A Green Deal Story

You would not be able to make it up!

I have just had a Green Deal Assessment carried out on my house with the most bizarre results. I needed a Green Deal Assessment because this is the way that my deemed heat usage can be assessed for when the domestic RHI is introduced this coming Spring.

Part of the Assessment is an EPC rating. The result was that since my last EPC in Nov 2010 my EPC rating has gone down from B 83 to E 46. The only thing that has happened to my house is that I have fitted a biomass boiler in place of an oil one and, according to the assessor, it is only because of this that my rating has deteriorated so badly.

Now here is the best bit on the EPC:

“The average household causes about 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. Based on this assessment, your home produces approximately -0.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. Adopting the recommendations in this report can reduce emissions and protect the environment. If you were to instal these recommendations you could reduce this amount by 0.1 tonnes per year.”

It also suggests I can save money by installing solar thermal water heating. The cost would be between £4000 and £6000 with a yearly saving of £98 which would not be financeable under the Green Deal. The fact that I already heat my water with surplus solar pv electricity does not come into the equation.

The only other thing it suggests is under floor insulation with a surprisingly low cost of £800 to £1000 and with an annual saving of £220 which would be financeable under the Green Deal. My house has rather nice Canadian polished strip hardwood flooring which would be expensive to lift and almost certainly would not look the same if relaid. I have a large carpet in one room which Dibles have said cannot be relaid due to its age and is best left in place. The kitchen and utility rooms have sheet plywood laid over the boards with vinyl overlay stuck down which would not survive lifting. I have discovered that the price assumes bare floorboards so the cost is going to be over three times that suggested and obviously is not financeable under the Green Deal.

Any Green Deal is essentially a 20 year debt at 8% interest rate paid for by the fuel saving. The latest Green Deal figures from DECC for Jan 2014 revealed that in total 145,110 assessments had been made but only 494 Green Deal plans had been signed up. Hardly surprising!