Boiler Upgrade Scheme Grant - Actions to Take Now

[ReedRichards]

2 hours ago, Green Power said:

.... they suggested changing from Mitsubishi to LG with integrated Cylinder and buffer tank within and this could bring the price down to £9k, let me know about any thoughts on the LG?
 

 

Do you mean something like this https://www.telford-group.com/product/lg-air-source-heat-pump-packages/ (which is what I have)?

[Green Power]

Sorry for delay in response, I've been waiting for the company to send some more information about the LG proposal so I could answer you, but they haven't yet.

[Green Power]

On 06/05/2022 at 13:04, HughF said:

Why don’t you do your own heat loss and rad sizing?

I am a landlord and I live abroad and not planning to visit back to the UK this year.

[Green Power]

So the one that was £7.6k without radiators is now, after the visiting the house, £8.2k with radiators. They proposed to replace 3 of the radiators (with Kartell K Rad Kompact) but keep the other existing radiators. I think I will go ahead with this one.

All the others are £2-5k more or didn't reply to me. If it wasn't for this one, I think I would have deferred for a few years due to high cost, so I may have been lucky.

The cheaper one has just as good reviews and has been just as professional dealing with me (or better) than some of the others, and had good, clear info on the quote and is more local than some, so feels like a no brainer at this point.

One doubt I did have was that the heat calculation that they sent me after visiting the property was exactly the same as the estimation as before, and the tenant said they only spent 15 minutes there measuring the radiators and doing whatever else which seems low. However I don't think that is enough to stop me going ahead.

They want to install a split/integrated (rather than monobloc) unit, which would be a Daikin Altherma 3 R32 with a 180L water tank with a 4-6kW backup heater (for the water tank), a thermostatically controlled programmable timer, a 5 year warranty (but requires £150 annual service spend to keep warranty valid).

The design heating flow temperature is 45C. The estimated SPF (seasonal COP) is 3.6 for heating and 2.4 for hot water with an estimated consumption of 2.75MWh electricity per year for heating (to produce 9.9MWh of heat) and 1.03MWh of electricity for hot water (of which 0.8MWh is from the heat pump and 0.2 from the backup immersion heater). That gives a total electrical energy consumption of 3.78MWh per year.

[HughF]

Make sure the split doesn’t have a compressor indoors or the noise will drive your tenants insane. 
 

[Adsibob]

On 18/03/2022 at 14:13, Green Power said:

The House
74m2 (797 sq ft) end terrace. Two floors. Wellingborough, Northants. Concrete build. Rated 67 (a high D) on the Energy Performance Certificate.

Forget it! You need much more insulation and to replace all your rads to make the investment in a heat pump worthwhile.

[bassanclan]

4 hours ago, Green Power said:

So the one that was £7.6k without radiators is now, after the visiting the house, £8.2k with radiators.

Less £5k grant I presume?

[Green Power]

Hugh: Compressor is outside.

Adsibob: I have added more lost insulation since that post to improve the rating from a D to a C.

Bassanclan: yes less 5k grant, so it´ll be just over 3k that I actually pay.

 

[Green Power]

Looks like the install requires either removing the old warm air heating unit from the under stair cupboard or removing a small part of the kitchen desktop.

The first option requires asbestos investigation and removal. Anyone know a good company for this. The house is in Northants, but perhaps someone can recommend a company that works nationally. Search engine results only returned one company that I liked and they didn't reply.

[Adsibob]

23 hours ago, Green Power said:

 

Adsibob: I have added more lost insulation since that post to improve the rating from a D to a C.

 

That doesn’t sound enough to me. What have you actually done? How much loft insulation, what’s the u value of your walls, what about your glazing? Any cavities you can fill? Draft excluders?

[SteamyTea]

6 hours ago, Adsibob said:

That doesn’t sound enough to me. What have you actually done? How much loft insulation, what’s the u value of your walls, what about your glazing? Any cavities you can fill? Draft excluders?

I bet you never, ever, thought you would be typing that sort of reply 2 years ago.  Building physics soon  takes over your whole life.

[Adsibob]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

I bet you never, ever, thought you would be typing that sort of reply 2 years ago.  Building physics soon  takes over your whole life.

Yeah, it’s bonkers. I discovered a small draft above one of the panels of my new sliding fits last night, and it really pissed me off. Must be an installation issue.

[SteamyTea]

1 minute ago, Adsibob said:

Yeah, it’s bonkers.

When you started your refurbishment, did you ever think a small draft would worry you after all the trials and tribulations you have been though.

Soon you will see the funny side of it all.  We have!

[Green Power]

23 hours ago, Adsibob said:

That doesn’t sound enough to me. What have you actually done? How much loft insulation, what’s the u value of your walls, what about your glazing? Any cavities you can fill? Draft excluders?

200m loft insulation was added, and there was some already in there, current total is 250 or 270mm.

It states 0.46 U value for "wall external".

Windows are double glazed, but some of the seals may have failed. A few need looking at which I will plan to likely to do in the August or autumn, potentially after the heat pump is installed.

One wall already has cavity fill, the others can´t be done.

Drafts not currently an issue.

[Green Power]

The install was delayed as it turned out I had to do a few other jobs in the house to make way for the heat pump, and those dragged on for months for various reasons.

 

So the installer eventually applied for the grant a couple of weeks ago.

 

I received an email from the BUS and I had to click on the link and answer a few questions to confirm eligibility.

 

However at first the link didn't work even on other browsers, devices, or internet connections (they suggested to do it on mobile data incase my home internet wasn't working). When I told them I lived them abroad they said they would have to check with management re eligibility. They then told me to use a VPN and set my location as UK to be able to access the link which worked. I used iTop VPN which was free and fairly easy. Presumably this means that I am eligible even though I live abroad, otherwise it would be a bit odd that they were telling me to use as VPN.

 

All I got back was "We’ve received your consent for [company name] to apply to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) on your behalf" and "We’ll assess [company name] application as quickly as we can, and let them know the outcome by email." That was on Friday. Nothing today.

 

This has taken 2 weeks so far of emails with the BUS (the government grant department), although it might have been 1 if it wasn't for the fact that I was abroad and the link was blocked. The BUS has taken between 1 day and 1 week to reply to each email and take an action.

[JohnMo]

Are you eligible if you live abroad, I assume your also not a UK tax payer?

 

From what I have read, would make you NOT eligible.

 

"Who’s eligible for funding?

You could be eligible if you fall into the below criteria:

 

Resident in England or Wales"

 

 

[pilgrim]

10 hours ago, Green Power said:

The install was delayed as it turned out I had to do a few other jobs in the house to make way for the heat pump, and those dragged on for months for various reasons.

 

So the installer eventually applied for the grant a couple of weeks ago.

 

I received an email from the BUS and I had to click on the link and answer a few questions to confirm eligibility.

 

However at first the link didn't work even on other browsers, devices, or internet connections (they suggested to do it on mobile data incase my home internet wasn't working). When I told them I lived them abroad they said they would have to check with management re eligibility. They then told me to use a VPN and set my location as UK to be able to access the link which worked. I used iTop VPN which was free and fairly easy. Presumably this means that I am eligible even though I live abroad, otherwise it would be a bit odd that they were telling me to use as VPN.

 

All I got back was "We’ve received your consent for [company name] to apply to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) on your behalf" and "We’ll assess [company name] application as quickly as we can, and let them know the outcome by email." That was on Friday. Nothing today.

 

This has taken 2 weeks so far of emails with the BUS (the government grant department), although it might have been 1 if it wasn't for the fact that I was abroad and the link was blocked. The BUS has taken between 1 day and 1 week to reply to each email and take an action.

I have recently done this from the UK without any of the complications that you have listed and it took 1 month from filling out the form to getting the grant approved email. I think you will just have to be patient

[gjones12687]

We've just recently tried to get the BUS grant ourselves. 

Our installer has told us it was refused 4 days before the install because "We don't currently have a boiler" - We're on all electric currently (small 2KW Panel heater, and a stiebel eltron for hot water).  Still trying to get more details as according to eligibility that should be fine, but I'd just be aware that at least in our case they do seem to be refusing for non-standard reasons!

Luckily we're just about able to cope with the 2KW and MVHR, providing we have a fairly mild winter (Can't get a new install done until the appeal for the grant has gone through! so a minimum 2 month delay as the installer is obviously filling up availability). 

Makes me wonder if I made the right decision during the reno to aim for heat pump rather than gas boiler, could have had heating a year and half ago instead of putting it off.

[SteamyTea]

19 hours ago, gjones12687 said:

small 2KW Panel heater, and a stiebel eltron for hot water

You must have a small demand for heat, or are you shivering in one small room?

You could fit storage heaters and play around with different time of use tariffs. May save a few thousand.

[JohnMo]

Joules and others do a cylinder with heat pump incorporated, that can do heating also. 

[HughF]

Why anyone would apply for this grant is beyond me…. All it does is push the cost to the consumer up by the amount of the grant…

[markc]

36 minutes ago, HughF said:

Why anyone would apply for this grant is beyond me…. All it does is push the cost to the consumer up by the amount of the grant…

Same with all the help to buy schemes, but Joe public is greedy and easily deceived

[offthepiste]

We are replacing our Viessmann 222F gas boiler with a Viessmann Vitocal 200A ASHP.

 

Viessmann are handling the BUS grant, EPC, etc, for us. Its a new scheme and we are one of the first.

 

We cannot remove our boiler and terminate our gas contract until Viessmann had done all the paperwork.

 

Cheers

[Green Power]

On 20/09/2022 at 18:19, JohnMo said:

Are you eligible if you live abroad, I assume your also not a UK tax payer?

 

From what I have read, would make you NOT eligible.

 

"Who’s eligible for funding?

You could be eligible if you fall into the below criteria:

 

Resident in England or Wales"

 

 

I was approved inspite of living abroad and inspite and telling them over the phone that I lived abroad (and not paying UK taxes), and writing it down in email. Also, it was the BUS themselves that told me to get a VPN and set it to UK. So it seems pretty clear that I am OK.

 

I guess the reference to England and Wales is because it's not relevant for homes in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

 

Ofgem references "buildings in England and Wales" with nothing about residency. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-and-social-schemes/boiler-upgrade-scheme-bus

 

The BUS site does not provide enough clarity on this point. It says:

 

"You may be eligible if you:

• live in England or Wales
• own your property (whether this is a home or a small non-domestic property)

Private landlords and second-home owners are eligible."

 

which does not answer the question really.

 

Can you provide your source for your quote which specifically says "resident"?

[Green Power]

So I was approved on September 21st and the heat pump installed October 14th and 15th. The approval process took 2 weeks, but if I had been living in the UK, or had figured out to use VPN earlier, I could have got it down to 1 week.

 

The process is initiated by the installer, so all you have to do is reply to an email by going to a link to confirm some info. So the process is not difficult from the customer point of view.