Local Grants for Loft and Cavity Wall Insulation
The United Kingdom government has made a commitment to lessen Carbon dioxide pollution levels and offer home owners and private rented tenants’ grants for cavity wall insulation and grants for loft insulation.
Wasted energy in domestic homes is considered the largest contributor of CO2. By insulating your own home, a lot less energy is wasted, this all helps to produce a cleaner environment for us all. It also helps the individual who benefits by having lower energy bills. Energy bills can be reduced by as much as 25% in a properly insulated household.
The program that provides these grants is known as CERT (Carbon Emission Reduction Target). The grant is paid out directly to the local designated specialist who carries out the job. This avoids the need for the homeowner to have to get the finances in advance. Grants up to 100% are offered. Most individuals on a means tested benefit or aged over 70 would normally be eligible to have the work carried out absolutely free. You can obtain a cavity wall insulation grant in Oxford and other towns in the county. Loft insulation grants in Oxford and other towns are available too.
The process to obtain a grant is easy. The customer simply needs to contact a local installer or surveying agency who is involved in this program. To check if the property is suitable, a Home Assessor will need to visit the property. The amount of grant that you are eligible for will be determined by your Home Assessor. You’ll be informed of the insulation improvements which are required.
Both cavity wall insulation and loft insulation are established methods that have a fast pay back time. If your your home was built after 1930’s it will probably have cavity walls. A survey is going to be required to identify if your home is suitable.
The job will be carried out by your authorised installer, if you decide to accept the offer. It only takes about half a day to complete most jobs. If you have cavity wall insulation put in, you will also be given a 25-year guarantee from the Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency (CIGA).
As this is a government backed initiative, there is also a high degree of quality checks when the work has been done. This ensures that customers receive high quality workmanship. Any service provider that is unable to meet these quality standards can be removed from the program.
Different contractors have varying processes to install the insulation. The homeowner can chose to have a surveying agency perform the initial inspection. The surveying agency can then recommend the best company in that area to do the project. Because a surveying company is invariably independent, the homeowner will receive the best recommended product and a local qualified company most suited to their home. You can search on-line for home insulation grants in your city.
An innovative program called Green Deal will soon replace the present CERT program. The Green Deal will cover a wider range of energy saving measures, for example boilers, external wall insulation and renewable technologies for instance solar pv, solar thermal, bio mass, ground source heat pumps. Any grants given under Green Deal are repayable by way of the customer’s electricity bills. CERT grants are not repayable.
As reported by the UK’s Energy Savings Trust’s home energy efficiency database (HEED), at March 2012, in excess of 3 million homes had benefited through insulation measures installed on this program.