New Green Homes Grant to give up to £5,000 in vouchers for insulation and double-glazing

Justiceforme

I have already posted about this twice but my posts seemed to have been removed.  A few weeks ago I contacted several companies about cavity wall insulation, had no replies.  Tonight, I have emailed at least 6 companies from the simple energy advice org list.  Will see what happens!  Whilst it seems like a good idea, I would love to hear from anyone who actually got an assessor to come out.  Is this a joke?

arty688

Sorry if this has been covered already but yes you would get the RHI payment but only after it has payed for the GHG ! So basically the GHG is worth nothing or at best a 0% loan.
Also you probably be paying more than you would if you used a no trustmark MCS installer so the GHG is nothing but smoke and mirrors for  low carbon heating for the majority of people.
Rishi should get his magic circle membership for this one! at least they are being clear with there virus info 

KerryJB72

SkintDarkknight said:

KerryJB72 said:

I've seen several posts about people struggling to get in touch with companies, so was dreading trying to call, especially as there was only one within reasonable distance. But, got through, they've taken details to check with DWP, said that will be back in 4 working days, then will call to arrange appointment to quote on Wednesday. They said they'd been crazy busy with requests, but were set up ready to go. So definitely seems to be quite different across the UK!

May I ask what part of the country are you?

I'm in Staffordshire.

A1ps

bobfredbob said:

If your rooms don't reach the temperature then perhaps your radiators are not adequately sized?  Or your boiler is turned down too low.

We replaced our radiators with ones from screwfix.  Search "type 22" on screwfix and there are ones with double panels and double fins that pump out a lot more heat.  Then search online for a "btu room calculator" and you pop in your room measurements and it tells you how much heat you need in BTUs or watts and you can compare that against the radiator specs.  For boiler, in winter, many people mistakenly leave it at a low "eco" setting all year round, but if your radiators are too small then you may need to turn it up higher or even max.  Your house should be able to get warm with that insulation you have.

We were pleased with the higher spec radiators: same size as the old one but a lot more heat.

(I'm assuming you've done the obvious things like bleed the radiators and have the radiator valves (TRVs) set correctly).

Right, I done the calculation and it looks like I need BTU 2335. https://www.bestheating.com/milano-capri-white-flat-panel-horizontal-designer-radiator-various-sizes-92516 

I’m guessing I can chooose anyone of the rads on the page above and ideally double fin?

I done a check of the radiators this morning and something odd has come up. I have a total of 8 rads on the upper levels of the house. Down stairs has underfloor heating. 

This morning the rad on the first floor hallway and 2 rads in the loft room were very very slightly warm. But the rads in 3 of the bedrooms and 2 bathrooms were cold. The odd thing is they’re all controlled by the same thermostat. I went to bleed the radiators and all seemed ok. I checked the valves on all the rad and they were all on maximum. Totally baffled! 

I will definitely change the rad, if for nothing else then peace of mine. Can you guys recommend good rads please?

A1ps

bobfredbob said:

@A1ps I'd be surprised if it's lack of insulation, only because most houses near me are old 1930s single-brick with air bricks (so cold air blows under the floorboards) and chimney, but still warm up fine.  But, perhaps your insulation is poor or weather is much colder.  I have external insulation now but it requires maintenance which costs more than any savings.

There are a few things you can check.  Most boilers have a setting "central heating flow temperature".  This is how hot the (central heating) water is (not the hot water coming out the tap).  So, on eco setting this is usually 67C since this gives you some money saving.  In winter, you can bump it up to max which is probably around 90C since older radiators expect very hot temperature unless they are over-sized for the room.

Radiators when warming up the room should feel hot all over and all radiators in the house should feel hot.  If they're only hot at the top then they may need bleeding.  If some radiator is red hot (in your room) and another is freezing cold (in child's room) then I think you may need to "rebalance" the radiators since they should all heat up from cold at the same rate.

Your boiler should be running (making a noise) all the time your house is warming up.  So, if your thermostat is 23C but you have a thermometer saying it only gets to 20C then is your boiler still running?  Perhaps your thermostat is in the wrong place?   Best place is, I think, roughly eye-height in the living room and not near the radiator or a window.

Our thermostat was one with a dial had become faulty and kept cutting off before hitting the temperature.  Perhaps that happens to you?  We could hear it "clicking" off then would click back on for a few minutes then off again.  They're usually easy to replace since it's just a couple of wires.

Only other long-shot I can think of is that maybe the TRVs (radiator valves with the numbers on) are faulty and cutting out too early.  I guess being a newish house maybe they cut costs.  Turn them all up to maximum and see if it makes a difference.

Thank you Bob. 

My thermostat is on the first floor hallway and at eye height and about 3/4 feet away from the radiator. The hallway gets very warm even when the rads are off so I always set the stat higher to compensate for lack of heat in the bedrooms and bathrooms. 

I checked the setting on my Vailant and you were telepathically correct - it was set low at 65. Right now the room temps are ok (although you can clearly tell the drop in temp when walking into my room and kids room from the hallway). But when the temperatures drop I’ll definitely increase the radiator temp. 

And this weekend I’m going to turn on all the rads to see if they heat up properly. Would you guys say rads from 2003 are considered old? I will be changing all the rads just to play it safe. 

molly4123

Once again the new Green Home Grants sounds good to everyone except if you are a tenant withe Brentwood Borough Council.
Solid walled 1930 in dire need of wall insulation as the house is cold, damp and mouldy.  Their reply was no, they are not running the scheme for tenants, too expensive in the long run.
Even though I have a special needs son who meets the grant's tickboxes.

At a loss now as to know what  to do and how to go about receiving solid walled insulation etc.
Current 1970 outside rendering which doesn't let the walls breath, so many cold spots and black wallpaper.
Any suggestions? Thank you

Justiceforme

I have sent 10 emails to companies registered on Simple Energy Advise site, not one single reply.  Have contacted SEA today only advise was, call them!   Or they could supply the phone no for Trustmark.  If any of these companies are actually interested in doing the work they could at least try and answer their emails!   I expect many people have been given the same advice.

Teresa_Fahy

I would suggest going directly to suppliers and getting quotes.  We have gained three quotes from suppliers for a new gas boiler, all of which are registered with  Trustmark or have a Microgeneration Certificate Scheme.  Going through the Simple Energy Advice Website was not helpful at all as only had few installers in our area and all were located far away.  

Justiceforme

Loads of fairly local companies registered on TrustMark website, which is where I obtained the details.  Have contacted TrustMark today about lack of replies.  SEA no wonder its called simple or may be should changed to NSEA.

bobfredbob

@A1ps The 2003 radiators aren't that old, I know people with ones from probably 90s or earlier.  They can "sludge up" and become less warm, but since you have a new boiler they normally check the radiator water when they replace them.
I couldn't see the spec on the radiator you showed, but 2335BTU is apparently just under 700w, which sounds low to me for a bedroom.  The higher the BTU/wattage of the radiator, the more heat it can give even at lower boiler temperatures.  (Lower boiler temperatures save you a little bit of money compared to higher temperatures).

For radiators, get a plumber in before you buy.  You want a radiator roughly the same width since it will probably cost less than having to alter the pipes.  The extra fins/second panel basically makes it as if you had two radiators in the same space.

I'd definitely turn everything up maximum (thermostat, TRV, boiler) and see if the rooms can get hot at all.  If we put our thermostat on 30C, TRV on max and boiler on max then all the radiators are red hot.

I didn't realize you had UFH.  I've not seen UFH but from what I read a while ago when I was looking in to having it, you'd normally have two separate controls/thermostats, one for UFH and one for the radiators.  This is because UFH takes a long time to heat up a room compared to a radiator since it only allows cooler water to flow (so, it limits water to maybe 30C instead of 67C of radiator).  So, since you only have one thermostat, I'd probably expect the boiler to run a long time warming the living room, by which time the upstairs radiators should be red hot since they have water at a higher temperature.

Since your radiators are cool, I think there may be two explanations.  First is perhaps they are "Low Surface Temperature" radiators.  These are ones like you see in modern hospitals and for safety reasons they never get warm, but they usually don't look like "old" radiators (do a search to see what I mean).  The other is perhaps since your UFH requires cooler temperatures (you don't want to walk on 90C floorboards), then perhaps your whole house is being given cooler temperature water.  Normally there's a valve so only UFH gets 30C water, but perhaps it was plumbed in "wrong" and giving all your radiators cool water too.

Does your boiler tell you the actual temperature of water that's flowing and if the flame is on?   One of the pipes by the boiler (with the insulation) should be red hot after five minutes of the boiler being on in the morning.  We can hear when the flame is on, so if we are heating the house the flame is permanently on until it reaches nearer the temperature.

There are modern (expensive) thermostats/programmers that allow you to set the temperature per-room and each room can "call for heat" and turn on the boiler to heat it to its own schedule.  Best known is Honeywell EvoHome and that works with UFH.  But, best to narrow down the problem first since things can easily cost a fortune.

(Disclaimer: I'm just a person trying to give good advice, but get proper advice from someone who can see your house before you spend money!)