What Is The Green Deal?

The very heart of the Government’s Green Deal initiative is about saving energy and making millions of households all over the UK more energy efficient.  The Government’s innovative new plan is to introduce a variety of energy saving systems to help change how we think and use our energy.

The new Green Deal initiative is for any property in the UK whether it is a business or a home. People will be able to take out loans to make their property more energy efficient. The charges for this loan will be added to the property’s energy bills and payments can be spread out over a period of 25 years. The loan payments will be offset by the savings that are made from the energy saving measures.  The other good thing is that this loan is not dependent on the credit rating of the business owner or householder but instead is based on the energy meter. So it doesn’t matter if you move from the property; the loan payments stay with the meter.

The Green Deal means that a comprehensive plan will be put into place permitting private energy improvement companies to fit and implement different energy saving systems and installations. These methods include new and more effective and energy efficient boilers, improved double glazing units, loft insulation, and cavity wall insulation. Businesses, community structures and householders will benefit as they do not have to pay any money before the work is completed. Instead there will be private businesses that will provide the funding for this initial work to be carried out. The businesses will instead get money back via the savings made on the property’s energy bills. In addition, the owner of the energy meter will also receive some savings as well.

There will be an extensive range of energy saving technologies available to all property owners; altogether there will be 23. Some examples of the kinds of technologies available with the Green Deal initiatives are draught proofing and cavity wall insulation. Other possibilities on the horizon are solar water heaters, innovative biomass boilers and wood burning stoves.

What are the Green Deals requirements?

Below are the recommendations and requirements of the Green deal scheme

• In order for the Green Deal initiative to work, the money saved from the measures must be higher than the energy bills costs, or at least come to the same amount. This is what is referred to as the “Golden Rule” of the scheme.
• Whatever method is chosen must be acceptable to the Green Deal initiative and the resulting savings must be tangible.
• The energy saving technologies must be appropriate for the chosen property and approved as such by a qualified independent consultant.
• The Green Deal technologies have to be fitted by a qualified fitter.
• Whoever provides the service of installing the Green Deal technologies to the customer must give correct advice and information. This advice has to conform to the Consumer Credit Act’s conditions.
• Whoever carries out the Green Deal technologies work must have permission from the person who pays the energy bills or anyone else that needs to be informed.
• In addition, in the future, anyone buying or renting the property must be made aware of these Green Deal energy saving measures and the savings that can be made.
• Any subsequent Green Deal charges have to be collected by the energy supplier of the property. They should pass this on whilst carefully complying with all energy collecting regulations in place. This is especially so for customers who are particularly defenseless.