We have spent so much time in doors, as its cold outside, and our home is very spacious. We moved two years ago, to a converted chapel, and I have had the happiest time of my life here. We have moved quite a few times over the years, and really hoped we could call this house a proper home.
So what makes a house a home? Is it decorations, cushions, time, a kettle, or love?
This is the new house we have been told is ours, once we pay and do all the paperwork…yippeee I love it, what do you think?
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/to-rent/details/27079275?search_identifier=90fda013347670013ecba6c0232adcb9
]]>It is at times like this, you know, the end of the Myan world, as we know it – 2012 – that I may not have my phone at hand… it may only be my trusty zippy keyboard that I can reach for the signal call…the call for help.
But the nine doesn’t work.
That’s all my mates mobiles knackered, and even if I try a transatlantic call they still have a nine in for emergencies. But Whoa…
It is the abbreviation that I have been overusing. That is a dire sign for any writer or iconologist of any decent reputation.
It’s a break away from normal sentence forming, where your brain digresses into a momentary, usually negative ponder that must be added into conversation to make way for;pause for thought; so as to allow sufficient time to think about the relevant subject that you seem to know so little about… and to the next most relevant point. You add a curvy [ my button is broken, opposite to ) 
But more devestating than that, is the thought that I may have sent more sad faces than happy faces, I say as a serious serial iconologist. My goodness that is scary. I thought I was a happy girl..??
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Have you been shocked by your recent fuel bill? What actions have you taken to reduce cost of keeping warm this Winter?
I have created this lens to help you make the right informed decisions on how to use your heating effectively, home improvements that can help reduce fuel costs, and also include some relevant information and links.
A household is said to be in fuel poverty if it needs to spend more than 10 per cent of its income on fuel to maintain an adequate level of warmth (usually defined as 21 degrees Celsius for the main living area, and 18 degrees Celsius for other occupied rooms) and to meet its other energy needs (i.e. lighting and appliances, water heating and cooking).Fuel poverty ratio = fuel costs (i.e. usage x price) ÷ income
If this ratio is greater than 0.1 then the household is counted as being in fuel poverty.
In the calculation of this ratio, the fuel usage is modelled to ensure the household achieves the satisfactory heating regime.
In addition to space heating, the fuel costs component also includes modelled spending on energy for water heating, lights and appliances and cooking.
Whether a household is in fuel poverty or not is determined by the interaction of a number of factors, but three specifically stand out. These are:
the energy efficiency status of the property
the cost of energy, and
household income
The Carbon Buster’s Home Energy Handbook: Slowing Climate Change and Saving Money
by: Godo Stoyke
Amazon Price: $1.01 (as of 12/07/2012) 
Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings (Ninth Edition)
by: Jennifer Thorne Amann, Alex Wilson, Katie Ackerly
Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 12/07/2012)
Fuel Poverty Awareness day was on the 10th February 2012. This was created by the NEA to create awareness for fuel poverty.
Low incomes are one of the principle causes of fuel poverty so increasing a household’s income and ensuring that people are getting all they are entitled to in terms of financial support, is a direct way of helping them with their fuel bills. So, courtesy of NEA’s helpful Fuel Poverty Action Guide (available by clicking here), there is the financial help that is available from the State – and who qualifies.
Winter Fuel Payments
The Winter Fuel Payment is an annual payment to help people with the costs of keeping warm in the winter. In this current winter (2011/12) you need to have been born on or before the 5th January 1951 (i.e. be at least 60 years old). This winter, households will receive either £200, if one or more persons living in the home have reached the age of 60 but is not yet 80, or £300 if one or more in the dwelling have reached the age of at by the 25th September 2011. If you live in a residential care home and don’t receive Pension Credit, then you are entitled to a Winter Fuel Payment of £100. If in doubt, call the Winter Fuel Payments helpline on 08459 151515 .
Cold Weather Payments
Cold Weather Payments are made to eligible households in areas where a period of ‘exceptionally cold weather’ (7 consecutive days where the average temperature is 0oC or below) has occurred or is forecast to occur. The amount of the payment is £25 per week. Qualifying households will receive the payment automatically and are those where one or more household members is in receipt of Pension Credit / Income Support / ESA with one of the pensioner or disability premiums or where there is a child under 5 in the home. Cold Weather Payments have been triggered over the past few days, so check your location’s eligibility by clicking here.
Devolved Administrations
In addition to the above schemes, the Scottish and Welsh governments have additional support measures in place, as follows:
Scotland – the Energy Assistance Package (EAP). Call Home Energy Scotland Hotline ( 0800 512012 ) for a free benefit and tax credit check.
Wales – Nest, Making Wales Cosy. Call 0800 512 012 or 0300 456 2655 from a mobile for a free benefit and tax credit check.
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This information was taken from
https://www.ebico.org.uk/blog/2012/02/10/fuel-poverty-awareness-day-2012/
Posted on February 10, 2012 by Ebico
Written By By Phil Levermore
10 easy ways of being energy efficient:
1.Lower your central heating thermostat by 1 degree
2.Turn off radiators in rooms that you don’t use
3.Only heat your property when you are at home
4.Change your light bulbs to energy efficient bulbs – LEDs
5.Turn off devices such as televisions at the wall rather than using standby
6.Wash your clothes at 30 degrees
7.Turn off lights when not in the room
8.Only fill your kettle with enough water for the drinks that you are making
9.Draft proof doors and windows
10.Reduce the use of your tumble dryer and use tumble dryer balls to reduce drying time
We have all heard of these before – it’s hard to avoid this advice these days. I recently called my energy supplier about the huge increase and instead of discussing a reasonable way of paying, the woman started preaching to me about home efficiency! Arrgghh well all that advice is a bit late once you have the HUGE bill demanding payment in full just before Christmas!
The ONE main other thing that you can do that the energy companies are less inclined to tell you about is:
Contact your local Green Deal Provider. http://greendealshop.com/
It is a new and radical way of making energy efficiency affordable for all, whether you own or rent your property, as the upfront finance will be attached to the building’s energy meter.
You can pay back over time with the repayments less than the savings on bills, meaning many benefit from day one. It will help save the planet, and drastically cut your fuel bills.
Under the Green Deal, building owners (both residential and non-dwellings) and tenants will be able to order an energy efficient refurbishment of their property from a Green Deal Provider and fund it through a new type of loan. The innovative feature of a Green Deal loan is that it is attached to the property and not the occupier.
The loan repayments are not made directly to the lender but will instead be added to the property’s electricity bill as a separate item. The loan is therefore repaid by the person responsible for the energy bills, who will also benefit from the improved energy efficiency of the property. The electricity company then passes on the money to the Green Deal Provider. Because the loan runs with the property, not the person, the loan will continue to be paid even if the original owner or tenant who organised the refurbishment leaves the property.
There are no credit checks or financial details to declare as the loan is unsecured and does not attach itself to the person arranging the green deal finance. In essence the loan is called a “Green Deal Finance Plan”
This unique mechanism, removes several key barriers to installing energy efficiency works , namely:
Most immediately, Green Deal removes the requirement for upfront payment, so neither owners nor tenants have to provide the capital for the improvement works.
Green Deal also recognises that the building occupants may change. Currently, homeowners say they are reluctant to do any work that has a payback time longer than they expect to own the property. Since there is currently little evidence that energy efficiency improvements add any value to a property (unlike say, gas central heating or double-glazing), the departing homeowner may not get a return on their investment. The Green Deal mechanism addresses this since the person benefitting from the lower energy use is the person responsible for paying for the bill.
It addresses the split-incentive problem in rented buildings, whereby landlords are reluctant to install upgrades which would only benefit their tenants. Under Green Deal the tenants will repay the loan but since it runs with the property it does not matter if new tenants move in every 6 months.
To take advantage of Green Deal, building owners and occupiers will have to have their properties assessed by a Green Deal Adviser (GDA) who will produce a Green Deal Advice Report. The Green Deal Advice Report will include an EPC, an occupancy assessment (comparing the current occupants energy use with the standard EPC assumptions) and details of one or more tailored Green Deal improvement package.
You will be able to ask Green Deal Providers to quote for the work specified in their Green Deal Advice Report. If their quote is accepted, they enter into a contract with the occupant (including getting all relevant permissions). The Green Deal Provider then manages the installation works and sorts out the loan repayments through the electricity company on behalf of the applicant.
To protect consumers against mis-selling, and to avoid inappropriate loans being offered, both the Green Deal Adviser, the Green Deal Provider and all Green Deal Installers will be subject to stringent standards.
One of the key aspects of the green deal is The Golden Rule principle, which limits the amount of Green Deal finance that a provider can attach to the energy meter to the estimated energy bill savings that are likely to result from the installation of measures under the Green Deal plan. This principle aims to keep the energy bills at the property no higher than they would have been had the property been without a Green Deal – this is important both to protect consumers from higher energy bills, and to protect investors from a higher risk of default on the bill. As with any loan there will be some limitations. Under the Golden Rule, the annual cost of any loan repayments must not exceed the anticipated annual saving in energy costs. The anticipated energy savings will be calculated using government approved software. ECO A new Energy Company Obligation will integrate with the Green Deal, allowing supplier subsidy and Green Deal Finance to come together into one seamless offer to the consumer. ECO will be entirely focussed on:
the needs of the lower income and most vulnerable; and
those properties needing the next most cost-effective measures that do not meet the Golden Rule – for example, solid wall insulation (SWI).
In many cases a package of measures appropriate for a house will generate savings large enough for the full up-front costs to be met through Green Deal finance. For more expensive measures, and where Green Deal finance is not a suitable option, ECO subsidy may need to cover the full cost of installation.
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If you choose to take up the Green Deal or not, these are some other things you should consider:
Replace your windows with good quality double glazing. Ask if they have an energy saving coating such as Planitherm. This clever technology keeps the cold out, and the warmth in.
Ensure all your doors are draft proof, solid and secure. Don’t be shy, ask your supplier about the energy efficiency, and enquire about the technology used. Quality and price varies enormously, so do your homework!
Talk to your family and partner about the different ways that you can help each other reduce your energy costs. Don’t forget the kids! No matter how young they are, explain it in simple terms and encourage them to turn off lights and wear a JUMPER Most children are aware of all the environmental issues and are eager to help us reduce our carbon footprint.
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to: – Search for messages sent to a specific address.
from: – Search for messages sent from a specific address
subject: – Search the subject field.
label: – Search within a specific label.
has:attachment – Search only for messages that have attachments
is:chat – Search only chats.
in:anywhere – Also search for messages in the spam and trash. By default, Gmail’s search ignores messages in the spam and trash.
Constructing Searches
To put together more complicated searches, you’ll need to know the basics.
( ) – Brackets allow you to group search terms. For example, searching for subject:(chrissie bee) would only return messages with the words “chrissie” and “bee” in their subject field. If you search for subject:chrissie bee, you’d get messages with “chrissie” in their subject and “bee” anywhere in the message.
OR – OR, which must be in capital letters, allows you to search for one term or another. For example, subject:(chrissie OR bee) would return messages with the word “chrissie” or the word “bee” in their titles. You can also combine other terms with the OR. For example, from:chrissiebee.com OR has:attachment would search for messages that are either from chrissiebee.com or have attachments.
“ “ – Quotes allow you to search for an exact phrase, just like in Google. Searching for “exact phrase” only returns messages that contain the exact phrase. You can combine this with other operators. For example, subject:”exact phrase” only returns messages that have “exact phrase” in their subject field.
- – The hyphen, or minus sign, allows to search for messages that don’t contain a specific term. For example, search for -from:chrissiebee.com and you’ll only see messages that aren’t from chrissiebee.com.
Hidden Search Tricks
You can access many search operators from the search options dialog, but some are hidden. Here’s a list of the hidden ones:
list: – The list: operator allows you to search for messages on a mailing list. For example, list:authors@example.com would return all messages on the authors@example.com mailing list.
filename: – The filename: operator lets you search for a specific file attachment. For example, file:example.pdf would return emails with a file named example.pdf attached.
is:important, label:important – If you use Gmail’s priority inbox, you can use the is:important or label:important operators to search only important or unimportant emails.
has:yellow-star, has:red-star, has:green-check, etc. – If you use different types of stars (see the Stars section on Gmail’s general settings pane), you can search for messages with a specific type of star.
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Castanau Conwy Conkers Tribe
I am from Penmaenmawr, and would like the local Primary school and its pupils to get involved. Also want to encourage people of Conwy, Llandudno, & Bangor to join.
This tribe is affiliated with our Tree Planting, Mount Kenya partner project.
I have set up this ‘Tribe’ for local people from North Wales to join and show their support for this brilliant cause.
Castanau means conkers in Welsh
This Tribe is affiliated with supporting tree planting in Kenya.
Project Summary:
The Green Belt Movement has been initiating and supporting community tree planting projects in Kenya for over 30 years. This project will support communities who live in the Mathira District by the Mt Kenya Forest Ecosystem to restore degraded forest and manage their resources sustainably. Tree nurseries will be established and tree planting will take place on farms and public land. The project will also include civic and environmental education workshops to promote and address the interlinked challenges of environment, poverty and democracy.
This project is supporting tree nurseries in Kirimukuyu and Konyu locations of Mathira constituency. The local community members have formed groups to manage the tree nurseries, raise and plant seedlings in 6 sub locations. The tree nursery members also practice initiatives of sustainable agriculture on their farms. The nurseries planted 39,351 trees on forest sites and contributed 139,931 trees to other GBM projects. The tree nursery members also attends climate change, adaptation and mitigation workshop organized by GBM. The planted trees are protected and weeded by 4 green rangers who have also helped the nursery members to replace planted trees that have been destroyed.
Latest News:
The tree nurseries, consisting of rural women and their communities, in Mathira District are currently preparing the ground, watering and tending the tree seedlings in preparation of the tree planting, which will take place during the long rains in March and April. Furthermore, GBM is currently mapping and analysing the project area and the trees planted in 2011. In order to do so, GBM uses a Geographic Information System (GIS) technology for data collection, mapping and analysis.
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What Is The Size Of Wales?
Size of Wales aims to bring everyone in Wales together to help sustain an area of tropical forest the size of Wales as part of a national response to climate change.
This project needs our support. The size of Wales has teamed up with the Woodland Trust in Wales. Projects Nationwide are well under way, including my children’s primary school. They have planted loads of trees, and I would like to help support their efforts.
‘An area the size of Wales’ is frequently used to measure the rate of forest destruction. Through Size of Wales, we aim to turn that negative use of the country’s size on its head, by encouraging the people of Wales to take positive action and help protect an area of rainforest equivalent to the size of our nation.
An environmental charity, Size of Wales unites communities, businesses, organisations and schools to help protect 2 million hectares of rainforest and forge lasting links with some of the world’s poorest people.
Supporters of Size of Wales are linked directly to rainforest projects and communities to assist sustainable management of forest resources and to make a significant contribution to reducing global carbon emissions. Our forest protects help conserve existing tropical forests across Africa and South America, as well as support local communities to increase forest cover for the benefit of people, wildlife and soils. The total area of the forest projects adds up to the 2 million hectare target – equivalent to the size of Wales.
Please help show your support and join my tribe, share on FB and tweet on twitter.
You can find how here
Or contact me for more information.
THANK YOU XX
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Technical Resources
The Green Deal
The Green Deal and the Energy Bill
This information is from Engineering a Sustainable Built Environment
The Coalition has introduced the ‘Green Deal’, a framework to enable private firms to offer energy efficiency improvements to homes, community spaces and businesses, with the intention “to revolutionise the energy efficiency of British properties.” The Green Deal is a key element of the Energy Bill currently coming towards the end of the parliamentary process. This article explains where the Bill has got to, how the Bill may affect the work of CIBSE members and why you may want to keep abreast of developments.
If the UK is to reduce carbon emissions from the existing building stock, then they need to be a whole lot more energy efficient. The Coalition have recognised this, and have introduced the Green Deal to address this need. The policy was first envisaged under the previous government to drive the energy refurbishment market. The concept is simple: buildings can be refurbished to use less energy and savings on the energy bill pay for the energy efficiency measures over time. The detailed reality is turning out to be significantly more complex.
Originally called “Pay as you save”, the scheme is now known as the “Green Deal”. Initially intended for home energy efficiency improvements costing a few thousand pounds, it has now been opened to both domestic and non domestic buildings, and, as long as the measures can be funded from reduced energy bills, there is no limit on the costs that may be covered under the scheme. The money will come from “Green Deal providers”, who will create a new business from providing funding and helping to provide energy efficiency upgrades to homeowners, tenants and businesses.
This article explains the basic principles of the Green Deal. There is a great deal of work being carried out by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Department of Communities and Local Government, various industry fora and a BSI Steering Group, as well as a wide range of industry and trade bodies, all addressing different aspects of the Green Deal. This work is ongoing, and is likely to be announced in stages over the coming months.
The Golden Rule
The fundamental principle of the Green Deal is that the energy efficiency measures that are installed will be paid for through a charge on the electricity meter, which must not exceed the anticipated savings on the total energy bill due to the measures. SAP and SBEM, the software used to calculate asset ratings for energy performance certificates, will be developed to calculate the anticipated savings and to test whether any proposed measures will meet the Golden Rule.
There is some discussion about whether a simpler method of calculating the costs and savings from standalone energy efficiency projects may be allowed for non domestic works, such as a boiler replacement and heating system upgrade, or a lighting replacement scheme. In principle any energy using system replacement or upgrade ought to be amenable to a simple calculation of the installed cost and the project energy savings. This would certainly reduce the costs of the assessment, and the issue is still under discussion.
Landlords and Tenants
Where a building is owner occupied, be they residential or commercial occupiers, the Green Deal is relatively straightforward. Were the building is occupied by tenants, be they social or private tenants in the residential sector, or business tenants in the non domestic sector, then a whole additional issue comes into play. Who needs to give consent, who can enter into a green deal plan, and what happens when the tenant moves on? What will the landlord have to do? Do they pick up the energy bill and green deal charge during a void? And how will the existence of a Green Deal plan affect the letability of the property? Will it add value, or detract from it?
The simple answer is, nobody knows, although there are a number of groups working on the issues and trying to provide safeguards and incentives to address these concerns. This is an issue to be watched carefully, and reported on as decision emerge in the coming weeks and months.
Stage 1: Assessment
Anyone who wants a Green Deal package to fund improvements will require an assessment by an independent accredited assessor, who will determine the current performance of the building and consider what energy efficiency measures are likely to be suitable. They will then assess the anticipated savings from the proposed measures. There is a concern that, as currently proposed, the assessment will not take any account of the operational energy use of the occupant.
Green Deal Assessors
Assessors will already be energy assessors, but will require further competences to carry out Green Deal assessments. It is not yet clear how those competences will be assessed. Energy Assessors can either obtain an NVQ, or be accredited on the basis of prior experience. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) are currently consulting on the arrangements for Green Deal Assessors and it is not yet clear whether the prior experience route will be open.
Consulting engineers have professional qualifications and have been assessing buildings, devising refurbishment schemes and advising clients on the costs and savings those schemes will deliver, it would be strange to require them to obtain a further NVQ to allow them to do this for the Green Deal. CIBSE is currently in discussion with DECC about these proposals.
Once the Assessor has determined which measures are likely to meet the Golden Rule, they will provide a report recommending the measures to the potential customer. The assessment will be funded by a provider, but the assessor must be independent of the providers. More detail on the financial mechanisms is awaited.
Stage 2: Obtaining funding and Installation
Armed with the Green Deal report, the customer is then free to approach any Green Deal provider for finance to fund the recommended measures. Once they have the funding agreed, the provider will arrange for an accredited installer to undertake the work.
Green Deal Installers
Once a package of measures has been tested against the Golden Rule, then an accredited installer must install the measures. Installers will have to be accredited, and will be required to work to a Publicly Available Specification, or PAS, which is being developed by BSI. This is due to be consulted on shortly, with a draft for consultation expected in August (see Box). Arrangements for the accreditation of the installers are also under development.
Publicly Available Specification 2030 is being developed by BSI to provide a specification for the installation of energy efficiency improvements in existing buildings, particularly where such installation is undertaken within the remit of the United Kingdom Green Deal Financing Mechanism. It is anticipated that a draft for comment will be released shortly. CIBSE will publicise this to members through the website, the electronic newsletter and, if time permits, CIBSE Journal.
The Energy Bill: Progress to date
The Energy Bill has completed the Committee Stage, which is where MPs can propose and debate amendments. It will return to the House of Commons in September, and then to the Lords. It is currently expected to receive Royal Assent in the early Autumn.
One amendment proposed in Committee was to provide enabling legislation for the roll out of Display Energy Certificates to all buildings over the current size threshold. Although this was defeated in Committee, Greg Barker, the Minister responsible for this aspect of the Bill, gave assurances that the government was considering introducing such an amendment when the Bill returns to the House. It is currently unclear whether this will be successful, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer is reported to be very concerned about the effect on business, viewing it as a burden. CIBSE is working with the UK Green Building Council to make the case that DECs are a benefit to business.
The Green Deal is due to come into operation in October 2012. Before then the Energy Bill must be passed, the secondary legislation to enable accreditation schemes and financial provisions must be introduced (starting with a consultation in September or October 2011) and detailed industry guidance is due to be released in Spring 2012.
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I also tweet for a couple of local businesses trying to promote fellow businesses in similar trade/feilds and areas.
I decided to make a quick blog about how to use twitter for my friends and colleagues who are not familiar with it.
I hope that you find this helpful
Happy Tweeting!
Once logged on you have your tabs:
home – profile: followers, following, tweets, who to follow suggestions, and lists of trends all on the left. All tweets from people you follow on the right. ( Includes tweets that have been RT-retweeted from people you follow )
@Connect – Interactions, anything that has had interaction with other twitter accounts, like replies to your tweets and mentions (@GreenDealShop is a mention) and new followers. Click on either to read the news feed on the right.
#Discover – Stories popular on twitter, usually using # in the story.
You can access your DM (Direct Messages) by clicking on the white bust and arrow (profile) in black bar, to the right of the search bar. You can only DM someone who follows you. They can DM you, if you follow them.
The blue feather in a square on the far right of the black bar, is used to compose a new tweet. I don’t bother with this much as there is a place to tweet on the home page anyway.
Your tweets can be 140 characters or less. You can add an image to your tweets by clicking on the light grey camera icon below the tweet box.
You can not tweet the exact same tweet more than once.
Twitter shortens all URLs/Links to allow you to add a longer comment to explain the link.
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Here are a list of useful abbreviations used on Twitter and other social network sites:
Easy & Short list:
B4- Before
b/c, bc- Because
BRB – Be Right Back
BTW – By The Way
DM- Direct message, a private message or “direct message” to a person you follow.
EM or EML- Email
Fab- Fabulous
FB- Facebook
FF- Follow Friday(#followfriday) A Twitter “endorsement” Tweeted show the user’s favorite people on twitter. (see this cool article on how to automatically populate a follow friday list)
Followers- Twitter Members that follow user updates
F2F (and while we’re at it, B2B, B2C): face to face, Business to business, Business to Client (Business to Community)
FYI- For Your Information
Gr8- Great GTG, G2G- Got To Go
Hashtag #: A way of organizing your updates for Twitter search engine & to enable others to discover relevant posts. For example, here are some of the worlds favourite hashtags from 2011:
- #egypt
- #tigerblood
- #threewordstolive
HT – Hat Tip, or “Heard Through” instead of a classic “RT”
HTH – Here to Help or “Happy” To Help
IC – I See
IDC- I don’t care
IDK- I don’t know
IM- Instant Message
JK or J/K- Just Kidding (or for UK people, Joking)
L8- Late
LI- LinkedIn
LMAO- Laughing My A** Off
LMK- Let Me Know
LOL- Laughing Out Loud– not “lots of love” like my mother thinks it is.
MT – Modified Tweet
NSFW- Not Safe For Work
OH- Overheard
OMG- Oh My God
OMW – On My Way
ORLY- Oh Really?!!
ROFL- Rolling On The Floor Laughing
@reply: a Twitter update (a tweet) that is directed to another user within their tweet.
RT- ReTweet
SMH- Shaking My Head
Thx or Tx- Thanks
TMI- Too Much Information
Trend- A topic “Trending” or “popular” right now on Twitter
TTYL- Talk To You Later
TTYS- Talk To You Soon
TY- Thank You
YT- YouTube
This is my son wearing one I had just finished making the facinator for.
The Green New Deal will include a financial framework that enables energy saving measures to be paid for in instalments via energy bills. The core principle is “The Golden Rule”, meaning that the instalment payment for the energy saving measures should not exceed the projected associated cost savings on an average bill for the duration of the Green Deal Finance arrangement, which could be for as long as 25 years.
This is what Which? has to say about it, amoungst other things…
The Green DealWhat Which? wants
We want to see strict rules for the companies who will assess and sell Green Deal measures.
Which? believes that the Green Deal as it stands needs to change. We’ve issued five challenges to the government to improve the deal, and make sure that it delivers a better deal for consumers.
Our five Green Deal challenges
- Savings must be linked to a detailed energy assessment
- No shocking early repayment fees
- No mis-selling
- Energy Company Obligation must be fairer
- Warranties must match the loan terms
Full article The Green Deal – what which? want
I don’t know if the challenge has been met, but can understand the concern and why Which? have proposed the government to meet the challenge.
Here is a video that is 20mins long, but it will help explain the Green Deal
If you want to know more most links send you to pilkington which is a leading glass technology company.
15 March 2012
The UK Government’s Green Deal consultation is generating significant controversy. The NSG Group – manufacturer of Pilkington glass – however welcomes clear recognition from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) of the potential role glazing can play as a key element of the policy. At the same time, it is building on engagement to date – over the last eighteen months with ministers and MPs, and discussions with DECC itself – to help ensure this potential is fully realised.
Here Terena voices the aims of the ‘Greening Campaign’. She seems to be conservative in her views, calling us all to take individual action and to take advantage of the Green Deal. They organise meetings in quite a few towns/cities in England, but I am not too sure what they discus.
On their website, they do offer us a ‘behaviour change support’, seemingly performed by radian, their slogan being Retrofit – European Solutions To Global Problems. This is all old news though. 2011 sites etc.
The Department of Energy & Climate Change – DECC will take your email address in an exchange for a subscrition for a green deal bulletin.
DECC say that following feedback from industry it had decided there “will be no fees for assessors, installers and providers who wish to get the official Green Deal stamp of approval during the first two years of the scheme”.
Business Green round up a little by explaining how the government appoint the GD now New Green Deal with an oversight body and ombudsman. Explaining that the DECC will pay for the registration process to attract the prospective provider.
The company who run Ofgem’s Energy Ombudsman Service = ombudsman
Gemserv – which operates the MCS certification scheme for micropower technologies and installers also provides services to manage data generated by smart grid technologies – will be responsible for the registration of Green Deal assessors, installers and providers, and the monitoring regime designed to ensure firms are compliant with the scheme’s Code of Practice.
Gemserv = monitors
So amongst all of the complications of how the GD or NGD or GND will be ‘rolled out’? and how who’s monitoring who? It is revealed that only 50% of MP’s are actively supporting the GD.
The survey further revealed that while 59% of the MPs understood the principle of the scheme only 30% understood its funding structure. A further 35% did not know how it would be paid for.
It has been implied that while the Green Deal becomes increasingly complex, the level of understanding will simple not improve and it has been suggested that if the MPs cannot understand the scheme the how are homeowners expected to understand the complex nature of the scheme.
The greendealcertified.com provide a GD accreditation service and also explain the GD well, listing the types of approvals and energy saving equipment that is considered to be GD policy.
Here www.co2sense.co.uk explain what will be covered by the GD, It covers boilers, insulation and heating – to include under floor Not all buildings will qualify for the same improvements, but great to see a lengthy list of various ways the GD will improve our houses, and businesses!
Despite the bad press, and the seeming apathetic response from MP’s I think this is going to be a Great New Green Deal GNGD! There will be many hurdles and maybe some wrong turns, but it can only be a good thing can’t it?
I am loving all the talk of energy saving and indulging in the thought of under floor heating. I can’t wait to see the work in progress.
I am excited to be a part of this evolving scheme, and look forward to my GD “bulletin”
I will keep looking for a concise simplified explanation of the green deal and how it will be executed, and hope to update my findings accordingly.
There is a lot of chat online – fb groups and quite a few GD related topics on linked in, which are very active. Sure you will find out much more if you get involved. Good luck and have fun 
Links and references
greendealshop.com At The Green Deal Shop.com we aim to provide you with a one stop shop for your Green Deal.
greendealcertified.com GD Certification Support Service
green-deal.uk.com Green Deal.uk.com is Climate Energy Business Limited.
syntegra-epc.co.uk Intelligent and Green Building Solutions
businessgreen – James blog The six green deal questions that need answering
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