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http://deemedscores.etech.net/

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•https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/eco2t-hhcro-templates-evidence-private-domestic-premises

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http://gdorb.decc.gov.uk/green-deal-participant-register

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http://www.ppltraining.co.uk/courses/energy-assessing-courses-10/guide-to-deemed-scores-and-eco2t-392.htm#axzz4hKu01v6A

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http://shop.bsigroup.com/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030353572

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https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/system/files/docs/2017/04/summary_of_changes_to_guidance_eco2t_published.pdf

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https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/eco2t-help-heat-group-guidance-note

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https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/energy-company-obligation-2017-18-eco2t-guidance-delivery

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New Room in Roof Insulation and External Wall Insulation Industry Documents

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New Room in Roof Insulation and External Wall Insulation Industry Documents

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Click on the link to access the New Room in Roof and External Wall Insulation Industry Documents for PAS2030:2017 and ECO
http://www.nia-uk.org/consumer/news/new-room-in-roof-insulation-and-external-wall-insulation-industry-documents

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Link to various templates such as Deemed Scores Survey Form, Room in Rof Checklist etc.
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/eco-reporting-working-group-eco2t-standardised-templates

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Various Guides to completing Deemed Scores Survey, Room in Roof Checklist etc.
http://happyenergy.co.uk/eco-guidance-installers/

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https://cloud.tradeengine.co.uk/

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https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/eco2t-deemed-scores

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Aquisition of Green Deal Finance Company

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Aquisition of Green Deal Finance Company

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Link to Press release 15 January 2017 below:

http://gdfc.co.uk/press-releases

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ECO Update 19 July 2016

In this issue...

Room-in Roof - Complicated or What?

For a Boiler to Qualify or Not to Qualify - What is the Difference?

ECO Funding Available

Is CWI the New PPI?

DECC Axed by May

Cavity Blowing Machines For Sale

Room-in Roof - Complicated or What?

Ofgem is currently looking at how further guidance can be provided for energy suppliers and the supply chain on how a room in roof job should be installed and scored for ECO purposes. This has led to much head scratching all round as people try to gain an understanding, not only of how technically a job should be installed, but also when a 100% of the measure should be claimed. On top of this, the way the scoring tools inputs are designed make it even more complicated and this will have undoubtedly led to genuine mistakes being made.

Room in roof is now a very popular measure under ECO and under the current EPC based scoring system, does give some generous carbon and cost savings for the right property. There are several distinct areas in a room in roof, the sloping areas, the flat ceiling area, the stud walls, the dormer window areas, the residual area and, depending on the house type, you may also have gable and party walls. Also when is a room in roof a room in roof? Part of the EPC defines a room in roof as follows: Include when accessed via a permanent fixed staircase such that one is able to walk downwards facing forwards. Does not necessarily contain habitable rooms. However, some energy suppliers also require that the room-in-roof has a window which adds an additional level of complexity as it breaks with the EPC definition.

Some organisations in the supply chain may misunderstand what part of the room needs to be insulated, wrongly believing that room in roof is just the sloping areas or just the roof parts themselves. This is not (well not always) through some desire to try and con the system and get maximum funding for minimum outlay, instead it is usually down to lack of guidance both from an EPC perspective and from a PAS perspective. So let's break down some of the more basic components of a room-in-roof job.

Residual area - this is the horizontal loft area at the side of the room, typically accesses via a vertical loft door. If you insulate these areas you claim it as a normal loft measure, not as part of the room-in-roof measure

Flat ceiling area - sometimes this flat ceiling area is inaccessible or the height of the area is too small to send in a fitter to insulate. If you can insulate the area you would typically just lay 300mm of fibreglass and then enter this depth in the "Insulating depth at ceiling" box of the scoring tool. But what if you don't insulate this area, do you reduce the percentage of measure installed to say 80%? The advice that we have received is that this is not the correct way to score the measure. Instead, you should simply leave the "Insulation depth at ceiling" box un-ticked or blank and then score the measure at 100% (assuming 100% of the rest has been insulated), the scoring tool will then automatically deduct a percentage for the flat ceiling area.

This approach is based on the NES ECO scoring tool, so if you use a different scoring tool we would suggest you seek advice from the appropriate technical team for that software provider. This approach also can cause confusion with funders, because the score document shows 100% Percent Applied when in fact not all areas have been insulated, the score document does however correctly show a reduced percentage for the Percent of Measure. I did say it was complicated.

Pitched roof areas - most installers are sliding up 50mm of a high density insulation board between the existing sloping ceilings and the tiles, whilst leaving a 50mm air gap between the board and the tiles. Under RDSAP conventions, this can then be scored as being 100mm of insulation which is then entered into the "Insulation thickness elsewhere" box of the scoring tool. This is the part of room-in-roof insulation which technically concerns me the most, it is essential that the installer makes sure that the board slides all the way to the top of the sloping ceiling and that it is then securely held in place to stop it sliding out at a later date.

Stud walls - these should be fairly simple to insulate, either with the insulation board in between the joists or more likely with 100mm of quilt held in place with netting or similar. This forms part of the RIR heat loss area and must be insulated if 100% of the measure is to be claimed.

Party walls - Bit of a contentious one this one and the jury is still out. Our latest understanding is that the party wall should be insulated if it is a heat loss wall. A party wall is a heat loss wall if there is an unheated space on the other side, such as an adjoining property which does not have a room in the roof itself, meaning that the area on the other side of the wall is an unheated and well ventilated cold roof space. We also believe that a cavity party wall is a heat loss wall, well I suppose it should be as you can claim funding for insulating it under ECO? But identifying a cavity party wall as part of a room-in-roof job would not be that easy.

So the rule of thumb would be, if the neighbouring property also has a heated room in the roof, you do not need to insulate the party wall. If the other side of the wall is just a loft space of the house next door, then you should insulate it. My advice would be to take as many photos as you can which show the house you are insulating and the house next door so that there is no doubt whatsoever that the house next door also has a room in the roof. Some suppliers may also soon require photographic evidence from inside the neighbouring property and even a signed declaration from the neighbour to confirm there is a roof room in the adjoining property so it may be worth getting this in place sooner rather than later.

Gable walls - Again, tricky. If the gable wall is a heat loss wall, you should insulate it internally. So a solid wall or an unfilled cavity wall would be a heat loss wall and you should insulate it. If however the solid wall has external wall insulation already, or if the cavity wall has been filled, you do not need to insulate it. But, and it is a big but, if you are not going to insulate the gable wall you should gather as much information as possible to prove that the wall is already insulated. This could include clear photos of the drill pattern, a copy of a guarantee that the customer may have (although this will not necessarily prove the insulation extends up into the gable end), evidence that your company has insulated it or a photo perhaps in the loft if insulation is visible at the top of the cavity. If you cannot evidence that the wall has been insulated, some funders may require you to internally insulate the wall or reduce the percentage of measure installed by the appropriate proportion.

Dormers - The reveals and dormers should be over boarded with insulation or an appropriate percentage deducted from the Percent Applied.

PAS requirements - at present the Ofgem ECO Measures table states that to insulate a room in roof you only need PAS Annex B10. However, it is now believed that multiple PAS annexes may be required including B9 - Loft Insulation, B8 - internal wall insulation and potentially B2 - draught proofing, B6 floor insulation and B5 flat roof insulation. Any installers who are installing room-in-roof insulation may be wise to obtain these PAS annexes if they haven't already, especially B8 IWI, to ensure they remain compliant.

The above information is not definitive guidance and is just our own interpretation of the rules around a room-in-roof measure. I can already hear people shouting at the screen stating that my guidance is wrong and cursing me for suggesting that gable ends need to be insulated which will add a great deal of cost to a job. You should therefore seek your own guidance until such time as Ofgem release theirs and in particular ensure that what you are doing meets the specific requirements of your funder. Feel free to discuss the above on our ECO LinkedIn group.

For a Boiler to Qualify or Not to Qualify - What is the Difference?

The majority of HHCRO has been delivered through the installation of qualifying mains gas boilers. But now that DECC are consulting on the restriction of gas qualifying boilers for the ECO extension, where can heating installers look to generate HHCRO savings?

A qualifying boiler simply means that you are replacing a faulty boiler with a new boiler. In these circumstances, rather than calculating the ECO score based on the actual savings achieved from swapping the existing boiler to the new boiler, the software assumes that the boiler is not functioning and therefore changes the current heating to electric portable heaters. This creates a much higher lifetime saving for HHCRO, especially for mains gas boilers, hence why DECC have limited their installation. Currently a gas qualifying boiler being replaced with a gas boiler is also penalised with a 20% reduction in the score. On the other hand, if you install a gas boiler in a home which currently has a boiler which is not mains gas, the 20% reduction does not apply, unfortunately however, this is still classed as a gas qualifying boiler, so it would be restricted for any carry over into next year.

So have qualifying boilers died a death? We don't think so. A qualifying boiler can be any fuel type, so you could replace a faulty solid fuel back boiler, oil boiler or LPG boiler with a new boiler of any fuel and still benefit from the qualifying boiler electric heater starting position. In addition, these non mains gas qualifying boilers are not penalised with the 20% reduction and in fact receive a 45% uplift, so some of the lifetime savings are pretty good. Oil and LPG boiler swaps are well worth hunting out, especially as they tend to be in rural areas and in some cases in solid wall homes.

So that is qualifying boilers, what are non-qualifying boilers? These are simply the installation of a boiler either as a new installation such as a new heating system, or where a boiler is being replaced which is not broken down. Non qualifying boilers have their cost savings calculated by using the normal EPC data for the starting heating system position, so the savings will be lower than the qualifying boilers. Non qualifying boilers are however not subject to the restriction that forms part of the DECC Help To Heat consultation, so these are likely to form a large part of the suppliers' HHCRO delivery alongside insulation measures. Gas boiler swaps which use the non-qualifying boiler scoring criteria can also be carried over on an unlimited basis, so for gas heating installers this may provide a route to continue installing, perhaps with higher customer contributions?

The table below gives a breakdown of what is and isn't a qualifying boiler, whether the deflator or inflator applies ad whether the type of work forms parts of the proposed restriction.

Happy Energy has ECO funding available now for the following:

CERO - loft top up and cavity wall insulation (U-value amended option available)

HHCRO - all insulation and heating measures gas qualifying boilers. We are particularly interested in receiving non gas boilers, loft insulation and cavity wall insulation.

For details on the rates and terms please email peter@happyenergy.co.uk along with details of the measures that you wish to install and the likely monthly volumes. Funding is limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

A new industry appears to have popped up, aimed at trying to extract not only insulation from cavities, but also cash from installers' pockets. It would appear that call centres are contacting householders, generally living in coastal areas, asking if they have cavity wall insulation or solid wall insulation and then telling them that they are entitled to compensation. One such call centre, for now let's just refer to them as leaches, were famous not so long ago for selling and in fact installing cavity wall insulation, so to do this now can only be described as shameful.

It goes a bit like this...

Leach: Hello is that Mrs Jones?

Householder: Yes.

Leach: I am just checking if you have had cavity wall insulation installed.

Householder: Yes.

Leach: Have you had any issues with the work like damp or mould etc?

Householder: No it was all fine I am very pleased with the work, with our lower energy bills and that we are now much warmer in winter.

Leach: If you have had problems with the insulation you are entitled to thousands of pounds of compensation, are you sure you haven't had any issues?

Householder: Well, now you mention it....

Once the Leaches have the pound signs flashing in front of the customers' eyes, they engage a firm of lawyers, for now let's just refer to them as cockroaches, to write to the installer listing a raft of erroneous failures on the installer's part, stating such things as the use of wrong material, that the work should not have been completed in that exposure zone, that proper procedure had not been followed etc. and demanding copies of dozens of documents. The aim of the cockroaches it would seem is to try and tie the poor installer up in knots or to bombard them in the hope that they will simply pass it on to their insurance company who would prefer to settle than spend months fighting a matter which they have little or no knowledge of.

This cynical attempt to create a new industry to feed the leaches and cockroaches has the potential to send some installers to the wall, either because they did not have professional indemnity insurance, or because their insurance premiums will rocket due to multiple claims. If it does cause installers to fold, it could leave the cavity insurance guarantee agencies left fighting the claims and potentially seeing their reserves drained due to legal fees and compensation pay outs. It is important that the industry works together to tackle this issue before it becomes an epidemic, otherwise before long, the leaches and cockroaches will find a way to ambulance chase other ECO measures like boiler installs and no doubt at some point, room in roof insulation.

We have set up an unlisted LinkedIn group to provide a place for affected organisations to work together to try and combat these claims. If you have received a letter from one of these companies or are affected as a manufacturer or guarantee agency and wish to join the group please email mail@happyenergy.co.uk

Pretty much as soon as Theresa May got her fancy designer shoes under the desk at Number 10, the first decision she made (after sacking Osborne - hooray!) was to close DECC. Rumour has it that she wanted the office space to host the new Brexit-exit department (I kid you not), but so far it is hard to decipher whether the new department is a good thing or a bad thing for our industry. Some say that the dropping of the word 'Climate Change' from the new department's name, shows a clear lack of support from May for all things green, but she denies this. Also people are pointing to the green credentials of Greg Clark and Nick Hurd who have been appointed as Secretaries of State for the new Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. So let's keep our fingers crossed that this new change is a positive move and one which moves energy efficiency into a 'powerhouse' department as some are calling it. We will soon see :-/

Cavity Blowing Machines For Sale

Albion Insulation from Colchester have 3 Stewart Energy Fibremaster 500 blowing machines for sale with all reasonable offers being considered for a quick sale. If you are interested please email Rosie Neville at rosie@albioninsulations.co.uk.

Newsletter posted by Adrian Wright

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Room-in Roof - Complicated or What? For a Boiler to Qualify or Not to Qualify - What is the Difference? ECO Funding Available Is CWI the New PPI? DECC Axed by May Cavity Blowing Machines For Sale Ofgem is currently looking at how further guidance can be provided for energy suppliers and the supply chain on how a room in roof job should be installed and scored for ECO purposes.

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Links to latest ECO Updates
July 2017
http://happyenergy.co.uk/happy-energy-ceo-eco-update-18-july-2017/
April 2017
http://happyenergy.co.uk/ceo-eco-update-6-april-2017/
March 2017
http://happyenergy.co.uk/ceo-eco-update-13-march-2017/

Feb 2017
http://happyenergy.co.uk/ceo-eco-update-17-february-2017/

Jan 2017
http://happyenergy.co.uk/ceo-eco-update-25-1-17/
Dec 2016
http://happyenergy.co.uk/ceo-eco-update-5-12-16/

Sep 2016
http://happyenergy.co.uk/eco-update-2nd-september-2016/

Aug 2016
http://happyenergy.co.uk/eco-update-1-august-2016/

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Copy and paste the link below into your Browser to take you to the Greendeal Orb Participant Register.

Select Providers from the "Please select a Participant" Drop-down and a list will be displayed. (You can also filter the list by Region, Postcode etc

http://gdorb.decc.gov.uk/green-deal-participant-register

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Link to Eco2t toolkit
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/system/files/docs/2017/03/es992_eco_toolkit_march_2017.pdf

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https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/eco2t-measures-table