Financial help for boilers

SazD

Hello,
First timer in the forum (hi). We've just bought our first home (hooray) somewhat late in life (or is it?) We knew the boiler was old, but since it's been producing very unreliable hot water, we've had a plumber out who we trust and he's told us not to spend anymore money on this boiler and get a new one. 

I've tried looking up all sorts of schemes to get financial help with this, but as we are not a low income household, we're not eligible for anything I've come across. I'm pretty into energy efficiency/green stuff, so have looked up heat pump options, but our house doesn't qualify for that. I've tried the Gov schemes, local authority, energy supplier etc, but so far I've come back empty handed. We have a 2 year old, so it would be good to get hot water! Our EPC is grade D and has a long list of things we can do to improve the home but again, we do not have the cash to spend on this - we barely managed to get the teeny tiny deposit together to buy in the first place. 

Does anyone know of anything anywhere where we might get some financial support here? The spirit is willing but the obstacle is purely financial. We've obviously had to pay a heavier first mortgage payment, we're now paying life+CiC as well - costs have all gone way up since we left renting (not that this was especially cheap), so while our income might be good, our capacity to cover these kinds of costs are really challenged. 

Over to the forum!

MultiFuelBurner

There is a £7500 grant available to anyone upgrading their gas boiler to an electric air source heat pump.

Who is your current energy supplier as many offer this service.

Gerry1

Congratulations on getting on the property ladder !  At least you'll have the satisfaction of building up equity rather than wasting a fortune on rent.

How well does the boiler heat the property?  No disrespect to your plumber but if it's OK-ish with the CH (albeit inefficient and expensive to run) the HW problem may involve aspects with which he's less familiar e.g. the controller, thermostat, motorised valves etc.

Might be worth asking for a second opinion from a heating engineer.  There might be a simple and inexpensive solution that would solve the problem in the short term.

Do you not have a hot tank with an immersion heater?  It'll cost more than using the boiler but it might provide a quick fix for the time being.

FreeBear

Make and model of the boiler ?

The problems with hot water may be down to the timer/controller, and might not have anything to do with the boiler.

Moneysavingchap

So this isn't going to help you, and I'm not just saying it to be horrible, but this really is something you should've thought about before you bought your house. Presumably you could see that the boiler is old, or had a survey that mentioned as such, so this would be a reasonably foreseeable cost? It's just part of the deal with home ownership I'm afraid.

There is the grants for heat pumps that everyone is entitled to, aside from this I'm not aware of any other grants to help with heating costs for people not on low income and owners of their own home (ie relatively fortunate people, financially). 

Agreed with the above, get yourself a second opinion, or just bite the bullet and get a new one. Should be around £2-3k for a decent one. Not sure if any suppliers offer 0% credit or similar? If it is still heating ok, maybe live with the dodgy hot water until you have a bit more cash?

FreeBear

Moneysavingchap said: Agreed with the above, get yourself a second opinion, or just bite the bullet and get a new one. Should be around £2-3k for a decent one. Not sure if any suppliers offer 0% credit or similar?

Boxt (amongst others) will offer 0% interest loans - Just don't overstretch yourself when looking at affordability.

I was fortunate that I could do all the plumbing work myself when having a new boiler last year. That kept the total cost of the whole system down (replaced most of the radiators).