I would say the house is pretty cold.

Not sure what to do we don't have lots of savings to buy a new system outright but we are paying a fortune and for what ? A cold house.

- there are dozens of posts, read through this one for starters and come back with questions