Company trading as UK Energy Assessment - anyone have any insight?

Hermann

Some friends have had an 'assessment' by a company presenting as UK Energy Assessment, they have a .co.uk website which I won't link to.

Its a company name that doesn't search well as it brings up all sorts of discussions of any form of energy assessment so haven't been able to find any experiences of them, either on these forums, or the internet in general.

Does anyone know anything of them? I'm concerned they may be conning people into overpriced work thats unnecessary.

In broad terms they assessed a house and found that some old double glazing units had plain glass in them and advised that the units be changed for Pilkington K thermal glass. They proposed changing just the glazing units not the frames.

The 'assessor' claimed that through working with the Big 6 Energy suppliers there would be 50% 'Grant' available.

The quote was in the region of £30k with a 'grant' bringing that down to around £15k

It was stated that fitting these would result in a 76% reduction in heating bills.

Now I don't believe the energy savings would be anything like those claimed, but if one wanted to change these glazing units to Pilkington K a local firm could do it for around £5K (there are quite a lot of units and some are very large) but they have said they wouldn't do it as it wouldn't bring substantial enough benefits to be worthwhile.

I also can't see where the 50% grant comes from, as far as I can tell any schemes don't apply to windows and what help is available is restricted to those in fuel poverty which wouldn't apply to the household in question.

So does anyone have any experience or seen them discussed anywhere?

Ectophile

The "50% grant" is where they massively inflate the price, tell you that they have managed to get a grant of 50%, so what you pay works out only very expensive, rather than ridiculously expensive.



There is no way that replacing a few old double glazing units with new ones will save 76% on your heating bills.

Cardew

Hermann wrote: »

It was stated that fitting these would result in a 76% reduction in heating bills.

I have no knowledge of this company and we all should wary of saving/pricing/guarantee claims.

However it is perceived wisdom that heating loss through windows and doors is 10% TO 20% of total heating. So I would be amazed if any company would be stupid enough to claim 'a 76% reduction in heating bills'. They would be wide open to sanction by the Advertising Standards Authority.

Looking at the company website it states:

Old windows and doors can lose as much as 30% of all heating.

So it seems to me that they are claiming a 76% reduction in the heat lost through the doors/windows of the house they assessed.

That said £15k for just units, and not frames, is an enormous sum.

Personally I would never replace double glazed panels for saving money; I have only replaced units that have 'blown'.

Hermann

Cardew wrote: »

Looking at the company website it states:



So it seems to me that they are claiming a 76% reduction in the heat lost through the doors/windows of the house they assessed.

The 'assessor' added a hand written note to the 'Survey' stating "Eco Which website, Energy efficiency, will save 76% on heating bills".

I wouldn't have anything to with them myself, it seems obviously dodgy to me however I would have thought there would be something on the internet about them if they were as bad as this seems.

jk0

You wonder how the people who work for these firms sleep at night.

JohnB47

As soon as I read the starting post, the alarm bells started ringing.

Sadly these con artists must find enough impressionable or gullible people to actually make some money.

Whats that saying - "If it sounds too good to be true.....".

Talldave

jk0 wrote: »

You wonder how the people who work for these firms sleep at night.

Presumably snug as a bug behind multiple layers of Pilkington K glass?

If glazing material can give a 76% saving, the figures for loft insulation and cavity wall insulation must be eye watering.

Centage

Hermann wrote: »

Some friends have had an 'assessment' by a company presenting as UK Energy Assessment, they have a .co.uk website which I won't link to.

Its a company name that doesn't search well as it brings up all sorts of discussions of any form of energy assessment so haven't been able to find any experiences of them, either on these forums, or the internet in general.

Does anyone know anything of them? I'm concerned they may be conning people into overpriced work thats unnecessary.

In broad terms they assessed a house and found that some old double glazing units had plain glass in them and advised that the units be changed for Pilkington K thermal glass. They proposed changing just the glazing units not the frames.

The 'assessor' claimed that through working with the Big 6 Energy suppliers there would be 50% 'Grant' available.

The quote was in the region of £30k with a 'grant' bringing that down to around £15k

It was stated that fitting these would result in a 76% reduction in heating bills.

Now I don't believe the energy savings would be anything like those claimed, but if one wanted to change these glazing units to Pilkington K a local firm could do it for around £5K (there are quite a lot of units and some are very large) but they have said they wouldn't do it as it wouldn't bring substantial enough benefits to be worthwhile.

I also can't see where the 50% grant comes from, as far as I can tell any schemes don't apply to windows and what help is available is restricted to those in fuel poverty which wouldn't apply to the household in question.

So does anyone have any experience or seen them discussed anywhere?

I doubt anyone has heard of them before their details were posted here.

The domain was only first registered in June this year, coincidentally the same month that the OP returned to posting on this site after a 5 year+ posting gap.

Their phone number was recently added to one of those 'who called me' type websites, to advertise their products and services.

There is no indication as to who actually owns the business, and the only contact address given is a virtual office address (from £1 day) ... or possibly they rent the office from £7 per day, but I suspect not.

Nuff said!

Btw, has anyone ever come across any double glazing company who provided a quote for replacement windows, but then refused to carry out the work as the savings "wouldn't bring substantial enough benefits to be worthwhile"??? hmmm... :think:

Gerry1

Centage wrote: »

There is no indication as to who actually owns the business, and the only contact address given is a virtual office address (from £1 day) ... or possibly they rent the office from £7 per day, but I suspect not.

The 'UK Energy Assessment' name is misleading. It gives the impression of being a nationwide, not for profit organisation or government department. They also use a virtual phone number from a different area (London).

jamessp

I now have a little experience with them. I don't believe they are a legitimate company.
They are ukenergyassessment co uk on 0207 183 6469

This company cold called my parents in law, offering free grants for windows, boilers etc. They visited, offering to replace 5 windows (glass only) with energy saving glass, that allegedly saved 70% of your heating bill (Windows account for 20-30% of heating loss, so this would be difficult.)
My parents in law paid £852 deposit by cheque, which has now cleared. The original total cost quoted was £6,000, which when they declined, then immediately dropped to £3,000. This tang alarm bells, and so I checked.

The company say they are 30 years old, and the UK's leading energy specialist, but
- They have no presence anywhere online except their website, no reviews, no mentions anywhere, except here, and review I have now left. This is impossible.
- No social media presence at all
- No company information/number on their website, (Illegal) and no results on companies house. The only similar one closed 5 years ago, and was directed by a man with a string of closed energy businesses.
- Website was registered in June 2019, anonymously
- Their registered office address is almost certainly a virtual address in Staines
- When you call the phone number, Google tells me it's the number for Maida Vale Local Clean, a cleaning service in London. It's also a different area code than the virtual address. No answer machine, no answer yet.
- The links to grants they show on heir site as to where they get grants from, almost all aren't for consumers, but businesses, and seem designed to mislead
- The grants they actually claim to get, require a paid audit and a certificate, a proper process - they have done neither of these, and so are not a legitimate part of this scheme.

In short the company doesn't seem to exist, as best as I can tell.

They were due to come before the cheque would have cleared, but postponed ('The glass broke'. Now the cheque has cleared, I suspect never will return. I will correct this if they do - but either way, they are not a legitimate company.

Adding this to give others opportunity for easier due diligence.

Gerry1

People that break the law by cold calling people on the TPS list often hide behind false company identities and spoofed calling line identities. Sometimes they are getting paid for generating sales leads for separate (semi) legitimate companies, sometimes it's the real company using a false name for the initial contact.

It wasn't a good idea to pay by cheque, a credit card would have been safer. (To whom was the cheque made out?)

The number of nuisance calls about real products and services should now be declining because company directors are now personally liable; previously they could wriggle out of fines by dissolving the company and starting a new one with a slightly different name. Sadly this has not addressed the problem of calls from scammers.