Homeowners well informed of forthcoming Green Deal

B&Q recently purchased a draughty old house as an experiment and spent £80,000 kitting it out, the result was a 70% reduction in carbon emissions.  This experiment also highlighted that local tradesmen knew little about green technology or The Green Deal, yet many home owners were better very much aware of the Scheme and much keener.  A lot of people are talking about it, which stimulates the whole market.

With domestic electricity up 22.4% and gas up 12.9% since Sept 2010, increasing households are in fuel poverty, the official threshold for when over 10% of income is spent on energy.

A recent DGCOS commissioned survey found energy saving is now the main reason households install double glazing.

As with all Government initiatives, businesses are keen to participate due to the increased market demand they generate and also guaranteed income.  This means that there will be huge discrepancies in the quality of workmanship carried out.  Therefore consumer protection is now even more crucial.

A recent DECC press release highlighted consumer protection as one of four key strands, with Chris Huhne urging all those involved to put it at the heart of the Green Deal.

DGCOS’ consultation with DECC has centred around this issue.  As DGCOS campaigns tirelessly for the rights of the consumer and also puts installers through a rigorous quality control procedure, this significantly reduces the risk to their customers of things going wrong.

If you are a consumer, please visit the DGCOS website to find out more about the services that we offer and to get a list of your local DGCOS accredited installers.

www.dgcos.org.uk

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Published December 2011