ECO4 and Octopus

loop9020

I live in an E rated flat about 12 months ago I applied via Octopus our energy provider for insulation through the Eco4 scheme.

We were told it would be a wait to get it installed but 6 months later we had not heard anything.

I followed up and submitted a complaint. However this didn't really help. We had regular emails such as this

"Trust you well

im just emailing to follow up on your query

kind regards"

This is fairly typical.

Eventually, we got through to the customer service manager who was more helpful and said he would pass it through to the correct team. This was at the beginning of August... and the customer service manager has gone silent. We are back to getting the weird meaningless messages saying "is your problem resolved now?".

I am not sure what to do about this - now its getting cold again and our flat is bloody freezing.

Any advice would be welcome

Thanks

Alex

matt_drummer

Turn the heating on/up

Get down to Wickes (or similar) and buy some insulation.

It's what I have to do if I am cold.

FreeBear

matt_drummer said: Get down to Wickes (or similar) and buy some insulation.

With a flat, you are somewhat limited on where you can shove the insulation. Top floor with access to a pitched roof & loft, there is somewhere for the insulation to go. On other floors, the exterior walls are the only bits that can be insulated. And that may well require consent from the freeholder. Replacement windows are another easy option, but again, freeholder consent would (probably) be required if they were not responsible for the replacements.

wrf12345

If there is an excess of windows can always temporarily block some up with celotex style insulation (painted matt black on the outside so it absorbs heat and looks like the blinds are closed) and covered internally with curtains. You have to tape over the edges to stop bits of insulation falling off and if the windows are bigger than the insulation board you will need to glue two boards together and cut to suit. 50mm Celotex is roughly £25 for a 1200x2400mm sheet though you can often find it cheaper on Facebook Marketplace as off-cuts or where someone has ordered too much. I transformed the heat loss on two north facing bay windows by doing this until I got around to fitting decent windows after reducing the window size by two-thirds by bricking the majority of it - personally I would have gone for a couple of porthole style windows but property value would have done a runner.

FreeBear

wrf12345 said:

If there is an excess of windows can always temporarily block some up with celotex style insulation (painted matt black on the outside so it absorbs heat and looks like the blinds are closed) and covered internally with curtains. You have to tape over the edges to stop bits of insulation falling off

Use Gapo Tape (or similar) on the edges, and it will also fill the gaps between board & reveal.