Solar Panel PV Grant Funding ECO4/LADS scheme

worlestone

I'm trying to find out whether anyone has experience of the grant funding available towards the installation of solar PV panels for low income and energy inefficient households.  I've had a quote from a council approved provider in Dorset (Ridgewater) who have said we should be eligible for the funding (income under £30k, electricity only supply and poor EPC. But no indication of what the funding would cover, as in a percentage/all of it. I can call them to ask, but wanted to get a feel for this through the forum first.

Does anyone have experience of the ECO4 scheme, through local authority discretionary scheme, I think it's sometimes called eco flex?

QrizB

As far as I'm aware, ECO4 covers the full price of the energy saving measures that the surveyor recommends.

You have to take them all, you can't pick and choose.

There are several threads where households have had ECO4 improvements; a forum search for ECO4 should turn them up.

Reed_Richards

The biggest downside that I can see is that it seems you get what you're given.  With solar panels, then the more you can fit on your roof the better.  But the installer might have a limited budget.  

Trada

I can tell you my experience of getting a government Grant and it worked out well for me.

I live in a 3 bedroom house on my own after Tracy passed away its Tracy old childhood house the house had no heating apart from a fireplace in the living room and had no hot water at the time because the old water tank had a hole in it the and no loft or wall insulation and I was out of work and on universal credit.

Someone said to me on Twitter I should try to get a heating grant so I check the local council site and they recommended a company.

So I filled out the form on the website and the next day they rang me and asked me questions and said I can get a government grant and they had to send a surveyor to check over the house and give me a heat rating a couple of weeks later he came and checked over the house taking pictures and measurements and said I can get a mixture of solar panels loft and wall insulation and a new Heat pump heating and heartwater system

A week later I got a letter saying what they would do and it just said Solar Panels which they came and fitted for free and they work great save me lot of money on my electric but they never did any other work.

This was last May so I rang the surveyor to ask if that changes the heat rating of the house and he said it didn't and he said to me he was surprised they only did the panels and had a go at them about it. but told me not to worry about it he would get it sorted for me and said it will work out well for me he said he would wait to August because a new Government scheme starts then and I got the panels on the old one and he would get a company he knew was good to check the house.

And good to his word a company got in contact with me and they sent a surveyor and he said they would fit all the stuff the other company said they would but my Cavity wall gap with too small so they would fit internal wall insulation and good to there word they did all the work including the heat pump heating system and they also fitted air vents in each room

Its like a different house now and the heat pump is great and cheap to run it was nearly £25,000 of work all together and it was totally free.

Its well worth going for the grant the worse they can say is no.

The company that fitted mine was RMS energy