ECO - Free Boilers - but not if you're on oil?

[Worcester]

This is one that probably Sedgy34 can answer

One of our customers has an old Oil boiler, it's on it's last legs and might, just, maybe last out this winter.

She's eligibile for ECO due to the appropriate benefits, however we are struggling to find anyone prepared to replace it under ECO, - mains gas, no problem, how many do you want? - Oil - not found a single installer / GDA / GDP / Energy company that is prepared to do it, FOund one (E-ON) that said if you are one of our customers they'll do it based on a contribution from the customer.

Why the discrepancy / discrimination for the rural inhabitants that have NO CHOICE other than oil ... or is there someone that can help me find a way to help this customer?

 

[marc8]

Hi Worcester
we have 4 clients on Oil & one on LPG, we are looking at BIOMASS at present although there is no tarriff at this point. couple of company's have invested in biomass already & are certified for it.
I have spoken to them about install's for customers of mine looks very good. even without the tarriff they have mentioned around 30-40% savings compared to oil. Although you may know this already i am seeking more information for my customers in the same position.

 

[Worcester]

@marc8 - We do EVERYTHING renewables apart from wind, and have considered offering her biomass, however the only way she could pay for it would be a full Green Deal loan (with ECO support ?) .

She is one of the people that SHOULD be be supported fully by ECO, and replacing here oil boiler (at present) is the right solution for her, so before we offer biomass we want to explore every other avenue.

 

[TedM]

I haven't found anyone willing to replace an old oil boiler with a new oil boiler under ECO - even where the other criteria are met (over 60, working tax credits, etc) only mains gas boilers. If you do find someone who will do this please let me know.

 

[solarsavings]

Have you checked with her local authority as some have schemes in place to help people like her.

 

[Worcester]

I haven't found anyone willing to replace an old oil boiler with a new oil boiler under ECO - even where the other criteria are met (over 60, working tax credits, etc) only mains gas boilers. If you do find someone who will do this please let me know.

Will Do

Have you checked with her local authority as some have schemes in place to help people like her.

Not yet, will call them on Monday, thx for the idea. - She's with npower so I'll give them a call and see if they'll do anything.


In my books this is highly discriminatory and surely exactly what ECO WASN'T supposed to do.

There again, I suppose it is exactly what the Green Deal IS supposed to do, she had someone round though and they said she had to pay £200 to process her Green Deal application .... I need to expoler further..

 

[TedM]

Looks like DECC may be moving to help owners with oil boilers:

Huw Irranca-Davies (Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs); Ogmore, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps he plans to take to increase the number of Energy Company Obligation installations in rural areas; and if he will make a statement.

Gregory Barker (The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change; Bexhill and Battle, Conservative)
It is important that rural and non-gas fuelled households are able to benefit from support under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and we will be considering this carefully as part of the consultation on ECO changes this spring.The consultation will explore how best to incentivise delivery of Affordable Warmth measures to non-gas fuelled households, and will include proposals to broaden out the Carbon Saving Community Obligation (CSCO) eligibility criteria. The latter will mean that more households will be eligible for CSCO and it will be easier for obligated companies to identify and support eligible rural households.In addition we will be considering how best to support non-gas fuelled households as part of our forthcoming draft Fuel Poverty Strategy, on which we will also consult in the spring.

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 22 Jan 2014 (pt 0001)

 

[puddy]

Carillion did ours. Stay away from a company called Total Trade Services. They are cowboys

 

[Worcester]

@puddy thanks for that - any idea how they got paid, we're finding that as they seems to be running out of budget for this financial year EVERYONE is refusing to do it, we are currently exploring a Charity based funding option, as all the big power companies won't help...

 

[Eco Deal]

go on green deal ORB and find a green deal installer who fits OIL boilers , you can fund oil under HHCRO but oil cost more to change so more funding is needed, if you have the EPC i can get you an funding amount if they qualify.

 

[Worcester]

go on green deal ORB and find a green deal installer who fits OIL boilers , you can fund oil under HHCRO but oil cost more to change so more funding is needed, if you have the EPC i can get you an funding amount if they qualify.

And how does that play if the client also can't afford the cost of the EPC / GDAR as in this case?

 

[Worcester]

go on green deal ORB and find a green deal installer who fits OIL boilers , you can fund oil under HHCRO but oil cost more to change so more funding is needed, if you have the EPC i can get you an funding amount if they qualify.

Just seacrhed myself, and one company at the top of the list (installer / location / oil) visited the client and told them that they would have to pay a £200 fee in order to process their application...

I'll call another one.. Else we'll install a Biomass boiler for free and I'll pocket the RHI

 

[Worcester]

@EcoDeal, you are also assuming of course that these installers are actually switched on enough to be able to navigate this minefield, so far I've not been impressed ...

A search for GDA's covering this geographical area on the ORB resulted in ZERO / No a single one....

 

[SRE]

But Greg says that ECO and Green Deal are great!

 

[Worcester]

Even talking about Green Deal 2.0 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/towards-green-deal

 

[puddy]

@puddy thanks for that - any idea how they got paid, we're finding that as they seems to be running out of budget for this financial year EVERYONE is refusing to do it, we are currently exploring a Charity based funding option, as all the big power companies won't help...

Carillion paid the installer directly it was called Warmfront at the time

I had to wait for 18 months due to the same reason so had to go on a waiting list. We didn't have to put any money in plus they replaced our top feed oil tank because air was getting in to the boiler. I said to the guy who came out to do a survey there was no point fitting a new boiler if the tank was going to cause problems.

The reason I said stay away from Total Trade Service is because of all the problems we had with them.

They fitted the oil tank to close to my garage, fence and fence on the boundary with my neighour. They fitted the flue incorrectly. All of their joins in the oil line leaked. The oil line came up under my patio doors on their 4 attempt because they forgot to bring enough pipe work so we had a cold xmas with no heating. Oh they blew up my Boilermate which cost over £500 to put right

All their oftec paperwork was fake and they used someone else Oftec registration in their office. They never informed building control so I got them in. The job was condemned by building control. Carillion had to get another company in to correct the work. In the end a 3 day job took 2 years before I was happy and building control signed off the work.

 

[SRE]

Even talking about Green Deal 2.0 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/towards-green-deal

I "intend" to go on holiday to New Zealand and buy a mansion at some point - doesn't mean I'm going to actually do it..... Barker - 81% of people who have had a GDA have installed, are in the process of installing or intend to install. Strangely enough no breakdown of each category lumped together to get to this 81%, neither is there a breakdown of % of jobs that are ECO.

But, to be fair the quality of those installations is brilliant because of all the government intervention isn't it? Err well 87% are satisfied with the quality of the installations, not delighted, satisfied and only 87% of them. Now anyone who has a vague idea about statistics knows that if the best you can come up with is 87% are satisfied you've got a long way to go before you're hitting good quality installations and customer care. Most retailers would be pretty horrified at getting 87% of their customers being "satisfied" their targets are closer to 95% being delighted. To put it into perspective being satisfied is like having 3 stars on Trip Advisor - who goes to a 3 star rated hotel when there are 4 and 5 stars available. It's mediocre at best.

2900 GDA's did 129k assessments - I'm sure they'll be holidaying in Barbados on their average of less than 1 GDA a week.

It's ok though - the GD cashback has been extended to June, nothing of course to do with poor uptake and I'm sure BG will be grateful for the government subsidy for all their replacement boilers. The solid wall insulation cashback is being increased but ECO's being cut so that's going to work well isn't it.

A stronger mix of ECO and Green Deal Finance - that'll be some GDF instead of virtually none then and mostly because ECO has been reduced.

Great Kingfisher are leading a joint working party, line up for the crumbs guys, B&Q are on board to simplify the game.

"I don't want to raise unrealistic expectations" at least he's learned that one!

My heart truly goes out to those people who were sucked into this on the promise of big things to come. It appears that only the trainers, who continue to benefit from Green Deal, are the only ones to have made any money out of this Green Deal Scam and those who were smart enough to jump on the ECO route to try and supplement the GD failure are no also being shafted.

So much spin I think Barker should seriously consider going into washing machine manufacturing - he'd be great.

 

[Worcester]

@Puddy, thanks for the info.

The problem is she can't wait 18 months, it needs daily prodding to run, all the big boys have already spent their ECO budgets so aren't aren't prepared to do anything until March/April

We have two more possible sources of funding to pursue...