Official Free Boilers and Insulation guide discussion

XAV8R

My income is £450 / month from a council pension, I was pensioned off through ill health some years ago, since then I have had 3 heart attacks & am now diabetic type 2, I'm 62 years old & I own my own home, live alone, have no debts, yet I do not qualify for sickness benefit or unemployment benefit as my pension is above the government minimum threshold, the only help I get from anywhere is a reduction in my council tax, Rotherham's Citizens Advice Center suggested that I should take in a lodger to make ends meet ( some help they were !!! ) It now seems that even though I'm over 60 & my boiler is the original Glow worm space saver fitted in 1980 & my income is only half of the £16,000 allowed but because I cannot claim "ANY" benefits I do NOT qualify for the fitting of a new boiler in my home.
Any help would be most gratefully accepted

liynne

Had a new boiler fitted last week to replace my very old expensive to run boiler. Fitted by Dyson and all surveys etc conducted by EDF. All very helpful did need to call them back several times took 4 months from start of enquiry to final fitting. Very happy. All I did to start process was to call my energy provider EDF to see if they offered free boilers.

DF-S

I qualify for a free boiler upgrade, great I thought this will be very good for my 96yr old mother.
I submitted the application, a few days later I hear from British Gas and book an inspection.
The guy from British gas arrived, looked at the boiler (a back-boiler) and said this unit has not complied with the ventilation regs for years and yes it did need urgently replacing and yes, I did indeed qualify for a free upgrade.
This will COST £600 admin fee plus around £3000 for a new heating system to be plummed to the free boiler.
How is an unpaid carer on pension credit supposed to find at least £3600 when a cup of coffee is out of the question?

cubagirl

Our only income is Pension Credit. I was told we do have the full criteria for a "free" home assessment, but there is NO such thing as a free boiler, that was stopped April 2015. We would have to make a contribution,depending on the home assessment,usually £ 300 +
This was from One Green Peace, who do the assessments for SSE.
I have waited over a week and British Gas have not got back to me.

AngiT

Hi

Just been reading about CHP boilers that generate electricity while using the gas. Is there any information, reviews etc about these on this site? Have seen Flow Energy deal, seems too good to be true, any comments from anyone? Who else sells such boilers and are they worth it?

Thanks

funkyboyscot

Applied to N power. Got a 2 hour survey done. Met the criteria! All to be free. Now they dont have any installers in my Post code KY12 but they do have in KY11 which is less than one mile away. The refuse to install for me.

Applied to British Gas. Got a 2 hour survey done. Met The criteria. I was to contribute £300. Only draw back the boiler they are offering me is far too small for my house.

Dont know what to do next

weebubs

Hi there jenny I have had a new boiler installed as I qualified as I was on a low income. Boiler was fitted and I was left with a bill for £800 to pay. Can't quote understand why as my credit rating sucks. At no time during the survey was I told that I would be left will a bill at the end. Company have taken me to court and I now have to pay remaining balance at £100. Has this happened to anyone else ???

ZJC

I started the application process for a 'Free' Boiler back in November 2015 and it has taken just over 3.5 months to actually get the boiler installed. I applied through Eon as they are my energy supplier and the only company to actually respond to my online application. My experience may not be representative as obviously I have only done it once. The company acting on behalf of Eon and it seems, many other suppliers, is 1 Green Place.

Eon told me during my original enquiry and application that my contribution towards the cost of the boiler would be £150 plus any other additional works required once a full inspection had been carried out, it wasn't!

The initial assessment appointment was a disaster as despite waiting in all day, no one from 1 Green Place arrived. I then waited 2 weeks for a second appointment which was pretty straight forward. it then took approx 6 weeks before the second Technical Assessor came to carry out the required technical survey.

When it came to paying the '£150' it transpired that I would actually be required to pay a total of £390. some of this additional cost was work needed to bring the system up to current standards as my last boiler was 10 years old so fair enough, but the part that really stuck in my throat was that 1 Green Place insisted that the Eon contribution was £240 and not the quoted £150. I doubled checked with Eon who still quoted £150 as did the Technical Assessor, but 1 Green Place were having none of it and so I had no choice but to paid the £240 Customer Contribution plus the £150 need to update the system.

1 Green Place then failed to arrange for an electrician to be onsite at the same time as the Gas Fitters so we had to rearrange the fitting date. However, despite their assurances to the contrary the Electrician still did not arrive on the revised date and I had to wait a further 2 days to get the job completed, which having a toddler at home, was certainly not ideal.

So, in conclusion, £390 was still a small price to pay for a top of the range Worcester Boiler but the lack of professionalism shown by 1 Green Place was very frustrating and made what should have been a fairly simple process, a lot more difficult than needed.

noskralc

Hi
I qualify for free boiler but have to pay £478 installation costs before boiler is installed. Is it usual to pay this before installation?

Thanks for any help with this

Bebopman

Your local Council might be able to help with the cost of Installation. Mine say they could cover any additional cost.
I found out at a later date I didn't qualify for the free boiler so didn't get anything.