The Green Deal launches today

[maestro]

Anyone else been looking into this? As someone who is imminently going to be replacing all my windows and also having a new boiler fitted, I have studied the details of 'The Green Deal' for the last couple of hours but I just can't find anything particularly attractive about the scheme.

In a nutshell, instead of forking out upfront to have my windows/boiler installed, I can borrow the money at an interest rate of approx 7-8% and pay it back on my electricity bill, the loan is not actually registered to me personally but to the electricity meter of my property, so if I sell the house then the new owner would be responsible for paying the balance of the loan off. The cost of borrowing the money is not supposed to exceed the cost of potential savings I would make on my energy consumption, but the whole idea just seems fraught with too many complications to me, or have I got it wrong?


https://www.gov.uk/green-deal-energy-sa ... deal-works

http://www.which.co.uk/energy/creating- ... reen-deal/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/ja ... -hard-sell

[Eagle]

Whilst I agree Maestro I am not sure why special deals should be offered.

Many home owners will have self funded energy efficient measures , why should others expect it at reduced costs.

[maestro]

I suppose the reason is that H M Government seems very keen to reduce carbon output from what are reported to be the most energy inefficient houses in the world. I already take advantage of driving a car that costs me nothing in road tax and nothing to drive into London, am I therefore wrong to consider taking advantage of such offers?

[stuart]

I already take advantage of driving a car that costs me nothing in road tax and nothing to drive into London, am I therefore wrong to consider taking advantage of such offers?

Except in this case is it sensible for comparably well off people to be subsidised by people who pollute less? And be unnecessarily inconvenienced to boot? Why not grab that extra £5000 grant and get a new one and pollute even more?

This is just green washing ... because its easier than tackling root issues - like your mileage.

Stuart

[maestro]

If it's the car you are referring to, I buy my cars at a year old through vehicle auctions for half the cost of new, I run them for eighteen months maximum and then sell privately and get my money back (or lose a grand at most, despite piling 25k mileage on them). The £5000 grant only applies to plug-in versions of the Prius I drive, my garage has no power supply so would be useless to me. This "you must be a millionaire if you can afford to drive a Prius" attitude always amuses me, but do enlighten me as to where you consider you are inconvenienced and precisely what should I be driving instead.

[stuart]

This "you must be a millionaire if you can afford to drive a Prius" attitude always amuses me, but do enlighten me as to what you think I should be driving instead.

That is very naughty Maestro. I never said or implied that. You don't have to be a millionaire but a new Prius costs more than many people's annual income. And you expect them to pay and be inconvenienced by Prius drivers?

What should you be driving? Well is there a real need to drive through Central London at all during the day? Why not use public transport instead of disrupting it? As for other times and other places there may be a different answer for each. Its up to you to reason that out.

Its just that the Prius looks superficially good on pollution but once you take a holistic view of its cost to the community - things have a tendency to go into reverse. What does or does not come out of the tail pipe is only a part of the carbon and community burden of a vehicle.

Stuart

[14BradfordRoad]

Anyone else been looking into this? As someone who is imminently going to be replacing all my windows and also having a new boiler fitted, I have studied the details of 'The Green Deal' for the last couple of hours but I just can't find anything particularly attractive about the scheme.

Can you choose who you use to carry out these works or are you limited to certain approved
contractors? Thinking this could make a difference to the overall costs..
(I have a friend in your position but have yet to study the links you have posted).

[maestro]

Can you choose who you use to carry out these works or are you limited to certain approved
contractors? Thinking this could make a difference to the overall costs..
(I have a friend in your position but have yet to study the links you have posted).

That would be one of my chief concerns, the work has to be carried out by one of the 'Green Deal' companies who are participating in the scheme. So I might have a shower of sub contracted window fitters turn up with an attitude of "Oh no, it's another one of these Green Deal jobs, so he ain't even really paying for it anyway. Lets get this lot fired in and be down the Wetherspoons by four o'clock, moneybags 'ere has a Prius in his driveway so he could easily have afforded to get Everest in and do the job properly in the first place!".

[Syd Vicious]

Its all very complicated - there is green deal financing available now (borrow to fund energy efficiency improvements, pay back on bills ('in principle' you save at least the same amount in reduced energy bills), variable interest rates, looks horrendous to me, but I guess perhaps a good option for someone with no savings and a low fixed income, who is planning to stay put in home for at least ten years.

Now - separately - (although they can run alongside a 'green deal' finance package) - there are the "Energy Company Obligations" - in which energy companies give poorer households free or subsidised energy efficiency measures and everyone pays for it in approx 10% higher bills.

Yes, this is another back-door tax. Personally I agree with subsidising efficiency improvements in poorer households - but shame that governments are coming up with ever more complex ruses to make us pay taxes without realising we're paying taxes. In this case involving the energy cartel and several large financial institutions in the whole green deal farago. All parties will ultimately have noses in the trough. What crap.

Anyway, for the 1930s semi owner in Sydenham, its unlikely they can do much for you, because you won't have cavity walls. Cavity wall insulation is cheap, highly effective and easy to install, so if you CAN do it, then definitely do it!

Other measures are almost certainly done already (loft insulation) or a ton of hassle and potentially problematic in other ways (solid wall insulation - ie internal or externally cladding the walls with insulation board).

If you have an incredibly old boiler then even if it works well, it might well pay to replace it, with or without ECO subsidy/green deal finance.

But watch out for elderly parents etc - companies will sell boiler insurance and then tell them to replace the boiler as soon as it starts going wrong (with false promises of "up to £300 a year savings"... and then keep cashing in insuring boilers that never go wrong) as I say only worth upgrading a working boiler if it is truly prehistoric!

Lastly, although the solar 'feed-in tariff' (a disgracefully profitable subsidy for already wealthy homeowners - paid for by everyone on their bill remember - why could the govt just push solar in the social housing sector, huh?) has now been reduced, the cost of panels has come down sharply (glut of supply and installers etc), so shopping around could still find you a profitable home solar installation...