Tracy Vegro, DECC's recent Green Deal blog
http://blog.decc.gov.uk/2013/05/24/selling-your-home-with-a-green-deal/#comments
summarises neatly some of the challenges facing Green Deal adoption. In our experience most consumers are driven by cash savings, short payback expectations and a desire for simplicity rather than softer benefits of better comfort or carbon reduction. Selling Green Deal to consumers needs in our view to be honest and realistic in what it might offer an individual consumer.
A good example is Solid Wall Insulation. We recently helped a 1920's property owner insulate 300m2 of external wall. Quotes ranged from £30k to £40k, plus VAT depending upon scaffolding, altering pipework and the like. We delivered a price around £20k through direct labour management, imported insulation and altering obstructions first. However this approach is not recommended for an inexperienced client. This delivered price suggests a low-end rate of £67/m2 insulated wall that will be hard to beat.
A typical three-bed semi in Tracy's example might have 100m2 of external wall and cost £6,700 + VAT at the above rate to insulate. This is a payback of 25 years at her stated annual saving of £270. This assumes VAT is recovered somehow. I suggest that this is the shortest period that a consumer might realistically expect for this type of work. This may deter many consumers when faced with the challenge of getting the work done.
Our property owner was delighted with the end result; a warmer-feeling home, condensation gone, lower bills, and an enhanced external appearance. They did not do it for the payback, nor did they use the Green Deal. It feels too early to say the proportion of consumers who will feel the same way, as the differing comments to Tracy Vegro's blog highlight.
