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Mr Peacock

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About Mr Peacock

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  • Location
    Sheffield
  • Occupation
    Plumbing and heating engineer
  1. There has been a requirement for registered gas installers to self notify their work for quite some time now. It costs a few quid and can be done through Gas Safe. As I understand it, the requirements regarding notification are that any heat producing appliance should be notified. And on this basis I have registered ANY gas appliance that either myself or our employees have installed, be it a boiler, a cooker, or a gas fire etc. My opinion is that it is better to offer a more professional service, and for the sake of 2 minutes form filling and a couple of quid, it avoids situations like this.
  2. Even insulated pipe work loses heat. obviously at a lower rate than uninsulated pipe work. But in all cases the greater the temperature difference the rate of heat loss increase. For example, the heatloss through a cavity wall increases if the temperature outside falls, and reduces if the temperature outside rises. The same is true of the pipes in concrete. A cold uninsulated existing concrete floor will speed up the heat loss from the pipe work.
  3. Apart from the mess & extra cost associated with chasing pipes into concrete floors, the heat loss from the pipes will increase being exposed to the cold uninsulated concrete floor. It would be much more efficient, less disruption / mess, and certainly lower cost to have the pipework discretely surface mounted and neatly boxed in.
  4. I would also consider Vaillant ecoTEC Pro 28 Combi. A very competitively priced and robust boiler with a good warranty.
  5. Green Deal report on BBC news today.... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21226042 ---------- Post added 29-01-2013 at 07:24 ---------- The process of a Green Deal assessment of a property and its occupants is in 2 parts. The first part is the assessment of the properties current energy performance, and will identify what improvements can be made. The second part of the assessment is the occupancy assessment which gathers exact information regarding the occupants behaviour / usage patterns / consumption of energy in their home. i.e. How many people live there, what is the total number of baths / showers per week, what temp and how is the heating set. Also a full 12 months worth of the previous actual energy bill data is required. The occupancy assessment (if done accurately) will ensure that the savings calculated are realistic, and therefor that the golden rule criteria if met, is not a distorted figure. This way I cannot see how the savings cannot be met. The only way the bills should increase after a Green Deal improvement has been done is if.... A) The tenant changes their behaviour / usage of the energy they consume e.g. leaving windows and doors wide open, when they didnt before, or... B) The actual cost of Gas / Electricity increases. Now there is little you can do about point A, as that is out of everyones hands, and I totally agree that people need to be educated about ways to save energy through behavioural changes. Now there is not much point looking at point B either, because one thing you can be 100% certain of, is that fuel costs will rise. I would argue that I would rather live in an improved property to offset those fuel price rises. A good example is lets say you drive a 2 litre petrol car (car A), and you decide to change it for a 1 litre petrol car (car B) because the fuel costs are becoming expensive. At some stage in the future when the fuel cost have gone up, the fuel cost of car B, will be the same as the old fuel cost of car A. However, had you never changed the car you would be hit with an even higher fuel cost of car A. Its all too easy to focus on picking fault with Green Deal at this stage, because it is a new scheme that has not been had chance to prove itself yet. Only time will tell, but lets not forget what the purpose of Green Deal is, and that is to reduce the UK's carbon emmissions, via improving the energy efficiency of the existing buildings where possible. ---------- Post added 29-01-2013 at 07:42 ---------- It sounds like you may have issues with the quality of the installation of your insullation. An insulation company should ensure that any measures they install will not cause thermal bridging which can lead to damp. They should install any necessary ventilation / vapour barriers to ensure this doesnt happen. If your installation was done professionally, then you should have an installation certificate, and the install should be registered. If it has then I suggest you get the install checked under its guarantee. Green Deal is heavily audited, and standards will be checked regularly. You also have the protection of lengthy warranties under Green Deal. With regards to solid wall insulation, ECO may contribute a significant, if not 100% of the cost towards the solid wall insulation, which does not have to be repaid in the same way that Green Deal finance does. To qualify under ECO certain criteria have to be met i.e. is the occupier in receipt of any benefits, or is the property difficult to treat (solid wall / narrow cavity) I would recommend anyone with a solid wall property to at least find out what they can get.
  6. I have read the negatives! If you read through my previous posts I have stated what they are. The Green Deal wont suit everyone. It is important not to lose sight of the key points of Green Deal which are... * Its purpose is to reduce the UK's carbon emmissions. *It is a frame work to enable people to upgrade their property to a more energy efficient standard without having to put in the capital up front themselves. *Under ECO (Energy Company Obligation), people who meet certain criteria i.e. are in receipt of certain benefits, or live in a difficult to treat property (solid wall / narrow cavity), can have access to grant funding to enable them to install the identified improvement measures free of charge. *Under the golden rule criteria of Green Deal, the energy cost savings produced by the installed measures, have to be equal to or greater than the cost of repaying the Green Deal loan (including the interest). *In simple terms, the technology will pay for itself.
  7. What a stupid statement to make. Prove the figures don't stack up and give reasons why! I recon the training you've had is the biggest load of old rubbish and a complete waste of your time. If someone has told you that Green Deal is a cash cow and you should start rubbing your hands together, then I would seriously question their ethics. Your quite right, I have invested big in this, but not financially. I have taken alot of time to read the facts, and obtain the right information from the right sources. What I haven't done is take the advice from an unreliable, inaccurate, single source of information like you have done.
  8. Why will Green Deal jobs be done at higher costs? Why will it be paid for by people who don't own the house? Your forgetting that Green Deal is available to all, home owners and tenants. I keep saying it.... the savings made are used to pay off the loan, i.e. it pays for itself. Cost of replacing inefficient boiler with band A condensing boiler.... £1000 Annual energy savings from installing new boiler..... £300 Length of boiler guarantee.... 5 years Therefore savings x guarantee (£300 x 5).......£1500 The interest on the loan at 6.9% over 5years.....£185 So total cost of repaying boiler via green Deal.... £1185 So the total savings over 5 years (£1500) minus the cost of Green Deal loan over 5 years (£1185)........£315 So lets say the average monthly gas bill at the property is £70 per month the savings from installing the new boiler are (£300 divided by 12months)....£25 per month The monthly Green Deal loan repayments are (£1185 divided by 60months).....£19.75 per month. So lets compare the gas bill before Green Deal.... £70 With the gas bill after Green Deal, once the savings and loan repayments are being made..... £70, minus £25, plus £19.75 = £64.75 So as you can see, new boiler under Green Deal is paying for itself, and the gas bill is still £5.25 per month cheaper than it was. This is because it meets the golden rule and the savings made are greater than the cost of installing the boiler, plus interest on the loan, over the length of the warranty.
  9. As apposed to the poor making the energy companies rich because of the extra energy they are having to pay for just to try to keep their inefficient house warm. The Green Deal is fantastic for landlords, because it will enable them to improve their property at no upfront cost. Your correct in that whoever pays the bill is paying for the improvements, but yet again it will be the savings made from the installed technologies that will pay for themselves. So the tenant will be no worse off as long as the golden rule has been met. You could argue that the tenant will benefit from a more comfortable house. If the tennant is no worse off, but has greater comfort then that is only a positive thing. ---------- Post added 27-01-2013 at 18:35 ---------- Ok. So when you go to do a quote, it costs you in time, fuel, insurance, paper, ink, phone calls. Lets say you win 1 in 4 quotes, does this mean the person who you do the job for picks up the bill for these fixed costs? Yes it does. But this isn't frowned upon is it? I understand perfectly.
  10. True, there are costs involved in the assessment, in the same way that there are costs in notifying the installation of a new boiler with gas safe. When they introduced gas work notification, did this massively impact what was being charged for the install? No, because a few pounds is all this really costs.
  11. As fuel bills rise, the running costs could equally put people off. For example a tenant has the choice of 2 identical properties. 1 has been subject to green deal improvements, and is more energy efficient I.e. Costs less to run, and the other hasn't, but costs more to run. Which does the tenant choose? Even under worst case conditions, provided that the golden rule has been met, both properties would cost the same to run. The deciding factor would surely then be down to which is more comfortable / desirable, which is going to be the property that has been improved. If you have your own money in the bank, then I agree that Green Deal may not be for you.
  12. Correct. The Green Deal is attached to the electricity bill of the property until it is repaid. However with rising fuel costs im pretty sure people will be glad the property is to a higher energy efficiency standard than it was pre Green Deal. ---------- Post added 27-01-2013 at 17:35 ---------- The installer doesn't pay for the quote. Some Green Deal providers / Assessors will charge for carrying out the survey, others will offer it for free.
  13. Not true! Install costs will actually fall, as a result of increased competition and higher volumes of work. It would make no sense for install costs to rise, as it makes it harder to meet the golden rule. Install costs will definitely fall. If you suddenly started fitting lots of boilers, you would get rebates from your suppliers making your install costs less. Also the cost of materials will follow suit because suppliers will be dealing in larger volumes too.
  14. Is it cheaper? Green Deal interest rate has been confirmed at 6.9%, and banks charge what exactly? Also, what about people with poor credit who can't get loans? That's right, they end up paying 30% APR. Green Dean lending is not attached to the person either.
  15. Unfortunately the indicative costs on the EPC for how much the technology is to install is way out of touch with todays actual prices. You would never pay £6000 for a solar thermal system. The true cost is under half that. Solar thermal is a poor example to be fair because it only delivers low savings, while being expensive to install. Whereas loft insulation can save you hundreds, for only a few hundred pounds installed. Again, you are not being charged more for your electricity, because the savings should always meet the golden rule, which should mean that in the worst case your bills will remain the same. ---------- Post added 27-01-2013 at 15:39 ---------- Once again, its stating the obvious to say that you are better paying for it yourself. Of course it is, as you won't be paying any interest, in the same way you wouldn't buy a car on finance if you'd got the cash to pay for it outright. But ECO under the Green Deal scheme, also provides access to free funding for people who are on benefits or who have difficult to treat properties. Anyone with solid walled or narrow cavity properties that can't have cavity fill insulation should really take up the green deal without delay. For the early adopters of the Green Deal, there are cash back incentives for each of the technologies you have installed, upto a maximum of about £1000.
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