After years of campaigning by environmental groups, the government has agreed to reward households and businesses installing electricity-generating measures with enough of a return to make it a serious financial, as well as an environmental, investment. If you’ve got the money and, crucially, a sunny, south-facing roof, you can earn a 7%-10% tax-free return, an income that will rise in line with inflation. At the same time, you get to do more than your fair share in reducing the UK’s carbon­ emissions.

In the week that the energy regulator,­ Ofgem, warned the nation to expect 20% electricity price hikes by 2020, and warned future supplies were in jeopardy, investors in solar panels will have the added benefit of being a net provider of electricity, and largely insulated from future price hikes that could see household bills top £2,000 a year by 2020.

Announcing the new tariffs’ introduction this week, the energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband said the guaranteed income would be a big incentive for householders “to make the move to low carbon­ living”.­

Call us on 01858 433 333 to find out more.

Solar Heating Panels

Lewington’s renewable energy division have just completed their latest solar panel installation in Leicestershire.  The twin solar panels were installed in a home in Kibworth.  Shown here is the outside of the house  in the Leicestershire village.  The solar panels and twin coiled hot water cylinder were both manufacturered by Worcester Bosch.  The job took just 2 days to complete and will now start saving the owners money from their heating bill from now on - winter or summer.

If you live in Leicestershire, Rutland or Northamptonshire and are curious if renewable energy such as solar panels or solar heating could work for you contact us to find out more on 01858 433 333

Boiler Scrappage Scheme Warning

The following article was posted on www.moneysavingexpert.com yesterday and reveals that some largercompanies aditional £400 incentive are not perhaps all that they appear to be.

Energy firms offering new boiler discounts when scrapping an old appliance may still be charging hundreds of pounds more than the competition.

British Gas, Eon, Npower and Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) all give a £400 discount off one of their boilers in addition to the £400 Government scrappage scheme discount.

Yet it could still be significantly cheaper buying from an independent firm, even with the extra power firm reduction.

The typical cost of buying and installing a boiler is £2,500, according to the heating industry.

Twice as expensive

Research from consumer lobby group Which? last year found British Gas charged up to twice as much as the cheapest independent engineer for the same job.

Installer Peter Thom, who runs heating firm Green Heat and sits on the Institute of Domestic Heating and Environmental Engineers executive council, says: “An independent installer can be £1,000 cheaper. The power companies often load a few hundred pounds onto the price.”

The key is to secure quotes from a trusted independent installer and your energy supplier to find the cheapest. Getting an accurate quote normally requires a home visit, says Thom.

The other two of the big six energy firms (EDF and Scottish Power) do not sell boilers.

Grab a grant

Grants of up to £3,500 for a new boiler are available for those on some benefits in England via the Warm Front scheme. Check whether you’re entitled before applying for the Government voucher as you may not be eligible for both.

The Government scheme, which applies in England only, allows up to 125,000 households with working boilers with the lowest “G” rating to apply for vouchers from the Energy Saving Trust (EST) towards “A” rated boilers or renewable heating systems.

The terms of the power firms’ discounts vary. They are generally similar to the Government’s scheme with some deviations.

For instance, SSE offers the £400 discount throughout Britain, while Npower will allow you to trade in a ten-year-old (or older) boiler, regardless of rating.

If you would like to know if your old boiler qualifies for the scheme call 01858 433 333 for a free estimate.

boiler scrappage scheme Leicestershire

The Government has just released final details of the Boiler Scrappage Scheme. The scheme will start on 18th January.  Almost all Band  ‘G’ boilers will qualify - but only the first 125,000 in the country to apply will receive a grant.

To find out if your boiler is band ‘G’, have your boiler make and model available, call us on 01858 44 55 43.  We have access to the full list of boilers that qualify for the programme.

If you are looking to take advantage of this scheme (and see how much you would save) or are just interested in replacing your existing boiler then Contact Us for a free quotation.

This week the government has announced the launch of ‘The Boiler Scrappage scheme’ starting early next year.  Full details are not yet known, but should be soon.

The new scrappage scheme, which will be similar to the successful car scrappage scheme,  offers up to 125,000 homeowners across the UK a £400 incentive to replace their old Band ‘G’ gas boilers with a new energy effiecient ‘A’ rated condensing boiler on a first come first served basis. This provides the opportunity for homeowners to benefit from lower energy bills as well as having an impact on the environment. The boilers that will qualify for the scheme will typically be boilers over 20 years old, floor standing and connected to gravity hot water systems.

At Lewington’s we are committed to reducing carbon emmissions, improving energy efficiency within the home and lowering customers fuel bills. In 2009 alone we have installed over 100 energy efficient boilers and also were awarded the ‘Worcester Bosch 2020 environment award’.

It is estimated that there are currently 4.5 million Band ‘G’ gas boilers in use in the UK that are typically only around 60% efficient. To find out if your boiler is one of these and so meets the requirements needed to qualify for the scheme, please contact us with your boiler make and model. As this is a new scheme the government are still to release details of it, such as start dates and how to apply, so keep checking our website for further information.

We have just completed a complete refurbishment of the heating system at a 400 years old Manor house in Welford.

The contract involved de commisioning and removing the existing 40 years old boiler, radiators, pipework and hot water system and installing a upto date, efficient heating and hot water system to suit the current owners needs.

We installed a Worcester Bosch Danesmore 50/70 oil fired condensing boiler with vertical flue system through roof to avoid any nuissence pluming in the court yard.

The house required 27 radiators, 11 of which were Appollo Firrenze cast iron victorian, 6 Radiator company Ancona stainless steel and 10 Hudevad flat panel radiators with the victorian sited in the original part of house and the flat panels to the more modern part. We used stainless steel radiators to the 2nd  floor as weight was a concern for the old floor joists.

The heating was piped in individual floor zones to allow independant controll over each floor using programmable room stats therefore increasing efficiency.

Hot water is supplied via 300 ltr Heatrae Sadia Megaflow which supplies 4 bathrooms with a secondary hot water circuit to achieve instant hot water at outlets. 

The system was designed  by Graham Gambles and all our engineers carried out work on the house.

The client was so pleased with how the work was carried out and the end results, we have been asked to upgrade all the bathrooms within the house.

I should like to put on record our complete satisfaction at your out of hours service. Within ten minutes of receiving our call Mr King arrived and was able to deal with the leaking radiator problem within the hour. An excellent service.
Mr Day.
Emergency contact ; 07889109989

We would particularly like to mention that we were very pleased with the professional manner in which “Kieth” conducted himself and did his work, and then cleaned up afterwards.
We would not hesitate to reccommend your company to anyone.
Thank You
Mr Allen

As Accredited Worcester Bosch installers we have been asked to carry out all our own warentey work  on their boilers we install.

To assist us with this we have been given a wide range of parts for all their gas and oil boilers and solar hot water systems to avoid long delivery times.

So in the unlikly case you have a problem with a boiler we’ve installed you call Worcester as usual who will then contact us to arrange a visit from one of our expert engineers.