House Works

A while ago I was talking about house improvements to lower energy bills, including fitting a smart meter to see if I could benefit from a dynamic tariff. One of the things I talked about was an air-source heat pump to replace our gas boiler, and one of the requirements for that is that your house is well-insulated. When I bought our house, it was during the brief window when house sales included a "house report" with an energy efficiency rating, and my house was rated "D". This meant that we were potentially eligible for improvements under the "Great British Insulation Scheme", so I applied through our energy provider, Octopus, and got fobbed off for many months.

A few weeks ago, some young lads came round on behalf of the GBIS and said they could sign us up directly, so we went with them. This has progressed much quicker - the surveyor came round about a week later and confirmed that there's no cavity insulation in the older part of the house. We've had new extractor fan fitted in the bathroom this week, and today some nice men are installing the cavity wall insulation and putting trickle vents near all the windows. And all of this has been free because the house was in such a poor state when I bought it!

I'm really happy with how quickly this has all progressed, and it helps lay the groundwork for future improvements. Also, there's a weird trick - of the things offered by the GBIS it seems like you can only apply for one, but it's one per energy provider and you don't have to go through your own provider. So once this is done I might be able to hassle Octopus to install underfloor insulation in the kitchen, or top up the loft insulation to the currently-recommended 30cm.

In addition, the surveyor said he was expecting the new Labour Government to bring back some subsidies for domestic solar installation in future!