MSE News: New Green Deal Home Improvement Fund begins today – is it worth it for you?

lstar337

captainhindsight wrote: »

This could go on an on....

Not really. You have explained sufficiently.

Smiley_Dan

Is this a five minute argument or a ten minute argument?

davidgmmafan

It might be a ten minute rule bill

Im still unsure who precisely the green deal is supposed to appeal to. The results so far would seem to suggest it in fact appeals to next to nobody.

captainhindsight_2

davidgmmafan wrote: »

It might be a ten minute rule bill

Im still unsure who precisely the green deal is supposed to appeal to. The results so far would seem to suggest it in fact appeals to next to nobody.

The green deal finance is not attractive to the majority of people but is attractive for people who do not have the cash and cannot get finance privately and fall outside of the criteria for hhcro for example but desperately need a new boiler.

And the home improvement fund should appeal to everyone one planning on doing any of the work eligible for the cash back

Smiley_Dan

And the home improvement fund should appeal to everyone one planning on doing any of the work eligible for the cash back

Well... anyone planning on doing at least two items of work eligible...

captainhindsight_2

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

Well... anyone planning on doing at least two items of work eligible...

It can be made to work for the majority of people who are on the mains gas grid.you just need a company that fully understands the schme and how to make the most of it.

It's going to be difficult for rural properties to achieve it, but rural properties have the rhi scheme which is very generous!

The way I see it is if you only want one measure you going to be forced to spend an extra £500 to get a minimum £1000 cash back .

AzaC

captainhindsight wrote: »

Also you should probably take in to consideration it is only day two of this new incentive scheme.

It's not a quick process getting set up to offer this if they want to operate indipendently

They are using the same website that was used for the green deal, which has been up and running for over a year (I think). I tried looking for windows under the green deal scheme but had the same problem (lack of suppliers actually signed up to sell windows).

captainhindsight_2

AzaC wrote: »

They are using the same website that was used for the green deal, which has been up and running for over a year (I think). I tried looking for windows under the green deal scheme but had the same problem (lack of suppliers actually signed up to sell windows).

Before the home improvement fund there was no real incentive to get glazing through the green deal, now there is. So the number of companies who offer this will increase, hopefully before the money runs out

Princethumper

I tried my hand at the green deal, I paid up £150 to SIG and they came around and did an assessment. They screwed it up so months later they sent another bloke who appears to have also gotten quite a few things wrong.

It's a difficult scheme to have any faith in and quite frankly I don't want to let another one of these cowboys walk through the door.

That said, a messed up assessment may still be useful to me with this new scheme. Our house was purchased less than 12 months ago so I would be interested to know what hoops I need to jump through to get that £500.

I have increasing cylinder insulation and increasing loft insulation as two cheap measures on my recommendations.

captainhindsight_2

Princethumper wrote: »

I tried my hand at the green deal, I paid up £150 to SIG and they came around and did an assessment. They screwed it up so months later they sent another bloke who appears to have also gotten quite a few things wrong.

It's a difficult scheme to have any faith in and quite frankly I don't want to let another one of these cowboys walk through the door.

That said, a messed up assessment may still be useful to me with this new scheme. Our house was purchased less than 12 months ago so I would be interested to know what hoops I need to jump through to get that £500.

I have increasing cylinder insulation and increasing loft insulation as two cheap measures on my recommendations.

First you need at least 2 of the 12 below to be recommended in an EPC or a GDAR then you need to use a Green Deal Installer to install a min of 2 of them. This gets you £1000 + £500 (for doing it within 12 months of buying) + £100 back for the GDAR (NOT EPC).

1- Condensing mains gas boiler
2 - Fan-assisted storage heaters
3 - Flue Gas Heat Recovery
4 - Replacement warm-air unit
5 - Waste water heat recovery
6 - Cavity wall insulation
7 - Flat roof insulation
8 - Floor insulation
9 - Room-in-roof insulation
10 - Double/triple glazing (replacing single glazing)
11 - Secondary glazing
12 - Energy efficient replacement doors

Unless the assessor you used is switched on, you maybe be missing recommendations that should be there. As the individual assessor has discretion to add recommendations that are not listed on the EPC.

If you are interested in just one of the measures above, talk to an installer who can offer the one thing you want and they should be able to get another measure to fit. This will mean your buying something you don't want as well as the one thing you do want, but it means you get the £1600 cashback so the one thing you do want has cost you less than it would have if you didnt buy the thing your didnt want.

Example is: Steve wants a boiler, he gets a quote for £1500 for a normal condensing boiler then he another quote for a condensing boiler and a gas flue heat recovery this is £2350 then £150 for a GDAR totaling £2500.

So hes better off paying the £2500, as he'll get £1600 cashback so its only cost him £900. Even if he just gets the £1100 cashback hes still better off as hes only spent £1400, a £100 less and hes got a more expensive/better/more efficient boiler fitted.