Ways to pay for refurbishment and renewable energy

There are lots of ways to finance the retrofit of your home. These range from grants and loans for help with up-front costs, to incentives that are paid on energy produced from renewable technologies. Some options are introduced below. Local grants may be available; see www.brighton-hove.gov.uk and search for ‘energy grants’.

Energy Company Obligation (ECO) is a grant; different from the GD as it isn’t repaid. There are three ECO funding strands which the six biggest energy companies (Southern Electric, British Gas, EDF, Scottish Power, nPower and E.ON) are required to contribute to. More...

Low interest mortgages Some finance providers, such as Ecology Building Society, offer low interest mortgages for energy efficient work in homes.

Feed In Tariff (FIT) pays a fixed sum for each unit of electricity generated through domestic renewable technologies, such as photo-voltaic panels. At the moment this payment is guaranteed for 20 years. A lower payment is also made for any electricity exported to the grid, in addition to the generation payment.

Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme Another tariff that applies to technologies that produce heat rather than electricity; solar thermal, solid biomass boilers, geothermal and ground/water source heat pumps. At present, it is only available to commercial enterprises, but there are plans to extend it in the near future to households as well.