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Grant and Energy Saving Advice

To find out if you’re eligible for free home energy efficiency upgrades using ECO4 or GBIS funding, you can complete our simple online eligibility check, or you can give one of our friendly team a call and they will be pleased to discuss this with you 01748 503204.

Alternatively, if you would like to find out more about ECO4 or GBIS, you can contact your energy supplier or visit the OFGEM website.

About ECO4

The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) is a government legislated scheme administered by Ofgem and managed by obligated energy suppliers in England, Scotland and Wales. ECO was first introduced in 2013, and we are now on version 4 of the scheme following updates made to better support households experiencing fuel poverty, whilst reducing household carbon emissions.

ECO4 is mainly focussed insulating the walls and roofs of off-gas solid wall properties to minimise heat-loss, and then installing low-carbon heating such as high heat retention storage heaters, air source heat pumps and solar PV. 

About ECO4

Do I qualify for ECO4?

ECO4 is aimed at supporting the most vulnerable households with the least efficient homes, and is means-tested with the qualification rules set by UK government. 
To know if you are eligible, we need to know how you heat your home. This is because ECO4 is targeted to households that are not heated by gas. If you do have gas, but have an old boiler, usually one installed before 2012, you may still qualify as these older boilers are not considered to be energy efficient.

Next, we need to know if you or anyone living in your home receives a means-tested benefit:
•    Child Tax Credit
•    Housing Benefit
•    Income based Jobseekers Allowance
•    Income related Employment Support Allowance
•    Income Support
•    Pension Credit – Guarantee Credit
•    Pension Credit – Savings Credit
•    Universal Credit
•    Working Tax Credit

Do I qualify for ECO4?

If no one living in your home receives one of the benefits listed, you may still qualify through LA Flex. LA Flex is a separate qualification route which allows your local authority to confirm your eligibility for the scheme. To qualify via LA Flex, your total yearly household income must be below £31,000, and includes all adults living in the property. Or, if you or someone living in your home suffers from a health condition that makes them vulnerable to the cold you may qualify.

Confirming your eligibility for the scheme can be complicated, and we are here to provide guidance and assistance. If you or someone living in your home receives a qualifying benefit, this can be easily confirmed via the Energy Savings Trust. If you or someone in your home qualifies via LA Flex, we do need to collect evidence from all adults living in the property which includes a copy of your council tax bill, and may include payslips, bank statements, P60’s, or a letter from your doctor.

What can I get through ECO4 funding?

ECO4 is a multi-measure scheme, where we expect to complete home insulation and potentially home heating upgrades to enhance the comfort, warmth, and energy efficiency of your home. To minimise heat-loss, the roof and walls of your home should be insulated. We cannot normally upgrade heating unless we first upgrade the insulation in your home. 

Up to 25% of heat is lost through uninsulated roof spaces, so is recommended that your loft has at least 300mm (about the length of an A4 piece of paper) of loft insulation, and that any flat roofs, or room in roof spaces are insulated.

Quilted loft roll is installed in your loft space to a depth of around 300mm (around the size of an A4 piece of paper). This creates a barrier between the living space and roof space, meaning warm air takes more time to escape and your home stays warmer.  

If you have converted a loft space into a living space, this room should be insulated. Insulation boards or quilted insulation is fitted inside the room onto the external walls, then covered with plasterboard and skimmed with plaster to create a smooth finished surface ready for redecorating.

If your home has any flat roofs and they’re structurally sound, we can insulate these by applying insulation boards to the external roof and then sealing and weatherproofing the roof area. 

Up to 20% of heat is lost through uninsulated walls and is recommended that walls are insulated to minimise this heat loss. 

Polystyrene insulation material is blown into the cavity between the inner and outer walls through a series of small drill holes made in the external brickwork of your home and set in place with a special glue.

Insulation boards or quilted insulation is fitted inside your home onto the external walls. This is then covered with plasterboard and skimmed with plaster to create a smooth finished surface ready for redecorating. 

An air source heat pump, connected to radiators in your home, provides a central heating system, and works like a fridge in reverse. It extracts heat from the outside air at temperatures as low as -27°C. Air source heat pumps run from electricity, and we normally prefer to install these alongside solar PV.

Solar panels are installed onto the roof of your home, and can produce energy all year round, even on cloudy days. To get the most our of your solar PV system, you can use appliances such as a washing machine, tumble dryer, and dish washer during the day to use the energy your panels are generating.

If your home is heated by old electric storage heaters, we could upgrade these to new high-heat-retention energy efficient heaters. The new heaters take less energy to charge, making your home more efficient and easier to heat. 

If your home has a central heating system, you should have a full set of heating controls. A full set of heating controls includes;

-    Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRV’s) which allow you to control the output of each radiator in

your home.


-    Programmer and Room Thermostat which allows you to set the central heating system to come on at different times and at different temperatures, and to adjust the temperature as required. 


-    Bypass radiator which protects your central heating system by making sure that one radiator is always on to keep the system running. 

About GBIS

The Great British Insulation Scheme is a government funded home energy efficiency scheme, that focusses on insulating homes in England, Scotland and Wales. Unlike ECO4, GBIS promotes the installation one insulation measure such as wall or roof insulation and is available to homeowners and private tenants.

Like ECO, if someone living in the home receives a means tested benefit, and the council tax band of the property is A to E, it is likely you will qualify. Below you can find a list of the benefits that qualify:

•    Child Tax Credit
•    Housing Benefit
•    Income based Jobseekers Allowance
•    Income related Employment Support Allowance
•    Income Support
•    Pension Credit – Guarantee Credit
•    Pension Credit – Savings Credit
•    Universal Credit
•    Working Tax Credit

About GBIS

You could also qualify for GBIS is you own your home, your council tax band is between A and E, and if your EPC energy rating is D, E, F, or G. If your home is in England or Wales, you can check your EPC energy rating by clicking on this link, popping in your postcode and searching for your address in the database.

If your home is in Scotland, you can check your EPC energy rating by clicking this link, scroll to the bottom of the page to accept the terms and conditions and select ‘continue’. You can then untick Non-domestic, pop in your postcode and the text in the image and click search.

Similarly to ECO4, GBIs is administered by Ofgem and managed by the energy companies. You could have cavity wall or internal wall insulation installed, or loft or flat roof insulation.