Official Free Boilers and Insulation guide discussion

OriginalWizards

Hi all just to update my post from a couple of pages back, a engineer called from British gas to fit the boiler on the day he should have, but I needed a new flue through the roof so he said it was a 2 man job.
Today they arrived to fit the boiler (yes...sunday) and were in and out within 3 hours, their job was made easier by me lifting the floor boards in advance ect, everything is working really well already, although they are sending an electrician round to fit a wireless thermostat, and a courier to remove the rubbish from outside the house (empty box from boiler)


Just to clarify we used british gas, and made 1 phone call to energy saving trust they done the rest, it took about 8 - 10 weeks in all, including Christmas.


The fitters were really helpful, even offered to help me put the floorboards back down, and re-lay the laminate flooring. They left all the paperwork, certificates, warranty ect.


I have had a really good experience of this scheme, maybe I just got lucky but never at any point did anyone even mention I may have to pay towards the boiler. Everything went very well for us, I have recommended it to everyone I know.


Good Luck. :beer:

OAP80wallace

OriginalWizards wrote: »

Hi all just to update my post from a couple of pages back, a engineer called from British gas to fit the boiler on the day he should have, but I needed a new flue through the roof so he said it was a 2 man job.
Today they arrived to fit the boiler (yes...sunday) and were in and out within 3 hours, their job was made easier by me lifting the floor boards in advance ect, everything is working really well already, although they are sending an electrician round to fit a wireless thermostat, and a courier to remove the rubbish from outside the house (empty box from boiler)


Just to clarify we used british gas, and made 1 phone call to energy saving trust they done the rest, it took about 8 - 10 weeks in all, including Christmas.


The fitters were really helpful, even offered to help me put the floorboards back down, and re-lay the laminate flooring. They left all the paperwork, certificates, warranty ect.


I have had a really good experience of this scheme, maybe I just got lucky but never at any point did anyone even mention I may have to pay towards the boiler. Everything went very well for us, I have recommended it to everyone I know.


Good Luck. :beer:

Lovely to hear you had a good experience. There have not been many like that:T on this Forum.

OAP80wallace

Billyhosepipe wrote: »

Hi all,

Like most families these days money is tight, both of us have full time jobs, not in receipt of any of the benefits required to get a free system and our boiler is very inefficient. We cannot afford several thousands of ££s installing a new system, is there any assistance available from anywhere to help couples with our own home to be able to afford a replacement ?

Any help and advice gratefully received.

Thank you.

You could investigate the Green Deal, although I believe the interest rate is somewhat high. With an efficient boiler,it would save you money to pay towards the loan, perhaps.

POLAR_BILL

OAP80wallace wrote: »

Lovely to hear you had a good experience. There have not been many like that:T on this Forum.

I agree. I too was totally satisfied with my new boiler from N Power even though it took five months from original enquiry. They worked hard and no mention of it costing me anything.

wishicouldaffordit

Mine was installed last week finally - and the installers were excellent. Couldn't have asked for better really. Am more than happy with my new central heating - I just wish I hadn't had months of chasing it up, plus being told we needed to pay towards it, then no need to pay. Am glad I complained to E.On CEO even if they did try and make out I was mistaken, it saved us being ripped off to the tune of £1.5K at least.

fellsider

Hi. I first applied last November 10th 2013. Am now on my fourth company and have been told today, yet again funding has been cut.
I fulfill all the criteria. Have had 3 epc done and when I chase each company up after they have all said there is no funding available any more.
Do these free boilers actually exist?
Is it true funding has been cut?
How is it that the same companies are STILL advertising free boilers on their websites.
One, separately was through British Gas and after applying before Christmas I never heard another thing! Rang them and they said there was a 16 week minimum to process applications!!

OriginalWizards

I can understand that a lot of people are getting frustrated over this, my advice would be to ring the energy saving trust and tell them that you want British gas to do the install, you dont have to be a British gas customer at all.

From reading through this thread that seems to be the way forward. Certainly for me, there should be no need to have more than one EPC done as you can view your EPC online anytime, and if you have had one done the energy trust will check it while you are on the phone. They will also ask you what benifits you recieve so they can give you an idea of if you will be eligible.

The fitter who done our boiler yesterday didn't mention funding being cut, in fact he said they were very busy fitting these boilers.

Just to give you an idea of my situation, I get a small amount of working tax credit, my partner gets child tax credit, we just bought our house last year and our old boiler was a 10 year old combi.
We live in the southeast (should make no difference) as I said in my post above in all it took 8-10 weeks including christmas and we ony ever made ONE phone call to the energy saving trust, British gas rung us back after that at every step to organise it.

Just don't give up.

fellsider

One of my applications done at the beginning of January (applications NOT running concurrently) through the ESA, all checks for eligibility OK. and choosing British gas. STILL waiting to hear anything.
That's why I rang and was told at least 16 weeks, probably more before I hear anything to start the process.
So even going through the ESA doesn't seem to help.
Also even though the EPCs were plainly accessible each company said that the 'government' insisted that a new EPC be carried out as an EPC from a previous visit, even within weeks, was not acceptable.
I smell some kind of a scam here.

pippin18

Well to all of you who have been following my post regarding the free boiler (which I wasnt entitled to in the end) and trying a different avenue...today we were told that there is no more government funding to fund grants or free boilers, we were told 2 weeks ago that there was going to be a new scheme if you fail to qualify for a free boiler on the carbon emissions score, the government were giving each applicant a grant of around £1275 towards a new boiler and the shortfall of the boiler (in our case £925) would be paid by your energy supplier and you would then pay that back through your energy bill. But sadly there is no funding now! So anyone got any ideas how we can get help with our boiler....we have had no heating or hot water since 8th December, we are on JSA and child tax credit. Thanks

fellsider

Just had a phone call from British Gas who asked for details and a permission letter from landlord in order to send round yet another assessor!
Although I have had 3 EPCs done now only one is showing on the EPC website, the original one which took the man 10mins to assess. Yes literally! Looked at the boiler and trvs and then posted the EPC.
Although when he looked. The heating was not working at all and the hot water intermittent he awarded 4 stars for efficiency of heating!!
The caller from British Gas was adamant that funding has NOT been cut and that there will be no problems as far as he was concerned.
Yeah! Hopefully this time it's true. All the others assured the same.
Let's see.....