This morning Keren and Fred took the kitchen units removed yesterday to the tip.
Keren's mum and uncle arrived at lunchtime and after a quick meal of cheese sandwiches and strawberries were raring to go!
The Green Deal is a government backed scheme which seeks to provide funding through grants and loans for energy efficiency improvements to be carried out on buildings. In our case we plan to pay for external wall insulation and double glazed windows and doors through a combination of grants and a loan.
The loan is unique because it is attached to the property not the homeowner.
The loan payments cannot exceed the expected saving made on the energy bills, and the loan payments are made to the energy company as part of the ordinary energy bills. The theory is that because the payments cannot exceed expected energy savings, the overall energy bill should be the same amount and therefore the loan does not represent an additional financial burden. This is known as "The Golden Rule" and a lot of noise has been made about whether or not it works this way in practice! For an intervention such as external wall insulation which is very expensive, the Golden Rule is not met. Therefore the government offer a grant specifically for part of the cost of EWI. In this way cost to the homeowner is reduced to a level where it will meet the rule.
Having rung round 10+ of the tens of companies listed on the Green Deal Oversight database (a phone call to the government-sponsored Energy Saving helpline yielded a list of providers claiming to operate in the local area), finally one was found which A. Is a full Green Deal Provider who can take us all the way through the process of assessment, applying for loan and grant funding, and getting the measures installed, and B. Can install new windows and doors.
It amazes me (Keren) that of the 5 companies we spoke to who initially said they were a Provider, 4 then admitted they could not include windows. One company admitted the only measure they offer is external wall insulation. The whole point of the Green Deal is to allow access to a package of measures as a once-in-a-lifetime intervention. In fact an extra grant of £1000 is available to homeowners who install a minimum of 2 measures. However since the majority of homes in the UK already have DG and therefore do not qualify for new windows, I suppose there is a logic to the stance companies have taken.
In conclusion, we have paid upfront for an assessment from this company based in Manchester who promised repeatedly that they can do windows and doors. In theory we will be able to claim back £100 of the £154 fee via the new government grant funding "Green Deal Home Improvement Fund", once we sign up to go ahead with the work. This new grant funding is different from previous schemes because it is open to people who do not receive benefits. We are hopeful that with determination and patience we will succeed in getting a lovely warm house with new windows and lots of insulation!
We will keep you posted on our Green Deal journey!
