If you are a homeowner or residential landlord, you can apply for a Green Homes Grant voucher towards the cost of installing energy efficient improvements to your home.
Improvements could include insulating your home to reduce your energy use or installing low-carbon heating to lower the amount of carbon dioxide your home produces.
You must redeem the voucher and ensure improvements are completed by 31 March 2021.
Vouchers will cover two-thirds of the cost of eligible improvements, up to a maximum government contribution of £5,000.
If you, or someone in your household, receive certain benefits you may be eligible for a voucher covering 100% of the cost of the improvements. The maximum value of the voucher is £10,000. Check if you’re eligible for the low-income support scheme.
Landlords are not eligible for low income support.
You may be eligible if you live in England and:
You cannot get the Green Homes Grant for newly built homes which have not been previously occupied.
While the scheme covers a range of home improvements, the UK government has put some terms and conditions in place.
To qualify for any financial support, you'll need to install what the Government calls "primary" improvements. These are:
Then if, and only if, you are installing at least one of the primary improvements above, you'll also be able to use the vouchers to install "secondary" measures.
Crucially, you can only receive funding for secondary improvements up to the amount of funding you get for the primary measures. So for example, if you've received £1,000 towards cavity wall insulation, you can only receive a maximum of £1,000 towards any secondary measures.
This is still up to a maximum of £5,000 per household for most, across primary and secondary measures – so if you receive more than £2,500 in funding for your primary improvement, less funding will be available for your secondary measures.
If someone in your household is claiming benefits, then you could be entitled to a £10,000 voucher to cover both primary and secondary measures.
Check your eligibility online now
While this new grant only covers homes in England, if you live elsewhere in the UK there are other schemes that offer financial support towards making your home more energy efficient.
There's full info in the links below, but here's a quick rundown:
In Scotland, the Warmer Homes Scotland Scheme offers financial help towards installing measures such as wall and loft insulation and draughtproofing if you're a homeowner or private tenant who's lived in your home for more than 12 months. You'll need to meet certain criteria and be receiving certain benefits – check your eligibility via the link above. In most cases, all costs will be met by the Scottish Government, though for more expensive improvements you may need to contribute – this can be paid for using an interest-free loan.
Under the Home Energy Scotland loan scheme, owner-occupiers and private sector landlords can get interest-free loans to make energy efficiency improvements, such as installing insulation, glazing and heating systems.
You can also check area-based schemes run by local authorities in Scotland to see if you can get support with energy efficiency measures where you live.
In Wales, the Nest scheme offers free advice on improving home energy efficiency. It also provides free energy efficiency improvements, such as insulation and new boilers, for those who own or privately rent their homes and either receive a means-tested benefit or have a low income and a chronic respiratory, circulatory or mental health condition.
In Northern Ireland, you could get a grant of up to £1,000 towards replacing an inefficient boiler that's more than 15 years old through the Boiler Replacement Scheme if your household income is less than £40,000.
If you own your home or rent it from a private landlord and have a total income of less than £20,000, you may be able to get grants of up to £7,500 to make improvements such as insulation, heating and window glazing through the Affordable Warmth Scheme.
A boiler grant is a non-repayable free or subsidised boiler replacement. This is part of the Government (ECO) Scheme set up to help with home improvements for low-income households. It provides qualifying homeowners with access to improving home efficiency to reduce the cost of energy bills, as well as carbon footprints when heating their homes.
If you receive means-tested benefits and your boiler is a minimum of 6 years old, you may be eligible. Once you determine if you qualify, you will be asked to complete a short survey and a local, approved company will install your new boiler.
The boiler grant is decided by how efficient your home is and is determined by an energy assessment. In some cases, a small fee may be required. The funding is offered for oil boilers, gas boilers, lpg boilers as well as electric storage heaters.
We can help you have your new boiler fitted within a few days
An air source heat pump is a low carbon heating system and works differently to a boiler. Rather than burning a fuel like gas or oil, it uses electricity to transfer heat from one place to another. In this case, from the outside air to your home to provide space heating and hot water.
How it works
The Air Source Heat Pump An air source heat pump takes heat from the outside air and transfers it to a working fluid. It can do this even when the air is well below freezing. The heat pump then uses a compressor to change the pressure and temperature of the fluid until it's warm enough to provide heating for your home.
Water Cylinder
The heat captured by the working fluid travels through a coil in the water cylinder. This allows heat to be transferred from the coil to the water as efficiently as possible.
Hybrid air source heating system
Alternatively, you may wish to consider a hybrid heating system, where more than one heating technology is used within the same heating system. There is significant variation in the types of hybrid systems and appliances available today, but hybrid heating often refers to the combination of an air-source heat pump and a gas boiler. This could be either as a single appliance which combines these technologies, or as a separate heat pump and boiler operating within the same system.
Benefits
Biomass systems are wood-fuelled heating systems. They burn wood pellets, chips or logs to provide warmth in a single room or to power central heating and hot water cylinders to heat the whole house.
A stove burns logs or pellets to heat a single room - and may be fitted with a back boiler to provide water heating as well. A boiler burns logs, pellets or chips, and is connected to a central heating and hot water system. Wood-heating systems are often better suited to larger buildings which may be difficult to insulate, and therefore less suitable for a heat pump system. Biomass boilers are larger than gas or oil equivalents and you will need space to store the fuel. This area will need to be somewhere that's handy for deliveries as well as appropriate for feeding the boiler. You will need to consider that fuel prices may rise, and also check that you are physically able to add fuel to the boiler.
Every stove or boiler will need an appropriate flue. You will need a flue which meets the regulations for wood-burning appliances. This could be a new insulated stainless steel flue pipe or an existing chimney, though chimneys normally need lining to make them safe and legal.
Boiler vs stove:
Boilers can be used in place of a standard gas or oil boiler to heat radiators for a whole house, and to heat the hot water. Stoves are used to heat a single room, usually in conjunction with other heating systems, but may also have a back boiler to provide hot water. Stoves are not eligible under both the domestic RHI or Green Homes Grant unless it is a pellet stove with a back boiler.
Woodchips are generally used to heat larger buildings or groups of houses.
Pellets are much easier to use and much more controllable than logs. Pellet boilers can run automatically in much the same way that gas or oil boilers operate. Most pellet and chip burners use automatic fuel feeders which refill them at regular intervals.
Log-burning stoves and boilers have to be filled with wood by hand and require considerably more work. You will need a lot of logs to heat a whole house, but they can be cheaper than pellets if you have a good local supply.
Some companies now offer deliveries of pellets anywhere in mainland Britain and Northern Ireland while the supply of logs is more variable.
Benefits
A gas combi boiler is designed to be a highly-efficient means of concurrently heating the water within your home and providing central heating. Combination boilers control your whole central heating system directly from one, compact unit and provide a range of advantages based on factors such as space, energy and costs.
One of the main features of these boilers is their ability to provide instantaneous hot water without water tanks or cylinders, making them typically easy to install and less likely to take up excessive space.
This water is filtered through your pipes and fed into your household taps whilst also being used to heat up your radiators. By turning on the hot water tap, you trigger a response that signals the boiler to start heating water from the inside of the system. The heat exchanger transfers the majority of the heat from the burnt gas inside of the boiler to the cold water, and then delivers it to the taps as required.
Modern combination boilers are manufactured to double as condensing boilers which means that they are able to generate water vapour condensation to extract additional heat from its fuel. This is designed to make them even more energy-efficient as they produce more heat with less energy, potentially enabling you to reduce your monthly bills.
The control valves in combination boilers operate in different directions, so it either allows water to flow through the central heating system or diverts it to the appropriate hot water tap— but never both at the same time. You have the option of pre-setting your desired room temperature, this programmes the boiler to work with the room thermostat to ensure your home is heated as you like.
Benefits
Single glazed windows lose a lot of heat to the outside air because the single pane of glass is not a good insulator. If you fit double glazed windows instead, then the air gap between the two panes of glass will insulate your window. This will stop heat escaping so quickly and make your room warmer.
Some double glazed windows have a different gas between the panes of glass, or a special coating on one of the panes. Both of these can insulate the window a bit more. Modern windows also have insulated frames so you don’t lose too much heat around the edges.
If any of the windows in your home have single glazing, then these will be the worst parts of the building in terms of energy performance. They'll make your home more expensive to heat, and you'll feel cold when you stand near them. They'll also attract condensation and, if the windows are old, they’re probably letting in draughts too.
You can also improve the performance of a window by fitting a secondary glazing layer on the inside – effectively you’re fitting an extra window in the same gap in the wall.
If you replace an old window with double glazing, you are cutting heat loss mainly by adding the layer of air that’s trapped between the two panes of glass. You can do much the same thing by leaving the original window in place and fitting an extra pane to the inside. This is called secondary glazing.
Secondary glazing can be effective if you have old windows but you can’t afford to replace them, or you’re not allowed to, or you just don’t want to change the way your house looks from the outside.
Benefits
Sealing the unwanted gaps around your doors and windows will help keep the heat in, and will cut down on cold draughts throughout your home.
Every external door and every opening window in your home has a gap round the edge that should seal tight when the door or window is fully closed. If the seal isn’t good enough, then cold air can blow in through the gap, and warm air can blow out. Old or badly fitted windows can have gaps around the frame or glass even if they don’t open, and doors can have extra gaps around a letter box, cat flap or keyhole.
This will increase your heating bills, because all the money you spent heating this air up is wasted as soon as the air leaks out. You will also feel less comfortable in a draughty house, because the cold air feels even colder if it is blowing through the room.
Draught-proofing an existing door or window is fairly straightforward, provided you use the right materials for each job. You can either pay a professional to choose the right products and fit them correctly, or you can buy your own and fit them yourself.
Draught-proofing is different to double glazing, and it does a different job. Double glazing is designed to stop heat escaping through the glass itself. Draught-proofing is designed to stop heat escaping through gaps around the edges.
Benefits
Insulation can be added to the inside or outside surface of your walls to help keep your home warm and cut your heating bills.
If your walls are not suitable for standard cavity wall insulation, then it may be possible to fit solid wall insulation instead. A layer of insulation material is fixed either to the inside surface of your walls (internal wall insulation) or to the outside (external wall insulation). The insulation layer is then covered with another layer to protect the insulation. This covering layer will also allow decorating if on the inside, or will keep the rain out if on the outside.
Pre 1920’s
If your house was built before the 1920s, then it is quite likely to have solid walls. Some newer houses were built without a standard cavity, in which case solid wall insulation may be the best option.
Before about 1920, most houses in the UK were built with solid walls – that is, the outside walls were made of a single solid layer of brick or stone. During the 1920s it became increasingly common to build houses with an inner and an outer leaf with an air gap in between. This is known as a cavity wall, as opposed to a solid wall with no air gap.
If you have a cavity wall, then you should check first if you can have cavity wall insulation – or if you have it already. If possible, this is much cheaper than solid wall insulation.
Some houses are not built of standard brick, stone or block. For example, they may have a steel frame, or could be made from concrete panels. Solid wall insulation may be the best option for these houses.
If you are in any doubt about how you can insulate your walls, you should arrange for an installer to come and visit. They will organise an assessment of your building to determine the best approach for you.
Benefits
A ground source heat pump is a low carbon heating system and works differently to a boiler. Rather than burning a fuel like gas or oil, it uses electricity to transfer heat from one place to another. In this case, from the ground to your home to provide space heating and hot water.
Left to its own devices, heat will normally flow from a hot place to anywhere that is colder. A heat pump is an appliance that makes heat flow in the opposite direction – it “pumps” the heat from a cold place to somewhere that is warmer.
A ground source heat pump takes heat from the ground and transfers it to a working fluid. It does this either through a horizontal loop of pipework buried beneath the ground (a ground loop) or from holes drilled vertically into the ground (a borehole). The heat pump then uses a compressor to change the pressure and temperature of the fluid until it is warm enough to provide heating for the house.
The heat pump uses electricity, so it is not free to use and it is not yet zero carbon. But provided that the heat pump is properly installed in a suitable building, it will produce more energy as heat than it uses as electricity. If it runs efficiently it can be cheap to use and will be a low carbon heating option for your home.
Heat pumps are more efficient when they give out heat at a relatively low temperature. They are often used with underfloor heating, as this can operate successfully at low temperatures, but they can be used with conventional radiators.
Ground source heat pumps require either a large garden or similar area for a ground loop, or a smaller area with access for drilling equipment, for a borehole. They are most likely to be attractive in homes that are well insulated, and where other heating options like gas are not available.
Heat pumps are more efficient when they do not have to raise the temperature of the heat they extract too much. This means they are more efficient when they can run a heating circuit at a lower temperature. If your home is well-insulated then it needs less heat to keep it warm. Where possible, it is recommended that you have a minimum level of insulation in your home, such as loft and cavity wall insulation, before you consider installing a heat pump.
Benefits
All heating control systems essentially do two things – they control when you want the heating on, and how warm you want your home to get when the heating is on. They may also do the same for your hot water.
There are lots of types of controls available to do this, but a fully controlled heating system should include at least:
A thermostat on the heating source (e.g. a boiler thermostat that sets the temperature of the water that will be pumped from the boiler through the radiators and, for a combination boiler, the hot water)
A timer or programmer function – this sets the time for when the heating comes on and when it goes off.
A room thermostat – this sets the temperature for that room, and turns the heating off when the room gets warmer than this. Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) should NOT be fitted in this room.
Thermostatic radiator valves – these are fitted to all of the radiators elsewhere in the house, and they control the temperature in each room.
Benefits
Solar thermal panels provide hot water for your taps and showers when the sun shines.
Solar thermal panels are usually fitted to your roof and connected to your hot water cylinder, or to a new hot water cylinder. When the sun shines, water is heated up in the panel, which is pumped round a circuit of pipes. Heat from the pipes is used to heat the water in the hot water cylinder. Sometimes this is enough on its own to get the hot water up to temperature.
Solar thermal panels are usually installed in homes with a central heating system such as a boiler and hot water cylinder. It can be possible to fit solar thermal panels with a combi boiler.
Collectors / Panels
Solar thermal collectors capture the sun’s energy by heating a fluid (glycol).
Pump & Controller
The pump ensures the transfer fluid is circulated between the collectors and the water cylinder efficiently. While a system control panel controls the pump and provides information on the system’s performance, as well as any faults.
Water Cylinder
The heat captured by the solar thermal collectors is pumped to a coil in the water cylinder. A solar thermal water cylinder has a dedicated coil that allows the heat from the collectors to be transferred as efficiently as possible.
Benefits
Solid Floor
Adding insulation to an existing solid floor not straightforward, but it will help you make sure your whole house is keeping the heat in.
If your house has a solid concrete floor, then there are two ways it can be insulated.
It may be possible to add a layer of rigid insulation board on top of the existing concrete, with a layer of boarding on top of that to create a new floor level. You will lose some headroom, and you will have to move or adjust skirting boards, doors, any fitted cupboards, and maybe electrical sockets or plumbing.
The alternative is to dig out the existing concrete, dig down further and add a new damp-proof membrane, a layer of rigid insulation and a new concrete screed or other flooring. This is an expensive and disruptive job, and is usually carried out as part of a major refurbishment project, or when there is a problem with the existing floor.
If you have an old solid floor made of stone flags or similar, then the best way to insulate it is to remove the flagstones, dig down and add a membrane, insulation and screed, before re-laying the stones. This is a big task, but it has the advantage of adding a damp-proof layer which probably wasn’t there before.
Suspended Floor
If your house has a suspended timber floor on the ground floor, then a layer of insulation can be held in place under the floor between the joists. This is called Under Floor Insulation (UFI).
The first step is to remove any carpet or floor covering so that you can access and lift the floorboards to see if your home could have UFI. Before carrying out any work, a thorough inspection of all the joists and underfloor timbers should be carried out by an approved professional for signs of damp, rot or insect damage, and appropriate repairs carried out if required.
There are several different insulation materials and products which can be used, including mineral wool, rigid boards and foam and professional advice should be obtained on the appropriate thickness of each of these to be installed in your home. Regardless of which product is selected it is important to ensure that no gaps are left in the insulation coverage, especially between the end joists and the floor perimeter wall.
If you have an unheated cellar beneath your house, you can fit the insulation from underneath without removing the floor covering and floorboards.
Benefits
