Official Free Boilers and Insulation guide discussion

Richie-from-the-Boro

- there are 48,000 CSCO's, all listed in here

cookie63

We applied for a free boiler from NPower, it took ages for them to sort after we had the initial contact (about 4 months from call to installation). There were a few !!!! ups along the way and even after the installation we were getting calls saying that we had been approved, even though the boiler had been installed. The guys who installed the boiler were great and very efficient. The boiler is also very good. I hope that this helps and puts some faith to the people that are having 'issues'. Please try and be a little patient and keep calling them for updates.

marigolds

Help ive been approached by plumbing company (scottish) and I meet the critria for a free boiler.My problem is Im reading on here that only power companies can arrange this.Have I got that right?

Ecodave

SuiDreams wrote: »

Currently very confussed, I have had loft insulation done earlier in the year under CSCO, am now investigating Cavity wall insulation (with a different installer) and now being told I don't live in a CSCO area, others in the area have been told recently they could get free cavity wall insulation. Please help.

It's possible that you live in an area adjoining a csco area, and the company that did your loft insulation installed it on that basis. Under the regs, energy companies can install a small proportion (I seem to recall its 15% but I might be wrong! Google would know) of their obligations in areas adjoining those in csco areas. If they did this, they may have been taking a punt that the energy companies won't fill up their csco obligations, and will therefore be willing to buy the credits for the work done in adjoining areas. Only guessing, but that would seem to explain your circumstance.

lukieboy96

I get HRC and LRM and have just moved into a flat. I was just wondering if I was able to ask my housing Association about looking into the insulation etc as it is a very cold flat.

Richie-from-the-Boro

- of course you can, and should, in fact they are the only people who will be allowed to sanction it for you if at all
- in most cases they have their own schemes of work, your dwelling might already be done or planned for the future
- whether a free boiler or insulation, if you live in a HA or LA dwelling and are a tenant they own the property

[Deleted User]

Hi Marigolds!
Not too sure about all of it, but so far this is how I understand the process:

It is the big power companies that are putting up the money for the ECO and Affordable Warmth schemes.
Some of the money then gets spent through the installations these companies handle themselves and some goes through third party companies, so called 'providers'. Just google 'affordable warmth' and you will find a number of websites. [Seems like anyone who could snap up a web domain with the term 'affordable warmth' in it has done so.]
These providers handle the admin side, no doubt for a fee, and can range from admin organisation to nationwide diy company to some local plumbers. They might handle the energy assessment and installation part or even further outsource those.
So in some cases the company is provider/assessor/installer in one and in others you are effectivly dealing with three different companies. How this all works in detail - beats me.

Does this help in any way...? If not, join the club.

poppymummy

30th August 2013, Made initially enquiries withthe Energy Saving Advice Service and apparently we may qualify, as parentsof a Downs Syndrome young adult who receives some benefits, for a freereplacement boiler under the ECO scheme.

27th September acknowledgement letter receivedfrom British Gas (our dual fuel supplier) & request to contact them for an Assessorappointment. Contacted British Gas (BG), eligibility confirmed, job reference issuedand told we would be contacted by ‘planning’ within 10 working days forassessor to visit.

14th October, No contact from BG re: Assessorappointment, called them and was told to call back end of October when‘Assessor’s diary available’.

28th October called British Gas planning and told‘a note on file, they will call you for appointment’ – no call received.

30th October –no call back received, I called BritishGas planning, was told ‘On the phone, they will call you back’. No call received.

1st November - I called again as no-one had contactedme. Told ‘They will call you back’. No call back, called again & anappointment made for assessor for 14th November. Informed Assessor/Surveyorwould call an hour before attendance on 14th November.

14th November – STAYED IN ALL DAY, NO PHONE CALL,NO ASSESSOR ATTENDED.

15th November – called to inform non-attendanceof assessor and to re-book appointment. Told‘you will be called back…..’

19th November – called BG Planning (0800 3161517)spoke to Manager ‘Kenny’ and told surveyor was on holiday and hadn’t informed theirdepartment. Next appointments now for ‘mid -December’ and assured by ManagerKenny “someone would call to re-book when we have details of his (assessor’s)diary”. Emphasised that I and others had been let down on the 14th, trustwe are now considered priority customers.

26th November –7 working days in, and still nocontact from BG, called at 1420 & told…’ there is currently no surveyor forthis area, situation with senior management….’

26th November – called ESAS (Energy Saving AdviceService).Contact was appalled that application had been on-going since AUGUST.,however only able to advise a written complaint.

26th November – called 0800 197 0405 – energy advisorspoke on my behalf to planning department and response was ‘currently no-one inWEST SUSSEX to survey/assess home, the department is now trying to recruit assessors’unable to offer a time scale as to when we may have an assessment…

Ironic Footnote: neighbour (2 doors away and obviously liveswithin the same boundaries of West Sussex) called (25th November)asking for advice “Did we have any experience with British Gas”? She hadcalled British Gas within this month to quote for a boiler replacement (to be privatelyfunded by her and outside of any scheme) they (British Gas) had attended and quoted her a fee for a British Gasinstalled boiler.

SO anyadvice where I go from here? British Gas claims no assessors to cover the wholeof West Sussex for the foreseeable future. Have applied on line to Npower thisevening, to restart the whole application process.

Seems there are no‘service delivery’ criterion for this offer and no complaints procedure setdown for the ECO scheme.

Out of principle I intend to pursue this matter on behalf ofall those families who have disabled family members, have the eligible criteria,are thwarted & stalled by corporate red tape & who are usually tooproud to chase and ask for what they may be entitled to.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Most of the very little ECO is on hold or about to be put on hold regardless of Ed Davey's spouting of the positive. It .. .. 'Camerons review of the "green levy" is already discounted by the big 6. Previously committed programmes are as we speak being stopped in their tracks, contracts are being cancelled and withdrawn and the big 6 are flatly refusing to honour even their 'limited and late' promised payment [funded by British Gas’s ECO] schedules. The first of two [Centrica £500 mi££ion] massive retrofits in my area each being 500 dwellings have had the financial 'rug' pulled in the last week. If these powerful local authority & British Gas schemes fall down, the whole pack of cards we call Green Deal & ECO initiative is not worth a light, and along with the scheme goes the 500 jobs, including apprenticeships, and the 75 newly created posts to manage delivery of the scheme.

Shame on them, it was Shiite from the start, and appears to be Shiite at the end, people saw right through it and ill not pay for back door job creation by creating personal debt for individual householders repaid through their [German scheme 1-3% the UK scheme 7-9%] leccy bills. Its about time GOV did right by its people on these Islands and :

- moved the regressive to progressive
- cut dead the little windy-mills
- moved dirty coal to less dirty gas
- moved gas to nuclear
- stopped the warmer homes initiative
- went back to, an trebled the old scheme
- and attended to the leakiest houses in Europe

In other words stop dreaming, get out of La~La land you are never going to break or even regulate the canker that is the big 6 so do what you really can do. We had a system [WHI] with all of its warts that worked, it was shallow and should have been 3 times the £ value and give external wall insulation as well as a quickie loft and cavity insulation.

Shame on them ...........................

rafthorney

Sounds like a nightmare!
If I were you I,d just register with all 6 energy companies and then sit back and wait.
I registered with edf a few weeks back and when I phoned for an update,the guy said it could take 6 to 9 months!!


Just registering with southern electric but they want to know info that only hmrc know,so I,m wary about divulging to an energy firm,they can look at the forms I have but not copy or take them away,tick your boxes and that's it.


And just for something to do,i emailed the decc to see if they were monitoring the scheme and how it was going as the blogs don't seem too impressed.


I appreciate that a lot of people are after the boilers and insulation and I would hope that the energy firms are savvy enough to have systems in place to ensure a smooth flow of information.I,m not holding my breathe though.


I,m just going to sit and wait and see what happens.


good luck all and don't get too down,after all its freebies.