Official Free Boilers and Insulation guide discussion

ka7e

Dyson have been and technical survey has shown a new boiler cannot be placed where current boiler is situated - venting into the basement chimney.

It is recommended a new boiler be placed in out airing cupboard that has no external wall. This would mean new pipework being run up the front of the house and in through our bedroom wall, under floorboards and into the airing cupboard on the landing. A new vent would have to go through the airing cupboard ceiling, through the roof void and out through the roof tiles. It sounds rather complicated and disruptive!

The engineer said EDF will assess the carbon-emission saving accrued by replacing our boiler and use that as a basis for subsidising any of the installation costs.

OriginalWizards

Hello everyone, this is my first post on the forum although I have been reading it for many years, I felt compelled to post.

I seem to have a different story to everyone else here, we purchased a house last year and as it was from an estate we had an EPC check done ourselves, which was ok but recommended a boiler upgrade.


Shortly after this the boiler developed a small intermittent fault.

We are eligible for a small amount of working tax credit so after moving in and getting our tax credits sorted my partner rang the energy saving scheme to see if we would be eligible for a new boiler.

While she was on the phone they must have checked the EPC as they said they could see we needed a new boiler but would not get the insulation as ours was good enough.

They then said they would check with tax credits we were entitled to it and ring back.

This was the only phone call we ever made.

British gas (our energy supplier) rang back a few days later and checked all our details were correct.


Then a month went by which was fair enough as it was Christmas.


Then a couple of weeks ago British gas rang again to say they were sending a guy round to take a look at our boiler, the guy arrived on time, was very helpful, checked the boiler and gas and electric meters and said we would be receiving a call shortly if we were entitled to a free boiler.


Last week we received a call from British gas to say they will be sending an engineer around to fit a new boiler, he is supposed to arrive tomorrow (Thursday 6th) between 8 - 10am so will update the post if and when he arrives.


I actually have said to a few people since that I couldn't believe how easy the process was, we made one phone call and British gas called us back at each stage to arrange everything else, no forms to fill in or anything. Providing the engineer does turn up to fit the boiler, and I see no reason why he wouldn't, for us it was very easy.


It's not often anyone has anything good to say about British gas so I thought I would post it!


Incidentally I had the EPC done by a fixed price online company aswell, after I booked it I saw quite a few bad posts about them on here, but all went fine, and I live right the coast, not a central area.

PhilNailerson

I have British Gas coming in next week to do an Energy Performance Certificate Survey of the property, in order for Cavity Wall Insulation. Does anyone know what this entails, and do they need access to every room?One of the rooms is basically storage, and would take me ages to clear out so would like to know in advance if possible.

Cheers.

Da_iawn

I was contacted by a company called Greenzone based in port talbot late last summer who told me I qualified due to the WTC and CTC we receive, following us sending an e mail to the 'Johnny Ball' company from the advert. The woman was very nice and said it would all be done within about a month. We were slightly sceptical as the whole scheme smacks of 'too good to be true' although we did get our house insulated for free in January 2012 (as my mum is over 75) so we thought it was worth a go. The energy efficiency survey was finally carried out in November last year and the guy had to come back a second time as his camera had not worked properly - he took photos of all our radiator valves and light bulbs as well as my benefits notification letter and told us we would receive the report in about a week, to date - nothing. I rang Greenzone today and was surprised to get an answer (having convinced myself that I must have fallen for a scam) apparently they had passed our details to another company who have since lost their funding ???? She claims that she will contact me shortly! Is it worth just going to my energy supplier or am I stuck with these clowns? I haven't actually signed anything or been given anything on paper and still have an uneasy feeling about the whole thing - any suggestions?

wishicouldaffordit

Da_iawn wrote: »

I was contacted by a company called Greenzone based in port talbot late last summer who told me I qualified due to the WTC and CTC we receive, following us sending an e mail to the 'Johnny Ball' company from the advert. The woman was very nice and said it would all be done within about a month. We were slightly sceptical as the whole scheme smacks of 'too good to be true' although we did get our house insulated for free in January 2012 (as my mum is over 75) so we thought it was worth a go. The energy efficiency survey was finally carried out in November last year and the guy had to come back a second time as his camera had not worked properly - he took photos of all our radiator valves and light bulbs as well as my benefits notification letter and told us we would receive the report in about a week, to date - nothing. I rang Greenzone today and was surprised to get an answer (having convinced myself that I must have fallen for a scam) apparently they had passed our details to another company who have since lost their funding ???? She claims that she will contact me shortly! Is it worth just going to my energy supplier or am I stuck with these clowns? I haven't actually signed anything or been given anything on paper and still have an uneasy feeling about the whole thing - any suggestions?

I would apply elsewhere if I were you. You could wait for months for nothing to happen.

OriginalWizards

PhilNailerson wrote: »

I have British Gas coming in next week to do an Energy Performance Certificate Survey of the property, in order for Cavity Wall Insulation. Does anyone know what this entails, and do they need access to every room?One of the rooms is basically storage, and would take me ages to clear out so would like to know in advance if possible.

Cheers.

They would need access to the room to measure it and count the electric points in the room, that is all.

pippin18

Advice and help please!te we eventually got a surveyor out on 13th January 2014. He checked our paperwork and said everything was fine, but the paperwork needed to be checked by the office etc, we filled in the appropriate forms and he done a survey on the house, said we would hear in 4-10 working days. 2 weeks went by nothing, so we chased them up to be told that our paperwork still hadn't been checked and 'scored'. Another week went by nothing from them, so today we rang them again to be told 'sorry you dont qualify for a new free boiler because you failed on the carbon emissions !' Carbon emissions - right ok.... how did we fail.... apparently you need a carbon emissions score of 900 or more...ours was 876 just falling short. Right so now we are asking ourselves several questions.... How can they get a carbon emission reading on a boiler that doesnt work? Our boiler is at least 17 years old (its a Potterton 32) so should automatically qualify for replacement due to in efficiency... Why when you look on any of the websites for 'Free Boilers' does it not say you have to have a certain carbon emissions reading..... isnt that false advertising as when we filled in the online application it says congratulations you meet the criteria! Isnt that misleading? No one tells you about Carbon Emissions! So now we are in a situation that we have been without heating and hot water for 9 weeks and cant get a new boiler.how can they say they are helping families on low incomes? We are not only freezing cold, but have no idea how we are going to get a new boiler. Can anyone help? Oh and by the way they said the boiler replacement would be £2200 but we MAY qualify for a Government grant of £1275 towards it.... how are we supposed to pay the remaining £925 ??????

angrysharks

Which company has all of this happened with? I was going with Southern first and they took so long I moved to British Gas who have now installed my new boiler. I'm loathed to recommend them but they were quick - it took about a month from the initial call to the installation. I'd say ask another energy supplier as it seems wrong that you've not qualified. I had two working but temperamental boilers (both very old - 20 years and 50 years) but I wasn't without heat and hot water. Call the Energy Saving Trust for advice: 0300 123 1234. Good luck!

pippin18

We applied through WWW.boilergrants.co.uk on 12th December,Someone rang us and they were from ECO. They use Npower I think

angrysharks

You can definitely try another of the energy suppliers. Energy Saving Trust is impartial and can do a basic assessment over the phone and then you get to choose the energy supplier. It's hard to know which to recommend but maybe if you scroll through this forum you might find a good experience with one of them? Like I said before, Southern took months and cancelled the installation a couple of times and were a general pain to deal with. I can't remember now the boiler they were planning to install but know it was a budget one. British Gas were quick and I have a Valiant boiler but their fitters were not the best.

When things were bad with Southern I called the Energy Saving Trust and they reassessed me, confirmed that Southern had received no funding as I hadn't received a boiler so it was fine to try another company. I do think that's your best route.