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

arty688

Justiceforme said:

It is supposed to be TrustMark from the conversation I had today.  This is really a complete shambles.  I have contacted at least 10 contractors recommended by their scheme, no replies.  Perhaps someone with greater knowledge than me can offer more information.  I give up.

The only thing you country is to contact local firms and find out if they in the process of trustmark registration. That’s worked for me apparently if they are a member of certain trade bodies trustmark reg is straight forward. Not sure about this PAS thing though.

Sterve

Same here in Greater Manchester no replies to emails or installers are too far away,I wonder if anyone will actually be able to get anything sorted in time,typical shambles.

tynegirl

Has anyone any thoughts about this problem? My son lives in the countryside and has an air source heat pump which was declared ‘unmendable’ a few years ago so he has only a coal fire and a solid fuel aga as heating as he couldn’t afford to replace the heat pump. He applied to the same plumber under the green home scheme but was told he wasn’t eligible for a heat pump as he already had one - even though he had declared it defunct years ago.

GwynIOW

I live on the Isle of Wight and there are absolutely no installers in my county for loft insulation or floor sound proofing. I have now asked on local information fb groups in the hope that there may be a company not showing up that can help. Am guessing that due to the area we are in by default we wont get any assistance. This is already a very low wage economy and to be automatically excluded due to geography is dire. Perhaps in this case let people actually apply for a grant and let them appoint a local company do the work!!! Also, the time limit is very unfair in my opinion!

johan46

It looks to me that the primary purpose of this scheme is to try to get more tradesmen trained in PAS2030 certifications and into the Tradesmark system. Which isn't a bad thing, but i am not sure if the incentive is that great for tradesmen to do it.

Right now they need to pay up to get certified, pay up to get registered with Tradesmark, annual fees, and also offer warranties for their works.

Kate0408

Has anyone had their loft rafters insulated with Duratherm closed cell spray foam? Looking for positives/negatives.  I have been advised it will not  be sprayed directly onto the rafters, there will be a breathable membrane between.

Any advice appreciated as I’ve heard it can have a negative effect on selling your property.

JudgeDekker

Kate0408 said:

Has anyone had their loft rafters insulated with Duratherm closed cell spray foam? Looking for positives/negatives.  I have been advised it will not  be sprayed directly onto the rafters, there will be a breathable membrane between.

Any advice appreciated as I’ve heard it can have a negative effect on selling your property.

I can confirm that it would discourage me from buying your house if I was otherwise tempted. I would worry about the long term effect on the rafters.

ToneP

A1ps said:

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).

Hi Bob, thank you for such a helpful reply. 

I've got a five year old almost top-of-the-range Valiant boiler, so that definitely isn't the issue. I will definitely using your tips to see what I might need too.

The current scenario in my house is this: My room and my kids room have outward facing walls (there is no house directly next door). And it is these 2 rooms that have the issue of not heating up. And even weirder is this - when my room is at an OKish temperature (but still very cold) the kids room is absolutely freezing. But if their's is at an OKish temperature (but still freezing), then my room is freezing. Hope that makes sense! 

I had a plumber round a few months ago who was servicing the boiler and when he walked in to have a look at the issue his words were "b;**dy hell. You weren't exaggerating were you. Feels like no one lives in this room"! He checked the radiators and couldn't see any issue. Although he did say that maybe my room could do with a slightly bigger radiator. His thoughts were that it was to do with lack of insulation in the walls. 

Just a thought. I'm assuming that there is a proper flow at the correct temperature from the boiler and no air locks.

Do the two radiators have thermostatic valves fitted? I'm wondering whether the radiators have been incorrectly plumbed in together rather than independently, in effect as a single radiator split over two rooms and with two temperature controls. As one one warms up it will turn off at the set temperature and close both of them off until BOTH drop sufficiently cold to turn back on.

arty688

tynegirl said:

Has anyone any thoughts about this problem? My son lives in the countryside and has an air source heat pump which was declared ‘unmendable’ a few years ago so he has only a coal fire and a solid fuel aga as heating as he couldn’t afford to replace the heat pump. He applied to the same plumber under the green home scheme but was told he wasn’t eligible for a heat pump as he already had one - even though he had declared it defunct years ago.

It probably because he has claimed RHI in the past and as the con is with the GHG and heat pumps the government want there money back so through the RHI payments so as he wouldn’t get those he doesn’t qualify. He might be able to go for a biomass boiler he would have to check. Again though probably out of his budget and the same RHI scam applies.

Maybe second hand ASHP off eBay?

JamChar

ritzman said:

Would you be able to use the grant to install a heat pump and then also claim the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)
I know there's limited info at present but with the RHI signup due to run to March 2022 i have calculated off the gov website that i could get a £10k ground heat pump and pay £2.5K and then receive £9.8K over 7 years from RHI

Now that the scheme has been launched I would also be very interested to find out the answer to this question. To put in a heat pump system we would also need to put in something like underfloor heating or at the very least heat pump viable radiators which the £5k wouldn't be close to covering. But if the GHG is in conjunction with or on top of the RHI then it becomes very viable.