Is your boiler struggling to cope with the recent cold snap? It might well be if it hasn't been serviced recently. Recent research by the utilities comparison site uSwitch.com suggests that four out of 10 households neglect regular annual servicing of their hot water and heating system. And this could cost you, says Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at uSwitch. 'If your boiler packs up you are facing a £500 bill, plus the misery of trying to get somebody out quickly to sort it out - not much fun in winter.'
One solution could be to invest in a boiler servicing and repair policy - but shop carefully. Packages vary hugely in terms of price and cover, and some can be very expensive. Josephine Sackett, a retired teacher from Hackney, pays £290 a year to have her 18-year-old Vaillant boiler annually checked and serviced, through a British Gas service contract called HomeCare 200. This includes year-round call-out cover, parts and labour, and central heating repairs. 'On occasions, their service has been rather perfunctory, or inconsistent. Once I was told I needed a new boiler; another time they said it was fine. But when I have had problems, they have come immediately.'
Still, almost £300 a year could be put towards a more efficient boiler. Keith Mathers, group service director at Vaillant, says boilers become more unreliable with age and that Vaillant's own cover is generally not offered once a boiler gets past the 15-year point. 'Otherwise, we charge £168 a year for an annual service contract, which includes parts and labour, with no annual limit on call-outs.'
Which? recently picked through a huge range of boiler service contracts. British Gas, which sells two-thirds of all UK contracts and covers most of the UK, generally came out well, with a wide range of deals, starting from £132 a year, provided you pay the first £50 of each repair. But Which? found the best value cover was offered by Powergen, with cover starting from £108 a year provided you stump up, again, the first £50 of each repair. This cover, however, is not available nationwide.
Or you could simply opt to have your boiler serviced every year and hope for the best. When Cash called several independent installers in London, we found annual service quotes from Corgi-registered engineers ranged from £65 to more than £90.
If your boiler is well and truly past it - most last 15 years - then it certainly is worth replacing it with the now compulsory fuel-efficient condensing type. The Energy Saving Trust reckons this will save you at least £150 a year.
Be careful, though, how much you pay for one. Prices start at £750, and installation can cost as much as £1,300. Tim Wolfenden, head of home services at uSwitch, says: 'Large energy companies might offer what seems a good deal for the boiler but they often recoup their profit with the installation.'
Wolfenden recommends buying a boiler through a wholesaler, or local heating specialist, then hiring a Corgi-registered gas engineer to fit it. Be aware that, though modern boilers can be vastly more efficient, they're also potentially more expensive to fix: a heat exchanger can cost up to £350. So Wolfenden recommends keeping your boiler in peak condition as it ages: 'Annual services will prolong a boiler's life. Do invest in them, especially after the warranty runs out.
Adrian Holliday
full article
Sunday, 25 November 2007
Friday, 23 November 2007
The Real Cost of Going Green
Making your home carbon neautral could prove surprisingly costly – but the investment could soon reap dividends with big savings on electricity and gas bills, as well as helping the environment, new research suggests.
Making a three-bedroom, semi-detached home more carbon neutral can cost up to £9,000 if you want the bells, whistles and wind turbines, a study from Alliance & Leicester Personal Loans reveals.
The first steps on the way to helping make a home carbon neutral is fitting energy-saving light bulbs and ensuring it is insulated properly.Energy-saving bulbs last around 12 times longer, use 75% less power and are estimated to save around £65 during each bulb’s lifespan.
An estimated 5 million homes already have cavity wall insulation which cuts the amount of energy needed to heat a home. The insulation is injected between the inner and outer sections of brickwork and acts as a barrier to heat loss. The average family home could see heating costs slashed by 15% - or £100 to £120 per year. Given the work costs around £500, it won’t take long to make savings.
Loft insulation can help cut heating bills further by saving around £110 per year. It acts as a blanket, trapping heat rising from the floors below. According to the Energy Saving Trust, if everyone in the UK topped up their loft insulation to a depth of 270mm, nearly £400 million would be saved every year. Loft insulation costs around £300 for the recommended thickness.
The most effective way of reducing energy bills further is to replace boilers that are more than 15 years old. Modern systems are designed to be far more efficient and need less fuel to run, with many condensing boilers using 40% less energy. An efficient condensing boiler costs around £500 and could save around £240 per year, according to Energy Saving Advice. It means homeowners could easily cover the cost of their boiler within three years.
Double glazing prevents further heat loss through windows and is an effective way of making more savings on fuel bills. Homes can be double-glazed from as little as £1,400 for six windows.
While the idea of investing in wind turbines may sound expensive, they can help reduce a property’s carbon footprint by using wind power first, before drawing on the supply from the National Grid. Turbines can be bought from £1,500, plus additional installation costs.
Homeowners can also go one step further in their quest to become carbon neutral by plugging into solar electricity, which uses energy from the sun in order to generate electricity. Most systems simply require daylight – rather than direct sunlight - to create electricity, which means Britain’s weather need not deter homeowners from investing in solar electricity. But it does come at a price, as systems start from £5,000, although estimates suggest it will wipe around £200 off annual electricity bills
Financedaily.co.uk
full article
Making a three-bedroom, semi-detached home more carbon neutral can cost up to £9,000 if you want the bells, whistles and wind turbines, a study from Alliance & Leicester Personal Loans reveals.
The first steps on the way to helping make a home carbon neutral is fitting energy-saving light bulbs and ensuring it is insulated properly.Energy-saving bulbs last around 12 times longer, use 75% less power and are estimated to save around £65 during each bulb’s lifespan.
An estimated 5 million homes already have cavity wall insulation which cuts the amount of energy needed to heat a home. The insulation is injected between the inner and outer sections of brickwork and acts as a barrier to heat loss. The average family home could see heating costs slashed by 15% - or £100 to £120 per year. Given the work costs around £500, it won’t take long to make savings.
Loft insulation can help cut heating bills further by saving around £110 per year. It acts as a blanket, trapping heat rising from the floors below. According to the Energy Saving Trust, if everyone in the UK topped up their loft insulation to a depth of 270mm, nearly £400 million would be saved every year. Loft insulation costs around £300 for the recommended thickness.
The most effective way of reducing energy bills further is to replace boilers that are more than 15 years old. Modern systems are designed to be far more efficient and need less fuel to run, with many condensing boilers using 40% less energy. An efficient condensing boiler costs around £500 and could save around £240 per year, according to Energy Saving Advice. It means homeowners could easily cover the cost of their boiler within three years.
Double glazing prevents further heat loss through windows and is an effective way of making more savings on fuel bills. Homes can be double-glazed from as little as £1,400 for six windows.
While the idea of investing in wind turbines may sound expensive, they can help reduce a property’s carbon footprint by using wind power first, before drawing on the supply from the National Grid. Turbines can be bought from £1,500, plus additional installation costs.
Homeowners can also go one step further in their quest to become carbon neutral by plugging into solar electricity, which uses energy from the sun in order to generate electricity. Most systems simply require daylight – rather than direct sunlight - to create electricity, which means Britain’s weather need not deter homeowners from investing in solar electricity. But it does come at a price, as systems start from £5,000, although estimates suggest it will wipe around £200 off annual electricity bills
Financedaily.co.uk
full article
Thursday, 22 November 2007
Hips to be extended to all properties
The government's controversial home information pack (Hip) scheme will be rolled out to all properties in England and Wales from December 14, it was announced today.
The packs, which are already compulsory for all homes on the market with three bedrooms or more, are designed to speed up the selling process and reduce the number of sales that fall through.
They offer potential buyers upfront information about a property, including title deeds, search information and an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating its energy efficiency.
The communities and local government department said the roll out to all properties would reduce the upfront costs faced by first-time buyers and allow homebuyers to reduce household fuel bills and carbon emissions.
It said early monitoring of the scheme showed it had gone smoothly, with Hips taking an average of seven to 10 days to prepare and costing between £300-£350, less than the £400 anticipated before the scheme was launched.
However, critics of the scheme have said they are a waste of money, and suggested they will cause a further slowdown in the housing market.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said the full introduction of Hips would "wipe 300,000 properties off estate agents books" as speculative sellers withdrew from the market.
Following the introduction of the packs on homes of four bedrooms or more on August 1, it reported a 51% fall in the number of homes of that size coming on to the market.
A 37% fall in the number of three-bedroom homes brought to market in September, when Hips were rolled out to cover properties of that size, was also blamed on Hips.
Rics, which took legal action against the government at the beginning of the summer over the packs, and in doing so delayed their introduction from the planned date of June 1, said a full roll out would hit first-time buyers.
The organisation's spokesman Jeremy Leaf said: "With prospective buyers and sellers currently taking a 'wait and see' approach to moving, activity in the housing market is grinding to a halt."
Leaf said accessibility to the housing market for first-time buyers would "go off the scale" as the supply of properties dried up.
"A lack of smaller properties for purchase will force first-time-buyers to remain in the lettings market where rents are already climbing at the fastest pace in over eight years," he said.
"If the housing minister genuinely wants to improve the plight of first-time-buyers, she should not continue with this flawed policy."
Strong argument for scheme roll out
But the government said an independent report it had commissioned from consultancy Europe Economics had found no impact on transactions or prices, except a short-term delay in new listings while a seller commissioned the pack.
It said the report had concluded the impact was short lived and marginal, and found strong arguments for carrying on with the planned roll out.
The housing minister, Yvette Cooper, said: "Hips and EPCs are already helping consumers to save hundreds of pounds off their fuel bills and are cutting search costs too.
"All homebuyers will be able to benefit from energy efficiency advice, with those receiving low green ratings of 'F' and 'G' especially targeted for support and grants to make improvements to cut their costs and carbon emissions."
The high number of leasehold properties among one- and two-bedroom properties has forced the government to temporarily amend the Hip regulations to allow homes to be put on the market with only a lease document included in the pack.
It had originally required other documents to appear, including statements of service charges and details of managing agents, but these have proved hard to obtain quickly.
The items will become compulsory in six months time, but in the meantime the government has asked the deputy chief executive of the Land Registry, Ted Beardsall, to look at how the provision of leasehold information can be improved.
Hilary Osborne
full article
The packs, which are already compulsory for all homes on the market with three bedrooms or more, are designed to speed up the selling process and reduce the number of sales that fall through.
They offer potential buyers upfront information about a property, including title deeds, search information and an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating its energy efficiency.
The communities and local government department said the roll out to all properties would reduce the upfront costs faced by first-time buyers and allow homebuyers to reduce household fuel bills and carbon emissions.
It said early monitoring of the scheme showed it had gone smoothly, with Hips taking an average of seven to 10 days to prepare and costing between £300-£350, less than the £400 anticipated before the scheme was launched.
However, critics of the scheme have said they are a waste of money, and suggested they will cause a further slowdown in the housing market.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said the full introduction of Hips would "wipe 300,000 properties off estate agents books" as speculative sellers withdrew from the market.
Following the introduction of the packs on homes of four bedrooms or more on August 1, it reported a 51% fall in the number of homes of that size coming on to the market.
A 37% fall in the number of three-bedroom homes brought to market in September, when Hips were rolled out to cover properties of that size, was also blamed on Hips.
Rics, which took legal action against the government at the beginning of the summer over the packs, and in doing so delayed their introduction from the planned date of June 1, said a full roll out would hit first-time buyers.
The organisation's spokesman Jeremy Leaf said: "With prospective buyers and sellers currently taking a 'wait and see' approach to moving, activity in the housing market is grinding to a halt."
Leaf said accessibility to the housing market for first-time buyers would "go off the scale" as the supply of properties dried up.
"A lack of smaller properties for purchase will force first-time-buyers to remain in the lettings market where rents are already climbing at the fastest pace in over eight years," he said.
"If the housing minister genuinely wants to improve the plight of first-time-buyers, she should not continue with this flawed policy."
Strong argument for scheme roll out
But the government said an independent report it had commissioned from consultancy Europe Economics had found no impact on transactions or prices, except a short-term delay in new listings while a seller commissioned the pack.
It said the report had concluded the impact was short lived and marginal, and found strong arguments for carrying on with the planned roll out.
The housing minister, Yvette Cooper, said: "Hips and EPCs are already helping consumers to save hundreds of pounds off their fuel bills and are cutting search costs too.
"All homebuyers will be able to benefit from energy efficiency advice, with those receiving low green ratings of 'F' and 'G' especially targeted for support and grants to make improvements to cut their costs and carbon emissions."
The high number of leasehold properties among one- and two-bedroom properties has forced the government to temporarily amend the Hip regulations to allow homes to be put on the market with only a lease document included in the pack.
It had originally required other documents to appear, including statements of service charges and details of managing agents, but these have proved hard to obtain quickly.
The items will become compulsory in six months time, but in the meantime the government has asked the deputy chief executive of the Land Registry, Ted Beardsall, to look at how the provision of leasehold information can be improved.
Hilary Osborne
full article
Green Homes Service announced
The government is to invest £100 million in creating a 'Green Homes Service'. The Energy Savings Trust will conduct home energy audits, as well as offering advice on reducing waste and water use and connecting to grants and offers from energy companies.
Announcing the Green Homes Service environment secretary Hilary Benn said: "When it comes to cutting your carbon footprint, the old adage 'there's no place like home' really is true. We need to make this as easy as possible for people to do. There's a lot of help out there in the form of grants, advice, and other assistance, but it’s hard to know where to start."
He said the new-look Energy Saving Trust would act as a one-stop shop to extend the use of renewable energy at home and improve efficiency, and that the government wants 150,000 homes to be generating their own renewable energy by 2011.
Green Building Press
full article
Announcing the Green Homes Service environment secretary Hilary Benn said: "When it comes to cutting your carbon footprint, the old adage 'there's no place like home' really is true. We need to make this as easy as possible for people to do. There's a lot of help out there in the form of grants, advice, and other assistance, but it’s hard to know where to start."
He said the new-look Energy Saving Trust would act as a one-stop shop to extend the use of renewable energy at home and improve efficiency, and that the government wants 150,000 homes to be generating their own renewable energy by 2011.
Green Building Press
full article
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