Thanks for the update. I am an Octopus customer and prospective heat pump user. My house is now up to it but escalating electricity costs are putting me off. I have ample PV in summer, when I don’t need it, but would need to import in winter.
A friend of mine is expecting replacement windows and doors to be fitted, but need to check whether it’s still going ahead.
Well… I can barely believe it !!
We can have solar through the Green Homes Grant, which we very nearly missed the deadline.
Our timeline feedback of experience to GMCA about our grant application journey, explained how frustrated we were at the delays in the decision making process.
We’ had a various visits from different surveyors, whose reasons to refuse a heat pump, then the external wall insulation were all in the initial survey. Our concern that a lot of public funding was wasted on these additional surveys and the time it had taken, had been the root cause of us missing the deadline of the grant for the solar.
We explained how a grant which was mean’t to help us, had left us in a worse position because in the year we’d waited the cost of everything had dramatically increased.
We’d contacted our local councillor with this and she forwarded our timeline and concerns and they went through a M/CR MP for the environment and on to the Director for the Environment at GMCA. He contacted Eon and shared our concerns asking them to respond to the points made.
Overall, our feedback was appreciated and acknowledged with apologies and an explanation of the problems they were realising and seeking to rectify!!
So we have had an confirmation from Go Green Solar today, that we can indeed have solar and they are coming out for a site visit and to talk with us on Thursday 
I cannot tell you what good news this is to us. Seeing the process through had become very stressful and did delay our next steps in retrofit for a year.
However, we have learned so much and if our feedback has paved the way for better future rollouts of these types of grants to help the people who need them - it will all have been worth it!!
Amen !!! 
I’ll keep you posted about the install !! Thanks so much for your support too…having the conversations on here is immensely supportive and educational. xx
1 Like
I feel that grants originating from government funds are just window dressing, so the government of the day can say they tried. If nothing material gets done that is beside the point.
In The Netherlands they increased their energy saving grants by €20 billion earlier this year in response to the fuel crisis. This will give long term benefits and help them reach net zero carbon.
That compares with some small one off fuel payments here that will be used up in a flash and still leave large parts of the population in fuel poverty.
@pottyone72, are you getting a battery too?
No battery ever seems big enough once in use but remember that bigger batteries cost so much more and hold relatively low values of electricity so are impossible to justify financially. I’d still like a bigger battery though. Donations gratefully received!
Well done, i was too late to apply,
John
I haven’t had a chance to look at batteries or enquire about them.
Again any advice would be appreciated.
I don’t even know where to look for batteries or compare capacity for energy saved or how much we’ll lose.
I wondered too about systems / devices which will allow household appliances to run and turn on and off during daylight hours when we’re not home
It’s made me think about storage heaters in specific rooms - the maths skills needed to work out energy used / efficiency.
It’s inevitable I’m going to have to brush up my maths skills around energy if I’m to max out on my solar.
It’s been a slog!! Hopefully worth it for others as well as ourselves in future roll outs 
Batteries are hard to get hold of at the moment.
I have a Tesla Powerwall 2. It is generally ok and does a job but it cannot be force discharged to grid to take advantage of high export prices.
I did take a look, but with our reroof suddenly happening this week, then the Green Grant contacting us with a positive for the solar, it’s all suddenly happening. We have been looking at windows too !!
Agile Phil is definitely on my list to look at, as well as Ben Aylotts piece here on CC with Sun Solar.
Definitely having a crash course!!.
1 Like
Just had to say I found Ben’s piece here on CC about the 10 checks solar fact sheet extremely useful . I was able to ask all the right questions. Rick and I did this as part of our homework to prepare ourselves and it didn’t take long at all.
Thankyou Carbon Coop 
Glad to hear that you’ve been successful with getting something, even if you’ve been all round the houses to get there!
My friend was in the system to get a load of single glazed windows and doors replaced via the Eon/Green Homes Grant, but when she last contacted them they told her they’d run out of money!
She was furious and I feel annoyed on her behalf as well because it was me who told her to contact them in the first place, and even sat in on the first visit to give her some moral support.
I think getting our local councillor involved worked for us. Alongside this, pointing out how they are wasting public funding and a grant meant to help people is failing might have been helpful in our case.
I’d be happy to have a chat with your friend about our experience, maybe there is something which might turn the decision around 
… up until a couple of weeks ago, we were convinced we’d get nothing.
Please tell your friend I too am really sorry she had to suffer this experience. I completely empathize, because I was stressed up to the eyeballs by the whole process.
Hope you are well too Sian
Sending you lots of best wishes
Carla x
With the prices for energy saving goods rising so fast these days, any time fruitlessly waiting for funding can be very expensive.
I hear you on that one Tim. We nearly fell foul of this !!
Thanks Carla. I’ll ask her if she wants to do anything more when I see her next. Which might be this evening.
This is an amazing deal from Nationwide. Available for existing Nationwide BS mortgage holders only.