Saffia Sajid, 29, is an administrator for Birmingham city council and, five years ago, moved into a two-bedroom Edwardian terraced house in Acocks Green with her husband and three children, aged nine, six and one.
In August this year, I had a new combi boiler fitted under the Energy Company Obligation (Eco), a government scheme that obliges big energy companies to provide financial support for low-income households to make energy-saving home improvements.
Our existing boiler, which was more than eight years old, had started playing up. Our house was ever so cold and because it was a really harsh winter, our bill came to £900.
I knew about the green deal, but I wasn't sure about receiving free energy improvements. But I found out I met the eligibility criteria and that npower, my energy supplier, was part of the Eco scheme.
We had an energy assessment of our home on 1 June, which was free under Eco. It took about one and a half hours and the assessor took pictures and wrote down information about our energy use, looking at all our appliances. He gave us an energy-efficiency rating of 45/100, which put our home in band E. But he told us we could have a rating of 78, in band C, if we made improvements. He said the top action we could take to save money and make our home more efficient would be to install a new boiler, as we already had loft insulation.
He passed our score on to npower and, about two weeks later, npower told me permission for a new boiler had been approved. They sent a technical person out to come and look at our existing boiler, and then someone else to do the installation. Everyone was very friendly, polite and professional.
Now we have a combi condensing boiler, the most efficient model possible, which provides heat for our radiators and hot water on demand. An electrician also came to connect the new boiler to the wireless thermostat and timer.
We've been checking our readings regularly and it seems to be going OK. It hasn't been very cold yet and we use the heating differently every year. I'm going to let one winter pass before I make a comparison, but I think things will be much better because our boiler is new and more energy efficient.
A new boiler costs around £2,000-£3,000. Obviously, the main part of my decision to go ahead was the cost – it was provided for free. But thinking about the environment was a part of it. Everything today is about energy efficiency because energy bills are going up and up.
We've had no problems getting the work done or finding out about things. I thought it was a really nice, pleasant experience and I recommended it to my dad, who has had a new boiler installed by the same people.
