A few years ago, my planets aligned and I was offered several options for Government grants - all because I was not on mains gas and heated my house by storage and electric heaters.
Firstly, they were introducing gas into my road, and to bring that supply to my house was going to cost me £2,500, but I may be eligible for a grant towards this. Being in full-time work and above the living wage I thought I had no chance, but what the heck I would apply. Bingo! Got a large grant and only had to pay £25 - yes effectively I got a grant for £2475.
No brainer. Even if I didn't connect to the supply, it was a bonus if I chose to sell up and move. NB until you contact a supplier and get a meter installed you pay nothing (other than my £25, above).
Secondly, I came across an advert in a local paper for FREE Solar panels - if I had no gas heating. Phew! hadn't done anthing yet with my gas supply.
Because my roof was not perfectly suited to generate the maximum solar energy, I had to make a contribution of £800 towards the cost, better than the full cost of around £5-6,000. I now have panels on my east and west facing roofs.
Thirdly, my council wrote to me to advise that they had got some funding via E.on to install central heating to homes with only electric heating. Thank you, and now have had the heating installed, combi boiler and 5 radiators for FREE.
Last year I finally got around to signing up for SEG Payments, ie the solar energy I do not use feeds back into the National Grid, SEG means I get paid for this.
Going back 5 years, my monthly direct debit for electricity was £100 a month (£1200 a year); today I now pay a combined gas and electric direct debit of £75 a month (£900 a year), which I've fixed for a year, and I have just received my first SEG payment of £300 for the year - effectively reducing my energy costs to £600 a year.
It is well worth checking out what is available, and a good place to start could be here -
https://energyadvicehelpline.org/grants/eco4-scheme/
In Plymouth, where I live there, there is a charitable organisation -
https://plymouthenergycommunity.com/ who can help find options, so it may be worth looking to see if there is something similar where you are.
The income figure they use for low income is £31,000. (Yes I know - a lot higher than Pension Credit for WInter Fuel Payments!)
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