homebase loft insulation £2 a roll and going like hot cakes

[Gavin A]

homebase are shifting serious quantities of 175mm loft insulation, of the low itch recycled plastic variety at £2 a roll for a limited period.

This post is obviously for information purposes only as it's restricted to 12 rolls per customer and intended for DIY insulation and not to be stocked up in PV installers warehouses / garages.

 

[SRE]

Are they taking names and addresses??

 

[Gavin A]

not if you pay cash and say no to their loyalty card thing. Also, there are generally a fair few stores scattered about, and their website gives you the stocking levels in each store... combine that with several different members of staff needing their lofts insulated at the same time and...

handily 12 rolls fit in a van quite nicely as well, which I obviously lent to the staff to be able to buy their insulation for their lofts and am now storing for them as well coz I'm nice like that.

 

[Somecamel]

Any of you guys have/interested in getting the accreditation for installing insulation through CERT?

Been trying to find out some information on it but hitting a lot of walls.

 

[SRE]

CERT is nearly finished and ECO has yet to be decided but when it does it's not going to have much money for ordinary insulation, most is going to solid walls and boiler replacements for fuel poor - at least that's my understanding at the minute. The insulation industry is very very worried about their installations dropping from something like 2 million a year to 100-200 thousand, because Green Deal will now charge for insulation that has been free to most or at least very cheap for years. Sounds familiar????

I managed cert programmes for years - if you take my advice leave well alone, it's worse than pv and margins are a fraction.

 

[Somecamel]

I had a company approach me who have the accreditation and funding for the insulation- Want us to market and sell it etc- commissions look good but am aware, most houses done already.

Thought cert had been extended

 

[SRE]

My advice would be if you can put up with the hassle (I'm not doing it and I have the benefit of years of experience) is to do an insulation survey when you visit the house (you can pick up a borescope for about £100 if you look carefully)complete the paperwork for the insulation firm and charge them £30 for it. That's slightly more than the going rate but they are quite desperate for work so you may well get it. Ask youself why they want you to market it .... I'm very experienced in this field and I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole pv is 10 times easier.

Don't get into buying the stock and claiming the money - believe me it's 10 times worse than pv and I've seen loads of insulation companies go bust because they haven't been able to manage their staff, customers or cashflow.

 

[Somecamel]

Thanks for your helpful points.

I will be doing something with Insulation, (opening an Energy Shop in town) but take your points on the hassle.

Been offered £120 per measure...

 

[SRE]

Is that to survey or to generate and survey? I used to have a 200k marketing budget and a team of 14 staff to generate 4-5k jobs each year and we were considered one of the best in the country.

 

[Somecamel]

Generate and survey- I would get a team together for this.

I hear some of the energy companies are no where near their targets

 

[SRE]

Yep, been there done that, won national awards for it - all part of the 200k a year marketing budget. The reason the targets aren't being hit is because all the low hanging fruit has been picked in the last 10 years.

I'd still advise against it - after all I could be doing it myself if I thought I could make it work but if you want some hints and tips pm me and I'm happy to pass on how we used to do it.

 

[TedM]

CERT has been extended - from March 2011 to 31/12/12.

It is interesting to note that CERT is able to pay for a PV installation (for the super priority group) as well as insulation. Clearly that doesn't provide the same level of carbon reduction per £ spent as insulation does so has probably been ignored so far by the electricity companies.