Free Governent Funded Grants For Your Home!

jamtart6

thanks for well wishes and info chriserenity - the Estate Agent has been about as useful as a chocolate teapot. The property does have a HIP but we didnt know we could see it!i will call them in the morning to have a read. on the back of the brochure for the house it says c02 rating 44(category E, potential C) and energy efficiency rating 51 (category E, potential C) should the HIP provide info on how best to get to the 'potential'?

edit: we wouldnt be moving in straight away hence the Q about the windows

chriserenity

jamtart6 wrote: »

thanks for well wishes and info chriserenity - the Estate Agent has been about as useful as a chocolate teapot. The property does have a HIP but we didnt know we could see it!i will call them in the morning to have a read. on the back of the brochure for the house it says c02 rating 44(category E, potential C) and energy efficiency rating 51 (category E, potential C) should the HIP provide info on how best to get to the 'potential'?

edit: we wouldnt be moving in straight away hence the Q about the windows

Yes. Those scores relate to the 4 scores on the front page of the Energy Performance Certificate (which will be in the HIP). An EER of 100 means no utility bills for the property (runs itself as its energy neutral) so don't be expecting that - this just puts it into perspective!

When you've found the EPC go to the third page of the EPC - it will tell you what the property is like energy efficiency wise at the moment. If you turn over to page 4, each improvement you can make will be listed together with:

The effect each improvement will have on the overall 'score' - the 'further measures' section gives you the actual potential of the property (the scores on the front of the EPC only take into account the 'lower cost' and 'higher cost' measures).
An estimation of the amount of £ that will be saved over the course of a year if the work is undertaken.

Page 5/6 are taken up by a brief description of the improvements (enough to find someone to do the work/get the materials yourself if you're a DIYer).

Check out the energy saving trust grant finder as you may be elegible for grant assistance! Alternatively call the energy assessor who produced the report (contact details in the EPC) - if they're any good they'll have a list of grants and other good stuff you can get as the soon to be occupier.

Hope this helps.

maggiemay48

:mad: I have rang around a few companies.Even had inspectors come to my property.Because i live in a gable end terrace its so high the gable end.Its 3 storeys high at the back.It needs scaffolding.Or a cherry picker.No one seems to have one of these.So i am struggling to get it done.They said if i pay for the scaffolding.or cherry picker they will do it for me.I cant afford to pay.Does anyone know of a company with a cherry picking machine?My house is freezing.Most of my money goes on gas and electric to heat my home.I feel the heats just going threw the walls out into the open. Help!!!!!

Strapped

Just to say, we couldn't qualify for any of these schemes, tried the council etc. so we decided to Do-It-Ourselves, and got a great deal off eBay (haggled via the "Best Offer" mechanism). Did the whole house in 200mm loft insulation (over the existing couple of inches) for less than £200 which I thought was pretty good considering they delivered to the door - house is the size of a large 3 bed + single storey extension. Our bedroom is sooooo warm now As we live in the rural end of nowhere with oil central heating, I think it will pay for itself in no time.

chriserenity

maggiemay48 wrote: »

:mad: I have rang around a few companies.Even had inspectors come to my property.Because i live in a gable end terrace its so high the gable end.Its 3 storeys high at the back.It needs scaffolding.Or a cherry picker.No one seems to have one of these.So i am struggling to get it done.They said if i pay for the scaffolding.or cherry picker they will do it for me.I cant afford to pay.Does anyone know of a company with a cherry picking machine?My house is freezing.Most of my money goes on gas and electric to heat my home.I feel the heats just going threw the walls out into the open. Help!!!!!

You're in Manchester right? Call the energy saving trust (google it) - the number will get you through to your local council office. Ask the ppl on the end of the line to put you in touch with a local installer that does external insulation and has their own scaffolding/equipment.

Alternatively you could apply insulation to the internal side of your walls - do you need to redecorate anyway? This method can be a faff as it involves moving electrical sockets forward, new skirting board/coving, s-bends on radiators but once its done its done and you'll see the savings on your bills for sure (i'm assuming yours is a solid walled property).

Its pretty simple to apply the insulation - you:

Take the plaster off the walls back to the bare brick
Plug and screw wooden battens horizontally to the wall
Screw wooden battens to the first set of battens vertically to the wall
Drill 2-3'' holes through the celings within the batten area to create a timber cavity.

Screw the insulation (can be already thermally bonded or add the plasterboard afterwards) to the battens and bob's your uncle. Try to get insulation like Kingspan or Celotex (dense type) with a very low U-Value (50-100mm).

All the above can be obtained from your local builder's merchants and you won't lose that much space considering the savings you'll make - 50mm battens, 50-100mm insulation, 25mm plasterboard + plaster.

Good luck!

hotpot1000

I've just had an EPC done on my house, the made up estimated costs for gas and electric are pure fiction and bear no relation to actual bills. In my opinion it's just wasting my money.

chriserenity

hotpot1000 wrote: »

I've just had an EPC done on my house, the made up estimated costs for gas and electric are pure fiction and bear no relation to actual bills. In my opinion it's just wasting my money.

If it bears no relation to your actual bills then you're using the house differently to the way the EPC assumes you do (as many people do). The EPC has to assume you will conform to 'standard occupancy' to enable everyone to be able to directly compare any property with any other. If we factored in how you personally used the EPC it would become useless as a comparison tool.

To be clear clear - the EPC was intended primarily as a way of identifying which properties will cost a prospective buyer/tenant less and the potential the property has for improvement.

You can use the EPC to compare one property with any other for cost savings/energy efficiency. If you're faced with 10 properties at a letting agents for a six month tenancy and they're all much of a muchness in the agent's particulars you can use the EPC to directly compare them - the property with the highest energy efficiency score cost you the least to live there.

In your case your savings won't equate to the numbers on the EPC but however you use the house the property with the best scores will always cost you less in your fuel bills.

In any case, if you've had the EPC done on your house then its not intended to benefit you - its meant to inform your next tenant/your buyer whether your place is a good choice vs the alternatives. They will use the property differently to you so even if the EPC took into account your own personal habits it would be useless to the person it is intended for!

Making sense?