For decades, the UK government has run programmes for increasing the energy efficiency of homes in the country. ECO is the latest scheme introduced by the government. It is designed to provide direct insulation grants to households. Find out everything which you should know about this scheme so that you can take full advantage of it.

ECO Basics

ECO stands for Energy Company Obligation. Under this obligation, the six major energy suppliers in the UK have to provide insulation grants to qualifying customer. The scheme was introduced in 2013. It has been estimated that the total granted amount will be around £1.3 billion pounds per year. The participating suppliers include British Gas, Eon, Scottish Power, SSE, EDF and NPower.

What You Get

The insulation grants provide free funding. You will be able to use the money directly without any obligation to repay it. These grants are designed to pay for loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, boiler repair and boiler replacement. With these improvements, you can cut your energy consumption by as much as 50%. This is because most of the heat which is produced in the house escapes through the loft and the walls while a house boiler can account for some 55% of a household’s energy bills.

The average cost of cavity wall insulation has been estimated to be around £415 for a single-family home. The loft insulation costs between £350 and £500 on average. A new boiler costs between £500 and £2,500, depending on its features and capacity. It is important to note Cavity Wall Insulation that the grant which you will obtain may not cover the whole cost of the energy-efficient improvement. You may have to pay the remainder out of your pocket.

Eligibility

The ECO scheme is designed to provide financial support to low-income households and to households having higher cost of living due to specific circumstances. Individuals who receive Pension Credit or Child Tax Credit with relevant income below £15,860 are eligible to apply. The same applies to people who receive income-based job seeker’s allowance, income support or income-related employment and support allowance. In such cases, additional requirements have to be met as well. Individuals who receive Working Tax Credit with relevant income below £15,860 can apply as well provided that they meet additional requirements. Keep in mind that the requirements are subject to changes and may have some variations from one energy supplier to another.

When you apply for insulation grants in the UK, a representative of the supplier will contact you to inform you if you qualify and your home will be inspected for determining the precise grant size.

Cavity Wall Insulation Grants – Will You Be Benefited?

Cavity wall insulation grants are available to all homeowners of the UK. Does it fascinate you? Well here are some more interesting facts on home insulation –

• These are offered to all house owners. Both actively working and private pension holder homeowners are sanctioned with home grants.
• If you are dwelling is a privately rented property, you can still insulate your property by seeking permission from landlord.
• Free cavity wall insulation grants are approved to landlords or homeowners if they are 70 years old or even above and especially when they are qualified for several benefits, allowances etc. for disablement and other causes.
• This process is guaranteed with 25 years of Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency or CIGA guarantee.
• These cavity insulation grants are available on using only certified and quality assured insulation products and insulation contractors.
• The cavity wall grants enable you fitting insulation to gaps between walls making your house energy efficient enough to reduce around 90 pound on heating bills.

Cavity wall insulation grants ease pinching costs of insulating cavity walls helping house owners to lessen their dependence upon energy for heating homes in chilling winter months. Therefore, they can easily reduce utility bills. That’s not all. Cavity insulation grants have far reaching benefits too. As you need less fossil fuel burnt heat, you are actually doing your bit on reducing emission of CO2, one of the greenhouse gases that are directly linked to global warming. Less CO2 emission will lessen threats of

o Drastic temperature rise
o Rise in sea level
o Drastic climate change around the world

Any homeowner can be approved with minimum 50% cavity wall insulation if they do not qualify for completely free insulation grants. There are sources to receive such grants including government and private gas and energy suppliers, insulation installers. All types of cavity insulation products including materials and equipment have to be tested and approved British Board of Agreement or else British Standards Institution. Products certified by these institutions are protected with 25 years of guarantee against defects. Cavity wall insulation help saving energy which is sufficient to heat around 1 million houses a year.