My Green Deal Journey - part 3

3/26/2013

Getting the measures installed

So far so good. The assessor left and emailed me 4 days later the final EPC and Occupancy Assessment with a link to potential Green Deal Providers. The assessor mentioned that we may qualify for ECO-funding and possibly also from ‘affordable warmth’ if our area is in a priority area (it is, but I am yet to find out what this means- if anything).

Unfortunately, the next stage is not so smooth and has been frustrating - though ofcourse I am one of the few guinea-pigs in a new policy:

There appears to be no central system from which I can upload my Green Deal recommendations and email Green Deal Providers in my area. Instead I have had to email or call each provider separately ( about 40 of them) and attach the documentation to each of them separately. I am sure most people would not contact all listed providers; but in any case it is time-consuming and user-unfriendly. In my case, the assessor had only sent me the Occupancy Assessment and not the EPC; yet one provider said I should also have received this and that they need it - meaning that I now will have to email everyone back with the EPC. Why is there no central system with our information uploaded and available for providers whom you invite, to access your Green Deal Assessment?

There will be no need however to re-send 40 odd emails: some (3) bounced immediately; and several immediate responses (5) included something along the lines that "while they are registered providers, they are unable to provide a Green Deal Plan or an Assessment in your area at this time”; 6 responses stated something along the lines of this: “the finance for the Green Deal is not available until April 1st, and also the software to write a Green Deal Plan is not available yet... we expect to be ready by April/May".

One provider is asking me to fill in additional information, eventhough this was already provided for the EPC assessment. Their argument is as follows: "we did not arrange your Green Deal Assessment and we can only provide a quote where we have sufficient information to satisfy the Green Deal Finance company. If we had arranged your assessment we would have sent to you the attached documents before the assessment took place. [...] While we appreciate you may have already provided some of this information to the Green Deal Advisor who carried out your Green Deal Assessment (and some of the information relates to pre-assessment details), we would be grateful if you would complete the forms now attached so that we can progress this further. This information forms an integral part of the Green Deal Code of Practice and we will be unable to provide a Green Deal Finance Plan Quotation without it." I am a little baffled by this, as surely the whole point of accredited assessments is to avoid exactly this kind of scenario?

2 responses stated that they work “with partners in social housing and council sectors on large domestic projects. We do not work on individual domestic Green Deal projects unless instructed by our partners”. This reflects industry concern that individual householders may find it difficult to get access to ECO, (our solid wall insulation may be part-funded by ECO, which in turn would be funded by increasing each householder's energy bill); as large providers have greater benefit from meeting their ECO obligations by doing a mass-retrofit for larger estates rather than on a piece-meal house-by house approach. Kate De Selincourt discussess this in more detail in the Spring 2013 issue of Green Building Magazine.

So, around 22 providers have yet to get back to me more than 7 days after my query was sent out, but I did receive two positive responses, one for a more technical survey after Easter, and one response from an installer (through twitter). One response went as far to say that they won’t be ready until late June and that: “It’s a protracted process I am afraid to say and rather frustrating”

The Green Deal can also be delivered by an accredited installer, who can quote and then team up with a provider; or where no up-front finance is required can simply undertake the work, crucial to qualify for ECO-funding (and any of the early cash-incentives). Yet, gaining access to Green Deal accredited installers seems protracted - no such list seems to be provided on the DECC website.

7 Comments

Janet Beckett link

3/26/2013 04:03:39 am

Oh dear, the beginning part as you say not too bad, apart from the fact that the application and use of RSAP is (as I am sure you know) completely inappropriate.
Also enlightening are the numbers for DECC funded assessments, I didn't realise that explains the figures Greg Barker is bandying about, I did wonder. £250.00 for houses assessment could work, I wonder what your lady's background was?
Our CIBSE Forum paper is close to final edit with a leading academic in this field and does try and address all the problems some of which you have already experienced above. Wish us luck with getting someone to listen. Best of luck with your personal GD journey. Tempted to do the same myself as we desperately need new windows fitting. Would be interesting.

MakeMyHomeGreen link

4/4/2013 04:35:52 am

Dear Janet,
The £250 fee is not what we have been paid for this assessment, it would have been much less.
Our wonderful GDA Moira is also a DEA and NDEA with years of experience and 1000s of properties assessed. She is committed to providing the best advice she can for homeowners and residents, as are all at www.MakeMyHomeGreen.com
For anyone who needs more detail than an RdSAP based report we have our own Advanced Home Energy Report, this provides a more detailed breakdown of what is required, what makes the % difference to your home and how much it realistically costs to install.
Re new windows, it is unlikely that GD will provide much of the cost, as savings for windows are low and costs are relatively high.
MMHG are happy to help you with any energy saving advice you may need, GD related or not. Please feel free to contact us.

Dear Sofie,
Re solar panels, the assessor would have had to input the orientation of your roof. An east/west facing roof will give 80% of the performance of a due south roof. I have my own (self funded) solar thermal panel due west and it works very well. If we can provide you with any further advice please feel free to contact us, we will be happy to help in any way we can.

To anyone else reading, the Green Deal may not be perfect, but it is very new! Every one involved from the industry side is trying to make it work, particularly hard working energy assessors. This program of assessments is called the Pioneer Places scheme and has been designed to give the policy a good test run, to allow all involved to feed back and give Govt a chance to work with industry to refine and improve the process.
The Green Deal is complicated, but then so is retrofit! Don't write it off yet, it will improve and get better with time.
Best regards
Patrick McCool
MakeMyHomeGreen

Geoff Stow

4/3/2013 04:51:27 am

I am pleased that your initial contact was good but I am surprised that it comes out at £250 per house as some companies are quoting £95ish. I think the reason the Green Deal is doomed is that it is far too complicated. I feel that very few of those who genuinely need assistance will be unlikely to go through the complex procedure you out line. The EPC based survey has so many faults that would not be picked up by someone not as thorough as your surveyor. Locally landlords are advised not to touch it as they would not be able to pass the inflated electricity bills onto their tenants. I am convinced that a much simpler process assisting the vulnerable to insulate lofts walls and draught proofing would have had much more impact. At ecobuild and Homebuilding show not one single person asked about it and not one "professional had a good word to say about it" I net with a company last week who were doing loft insulation for the local authority and Housing Associations they have had to close down units lay off staff and are looking at closing up because of the green deal they did have 4 crews out doing lofts now nothing.

Linn

4/10/2013 04:25:19 am

Geoff, Sophie's calculation came out at about £250 per house because she wasn't aware that the DECC funding would cover lots of cost that isn't part of the assessment fee. The scheme would have set up and promotion costs, and probably lots more, all of which have to be paid for out of the funding. The result is that the fee paid per visit is very much lower than this.

John

4/9/2013 03:04:37 am

If your looking for approved installers this site has quite a well laid out directory http://greendeal-compare.co.uk/search/1/1

Thanks for this great article!

KATHERINE

4/14/2013 11:14:06 pm

Hi Sofie,
I work for an installer - and i just thought to add a little from our side of things may be informative (though not actually helpful!). We have houses ready for funding, but no providers want to give full funding. We specifically targeted areas that were ECO eligible - you can look up the eligible areas, then search your postcode to see if it is in a "vulnerable" area. This should achieve 100% funding for Solid Wall Insulation - as it is by definition a "hard to treat" measure. However, when it comes down to the nitty gritty, the providers are constantly changing the goal posts. We are now told a property needs to be solid fuel AND solid wall - and even then may not achieve full funding. Personally, i can not see the point of ECO if they are not intending to use it for its purposes - to help the vulnerable insulate their homes. They are trying to "force" people into having Green Deal finance to top up the ECO grants. There is no mention of fuel types determining the eligibility for ECO, it just ticks more boxes and gives a bigger saving than a house on mains gas - but this is not why ECO was set up. Sorry, now i'm just rambling. Back to my point, even now, the providers are reluctant to give us even an idea of funding - so we are left not really knowing what to tell people, other than be patient, we are trying to get them the best deal we can. But i think you may have more luck with a smaller, local installer that has access to funding via providers. Though as you say, there is no easy way to find these. Very best of luck to you though.

Sofie Pelsmakers

4/14/2013 11:43:17 pm

Hi Katherine,
many thanks for this revealing but worrying account. It looks like the providers are going for the 'low hanging ECO fruit' first; i.e. the interventions giving the greatest carbon reductions for least amount of effort/money. The same thinking also explains why several are focusing on upgrade of large estates/buildings to meet their ECO obligation - leaving individual householders ( quite literally) out in the cold. Indeed "in theory" ECO funding is applicable to SW buildings - and my property is in a vulnerable area too, though not using solid fuels - but it seems we have no way to access the ECO funding at all. If this is the way things are going; ECO-funding has been mis-advertised and many will have been deceived. NB: Email me privately if interested in providing a plan,...

Sofie

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My Green Deal Journey - part 3

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