Energy giant is offering three thousand large for Britain’s oldest boiler.

The hometeam at nPower is offering the prize of £3,000 for Britain’s oldest boiler after its engineers discovered numerous ‘antique’ systems during the previous Government’s hugely successful boiler scrappage scheme.

The owner of Britain’s oldest boiler will get the £3,000 as payment towards the cost and installation of a brand new boiler; one that carries the latest “A” rate.

The inspired nPower hometeam are determined to find Britain’s oldest boiler and have started a nationwide hunt.

The head of sales for nPower hometeam, Richard Cotton, said:
“If your boiler is particularly old – perhaps the same age as your grown-up children, or has been in the house longer than you have been married – you could be the owner of Britain’s oldest boiler.”

Although nPower is on the lookout for Britain’s oldest boiler and the scrappage scheme has disappeared, the energy provider is still providing grants – up to the value of £400 for people who qualify under the old scheme criteria – to replace old boilers. The £400 grant represents almost a third of the cost of a typical boiler installation.

nPower understands all too well that there can only be one winner of its Britain’s oldest boiler scheme, but that should not stop people who still have old boilers – “G”, “X”, or unrated – from getting them replaced as a priority.

So householders would do well to check their heating devices, just in case they might quality for the accolade of owning Britain’s oldest boiler and being able to claim £3,000 towards the cost of a new one.

And the likely replacement for Britain’s oldest boiler is a condensing “A” rated boiler; one which is termed ‘high efficiency’ because of its ability to exploit the heat not only from the combustion process, but also the exhaust process. Indeed, building regulations now stipulate that all boiler replacements should, if possible, be “A” rated as regards the SEDBUK tables.

So get down into the cellar now and see if you own Britain’s oldest boiler.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

In a rare case of the Scottish Government being second place to their English cousins when it comes to welfare initiatives, it has announced a boiler scrappage scheme for Scotland, just as the English scheme comes to an end.

As with similar schemes, it is set-up to target those homes with old and inefficient boilers. It’s expected that some £2 million in grants will be made available for those Scots wishing to replace a ‘G’ rated boiler, or older, as designated by the Seasonal Efficiency of Domestic Boilers in the UK (SEDBUK) guidelines. People will be able to apply for a grant worth £400 towards an accepted replacement.

Scottish Housing and Communities Minister Alex Neil said:
“Through the boiler scrappage scheme we will help people replace inefficient old boilers for new energy saving models and importantly, put money back into the pockets of householders. At the same time we are providing an economic stimulus for the heating industry, supporting jobs and helping the industry get through this financially difficult time.”

The Scottish boiler scrappage scheme is part of the devolved Government’s Energy Efficient Action Plan for Scotland. This, when finalised, will set out a range of policies and initiatives designed and put in place with the specific aim of reducing energy consumption.

The scheme starts on 24th may, 2010, and those wishing to take advantage of the gas boiler scrappage grant of £400, should either telephone 0800 512012, or seek information online at the Energy Saving Trust website. The Scottish gas boiler scrappage scheme comes under the control of the Scottish Government’s Energy Saving Scotland advice network. And as with the English scheme, vouchers get dished out on a first come, first served basis. And it will operate up until the £2 million of grant monies have been exhausted.

Rules apply of course. First and foremost, the homeowner can only redeem the £400 voucher for cash once the work is complete and then only with registered Gas Safe and CLE installers, or those belonging to The Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation.

Only an ‘A’ rated boiler is acceptable as the replacement; one certified within the Energy Saving Recommended Scheme. These are usually high efficiency condensing boilers and are over 90% efficient due to their twice-use of the energy produced.

Robert Burgon, director of The Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation, said:
“The Scottish boiler scrappage scheme will be a great opportunity for many households to upgrade their inefficient heating systems which will be costing them many hundreds of pounds each year in wasted fuel costs. Installing a new system will not only help the environment it will also help save up to £190 each year on their heating bills.

“Like many other industries the plumbing and heating sector has been badly hit by the recession and the scheme will give a boost to many of our members businesses.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The English Boiler Scrappage Scheme has been brought to a close after a very successful outing, but this has annoyed at least one industry stalwart, the Worcester, Bosch Group.

Bringing down the curtain on the English Boiler Scrappage Scheme was Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Hunt who broke the news that because all the vouchers had been successfully allocated to houses throughout England, the scheme had run dry, and is now closed to new applicants.

It was only launched in 2010 with a pot of money worth £50m and an ambition to upgrade some 125,000 household heating systems. Its primary aim was to cut carbon and help householders bring down fuel bills, but its secondary aim was to give a boost to the struggling heating industry.

The scheme centred on a £400 grant – to which the likes of British Gas and nPower added their own £400 voucher – towards the installation of an ‘A’ SEDBUK rated modern condensing boiler to replace an old ‘G’, or un-rated gas boiler from the dark ages.

But Neil Schofield, Head of Sustainable Development at Worcester, Bosch Group was not happy:
“The Chancellor’s refusal to extend the scheme is very disappointing for the heating industry and will probably mean that all the momentum and interest that has been gained from installers and homeowners in energy efficiency will be lost.”

What’s more, he pointed out that:
“There are still more than 4.5 million Band G gas boilers in operation and we must now hope that the next Government, of whatever colour, listens to the heating industry, picks up the mantle and extends this brilliant scheme further.”

So, like the car scrappage scheme, the gas boiler scrappage scheme has gone and will no doubt leave a lot of people high and dry. Pundits agree that it has been one of the more successful recession-busting measures, but there have been critics nonetheless. One of the main criticisms was the fact that although the £400 seemed a sound incentive, certain boiler engineers were already offering such discounts and some were even more. In other words, it could have been cheaper not to obtain a voucher and certainly involve less paperwork.

But, despite reservations as to its validity, it did encourage nearly 125,000 to change their old boilers and that can’t be a bad thing.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The animation stars Wallace & Gromit, who have proved popular on both small and large screen, are to appear in a television advertisement for nPower.

The Oscar nominated pair get the job of delivering nPower’s core message of sensible home energy consumption. nPower has over six million UK residential gas and electricity accounts and is a market leader in renewable energy.

The message is put across in 30 to 40 second formats and will air on Channel 4 and ITV (Mid West and North). Its been created by agency VCCP.

The advertisement opens with Wallace in a state of panic in a darkened room. As he hides behind a cushion, he watches a horror film on his latest invention, a homemade widescreen TV, which is in effect a number of televisions taped together.

But eventually it’s not only the horror movie that’s frightening Wallace, but the realisation that his new invention is a huge energy consuming monster. This is the cue for good old Gromit to save the day, when he gets advice as to how to cut energy consumption from nPower customer care advisor Penny.

And Penny is full of sound advice when it comes to cutting energy consumption, telling Gromit that the npower smartpower electricity monitor is a useful device which allows their customers to keep a watchful eye on how much a house’s appliances are using in terms of juice. Then the film that Wallace was watching is revealed: Revenge of the Killer Watts.

All in all, maybe not worthy of another Oscar nomination, but nonetheless using such well loved characters will no doubt make a impact with quite a lot of people.

Kevin Peake, marketing director at nPower, said:
“We’re all guilty of being like Wallace and Gromit and wasting too much energy in the home, but we want to show that there are ways where we can help our customers save energy and money.

“smartpower electricity monitors are a great tool for customers to quantify how they use energy in the home and Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit really bring this message to life.”

Agency VCCP has been working alongside Nick Park’s Aardman Animations to produce the commercial.

Sean Clarke, Head of Aardman Rights, said:
“Wallace and Gromit lend themselves perfectly to dispelling the myths around energy efficiency in the entertaining way they are famous for.”

nPower has also announced that it welcomes the news of a Welsh boiler scrappage scheme and that, as with the English scheme, it is set to become the first energy supplier to launch its own boiler scrappage scheme in Wales.

The scheme in Wales is based on the Government offering a £500 grant to around 5,000 households in Wales that are replacing ‘G’ SEDBUK rated boilers with those which have a modern ‘A’ rating.

But nPower’s scheme offers a £400 discount off a new boiler when its replaced with one that is over ten years old. And, importantly, this offer is open to consumers of all ages. This means that the under 60s, or households whose boilers are old, but not G-Rated, can still enjoy the nPower discount.

Kevin Miles, Chief Executive Officer of nPower retail, said:
“It’s vital we play our part in supporting this Government initiative. Customers can now enjoy £900 off the cost of a new boiler, which could be almost a third off the cost of an installation. This is in addition to savings of nearly £235 off an annual gas bill, compared to a G Rated boiler.

“However, with just 5,000 installs up for grabs, consumers should act quickly to avoid disappointment.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

npower is the first energy company to announce that it will continue its own boiler scrappage scheme once the Government scheme, which was launched in January and within six weeks had helped over 50,000 households to a new boiler, closes, possibly in April 2010.

npower has over six million residential gas and electricity accounts in the UK.

npower maintains the initiative as it was also the first energy supplier to announce an in-house scheme on the back of the Government plan. When the Government stepped in with the popular £400 grant towards replacing an old ‘G’, or ‘X’ rated boiler for an ‘A’ rated boiler, npower, like British Gas, doubled it to £800.

But whereas the Government scheme eligibility relied on customers with inefficient boilers (‘G’, ‘X’ rated), npower had a different criteria: the boiler only had to be over ten years old, meaning that more households could quality for their £400 grant.

The boiler scrappage scheme had been very popular and was started by a plumber petitioning Number Ten. It has not only benefitted a beleaguered industry in tough recessionary times, but helped thousands of people rid themselves of old inefficient boilers. It is reckoned that a modern A rated boiler will save a householder at least £200 a year in energy bills, as well as help the environment.

SEDBUK ‘A’ rated boilers tend to be condensing boilers which achieve a plus 80% energy efficient rating because they not only use the heat from the initial combustion process, but also take heat from the resulting exhaust fumes.

Kevin Miles, the Chief Executive Officer of npower retail, said:
“The scrappage scheme has proven to be extremely popular and if take-up continues at the same rate, we expect the Government’s scheme to close in April. However, there are still approximately four million households with G-Rated boilers in the UK, which is why we are pledging to continue npower’s boiler scrappage scheme.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp