If your 'home energy survey' is a solar panel hard sell, just run the cowboys out of town

A leaflet drops through your letterbox offering you a free home energy survey. You take up the offer, but find yourself talking about solar panels. The surveyor turns out to be a solar panel salesman and his price for a new installation on your roof sounds good, given the discount he offers. He even says he will take £400 off the bill so that you don't have to bother applying for the government grant. You sign on the dotted line before he leaves, and a few weeks later there's a bright new panel on your roof making carbon-free hot water.

If you can't meet the conditions of the grant, or feel the effort isn't worth the relatively small return (it's a better deal in Scotland), widen your search to Solar Trade Association (www.solartradeassociation.org.uk) members. The Renewable Energy Association's new consumer code should also help to keep the cowboys out (www.r-e-a.net).

But back to that energy survey you were promised. Perhaps a solar panel is not what you really want. Or perhaps you want to integrate renewable energy with improvements in the energy performance of your home. If so, there'll be lots of questions you need answered. How much insulation should you use, and what type? How can you improve air-tightness and ventilation? What kind of renewable energy systems would be most appropriate? And what are the costs and benefits of all these options?

full article at:
http://money.independent.co.uk/property/homes/article1363239.ece

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