The questions we get asked most
Written by the people who do the work, and checked against the source rather than repeated from another website. Every one carries the date it was last checked.
The £7,500 heat pump grant, explained properly
It comes off your quotation rather than arriving later, the installer applies for it, and both of the conditions that used to stop most applications have now gone.
Read the guideHeat pump or boiler? How to actually compare them
Every comparison you read online uses somebody else's house and somebody else's tariff. Here is the method, so you can do it with yours.
Read the guideDamp, condensation or a leak? How to tell them apart
They look similar and they are not the same problem. Getting this wrong is the most expensive mistake in the whole of retrofit, because the fix for one does nothing at all for the others.
Read the guideLoft insulation: is topping up worth it?
If your loft was done before about 2003 it is probably at 100mm. Going to 270mm is the cheapest useful thing most houses can do, and the second half costs a fraction of the first.
Read the guideIs a solar battery worth it?
A battery makes no electricity at all. What it does is move electricity from when you have it to when you need it — and whether that is worth buying depends almost entirely on two things about your household.
Read the guideDo solar panels need planning permission?
For most houses in England, no. Roof-mounted solar is permitted development, which means it is already allowed provided it stays inside a short list of limits. Here is that list, and the cases where it does not apply.
Read the guide0% VAT: what actually qualifies
Solar panels, battery storage, heat pumps and insulation carry no VAT at all until 31 March 2027. Gas boilers do not, whatever anybody tells you. The difference is worth several hundred pounds on a typical job.
Read the guideCavity, solid, or already filled?
Which insulation you can have is decided by the wall, not by the budget. There are three answers, you can usually narrow it to one from outside the house, and it changes the price of the job by thousands.
Read the guidePAS 2035, and when you need an assessment
If the work is funded, it has to follow PAS 2035, and that starts with an assessment of the whole house rather than a quote for one measure. Here is what that involves and why the order is not optional.
Read the guide