Solar panels - no brainer for us?

[Spinball]

there are a few things you can do rather than solar thermal i would have underfloor heatiing this is set at 50deg and more efficient than rads blasting out 80deg that will cut your gas bill down
we do UFH too

If you want to suggest to the wife that we rip up all the floors in the house, can I video it?

 

[jason121]

dont have to. retro fit underfloor heating by laying on existing floor.only problem will rise the floor by about 30mm

 

[Spinball]

dont have to. retro fit underfloor heating by laying on existing floor.only problem will rise the floor by about 30mm

Underfloor heating is not an option. Too much expense and disruption. The former owners put down really nice floor tiles and I have no intention of digging them up.

 

[Eco Deal]

Spin ball

ECO funding is for

1. People on low incomes HHCRO
2. hard to treat properties CERO
3. low income areas CSCO

so no its not just for people on benefits

 

[sedgy34]

That's what I've Been trying to get across

 

[Spinball]

I appreciate the help. Is there some clear information anywhere which lets people know how they qualify? If the government want people to take advantage of these initiatives, they aren't exactly making it easy for people to find them.

 

[Earthstore]

They do not make it easy for anything to do with renewables, I wonder why?

 

[Gary K]

They do not make it easy for anything to do with renewables, I wonder why?

When the allocated fund do not get used, it gets redirected to another project like paying bonus's!!!

 

[sedgy34]

We have direct access to funding through a utility company so if you have any projects let me know

 

[SRE]

I appreciate the help. Is there some clear information anywhere which lets people know how they qualify? If the government want people to take advantage of these initiatives, they aren't exactly making it easy for people to find them.

That's because most people don't qualify for ECO. I have yet to see a "normal" house & customer who qualifies for ECO. I talk with lots of Green Deal Assessors and work on a countywide Green Deal group and none of us have found funding for "normal" customers yet. I've heard from several sources that there's still some funding via CERT available for cavity & loft but it's got to be installed by the end of March so you'd need to get your skates on. It's not easy to find - I'd suggest you look for a list of insulation installers in your area and ring each of them to see if they have any funds left.

ECO is still a long way from being resolved I know of one installer who generated 1200 jobs for ECO, a substantial amount of them were solid wall jobs in a low income area, the utility who had requested the work couldn't work with the jobs provided because even in a low income area they weren't skint enough to make ECO worthwhile for the utility, the goal posts had moved within a fortnight of requesting the work from the installer. ECO is going to deal with social housing primarily, easy target - lots of houses one load of permission from one landlord and economies of scale.

My understanding of underfloor heating was that it was more efficient as it takes a hot water feed of 35 degrees. However, I've recently been on air source heat pump training and the software used for MCS certification shows absolutely no difference between underfloor and radiators. I've queried the figures but it looks as though you wouldn't gain from ufh even if you were prepared to retrofit.

 

[sedgy34]

You may have been misled with your information
cause utilities are bidding against each other for co2 savings we know cause we have a direct contact

 

[jason121]

That's because most people don't qualify for ECO. I have yet to see a "normal" house & customer who qualifies for ECO. I talk with lots of Green Deal Assessors and work on a countywide Green Deal group and none of us have found funding for "normal" customers yet. I've heard from several sources that there's still some funding via CERT available for cavity & loft but it's got to be installed by the end of March so you'd need to get your skates on. It's not easy to find - I'd suggest you look for a list of insulation installers in your area and ring each of them to see if they have any funds left.

ECO is still a long way from being resolved I know of one installer who generated 1200 jobs for ECO, a substantial amount of them were solid wall jobs in a low income area, the utility who had requested the work couldn't work with the jobs provided because even in a low income area they weren't skint enough to make ECO worthwhile for the utility, the goal posts had moved within a fortnight of requesting the work from the installer. ECO is going to deal with social housing primarily, easy target - lots of houses one load of permission from one landlord and economies of scale.

My understanding of underfloor heating was that it was more efficient as it takes a hot water feed of 35 degrees. However, I've recently been on air source heat pump training and the software used for MCS certification shows absolutely no difference between underfloor and radiators. I've queried the figures but it looks as though you wouldn't gain from ufh even if you were prepared to retrofit.

Alter the figure under this heading on the right
SAP 2009 Heat Pump efficiency from Table 4c from .7 to 1
This will alter the KWH for the year

 

[SRE]

Thanks Jason - the software I was looking at was Danfoss software for MIS 3005. Sounds like it could be a glitch in the software.

Sedgy - I hate to tell you this but the installers I know have been working directly with the utilities for over 8 years right through SOP & CERT & now with ECO. They were very experienced and have been right royally stuffed. Be careful before you commit any funds to marketing ECO, if I were you I'd wait for a while yet until they get themselves sorted out. You might have a chance of making it work if you just hang on for a bit longer

I wish I had a pound for everyone who tells me that ECO is available for everyone - it's not financially viable for the utilities to hit their priority targets and make it available for everyone.