The Money isn’t Running Out for the Boiler Scrappage Scheme

I heard a EST spokes person say they have approved 35,000 vouchers, that was at the beginning of this week on the You and Yours Radio 4 programme. In addition they were still working through a back log of applications which they expect to clear this week.

So there are still, may be, more than 80,000 vouchers worth £400 available to be claimed. No panic then.

The spokes person says it should now take about 10 days from the time you make your application to actually receiving your voucher. As explained in my previous blog, if you are hoping to get the £400 you have to wait to receive your voucher before having the boiler replaced.

How to Claim £400 cash from the boiler scrap scheme

If you are local to us (i.e. Thanet to Whistable and surrounding area, East Kent) then call Tara Plumbing
01843 607192
for a quote to replace your boiler and we will walk you through the process giving you all the information you need.
You have to make the call or send the email, but we can give you the details.
If you are not local basically the information is all ia the Energy Saving Trust and Act On CO2 helpline.
The process is here is this article.

The funds are quite limited so may run out quickly, do not delay the scheme is up and running….

How to Find Out Whether Your Boiler is G rated for the Scrappage Scheme

The government have put more info on their website about how the scrappage scheme is to work and most important of all, a way of finding out whether a boiler is G-rated and eligible.
Check whether your boiler is on the database.

There are some rough and ready guidelines:

1. gas boilers with a permanent pilot light are likely to be a G-rated
2. as are gas boilers over fifteen years old
3. and oil powered and over twenty-five years old
4. plus some solid fuel boilers without thermostats.

How to get cash back from the boiler scrappage scheme

I don’t know the ins and outs yet, but it should start in about 3 months time and a household can get £400 back if they are replacing a G rated boiler.
The boiler must be working.
To find out if your boiler is G rated and qualifies it will be on the sedbuk list.

Boiler Scappage Scheme – how will it affect us?

It is not often I’m looking up the actual complete text of the Pre-Budget Report, in fact, it has never happened before.

When I heard that there was going to be a boiler scrappage scheme from April 2010 I needed to know more. Will people be cancelling their appointments for a new boiler and delaying having their heating work done until April? Will there be any new boiler installations in Jan – Feb – March?

Or will it be a gas installers bonanza with loads of work created as a result?

I predict the scheme will actually make very little difference, now that I know the full details. Yes it will increase the number of new boiler changes but I think the % increase will be very small, to the extent that as installers we will not notice it. I could be wrong.

It is only the oldest most inefficient boilers that will qualify, G rated. It is estimated that there are 4 million of these old g rated boilers in use and a further 12 million standard, non-condensing boilers which do not fall under the scheme.

A household will get £400 to help out with the cost of a new boiler. Nice but small in comarison to the full cost of a boiler replacement.

You see the new boiler must be condensing, it might need to be in a new position, it might need new pipe work, it will need a drain for the condensate, and a load of heating controls are also compulsory. The house might not have Thermostatic Radiator Valves, but if they are having new heating then they must have TRVs as well.

So all in all, a new boiler to replace a very old one will not be a simple straight swap, all done and dusted in half a day. And you will not see change from £1,000 and may be not from £2k.

Kenny the Movie: about an Australian Portaloo Plumber

Kenny is a film in the style of “The Office”, dead pan, documentary about an Australian plumber in the portaloo industry.

If, like me, you love toilet humour then this will be up your street. Mr TP and I have just watched it and couldn’t stop laughing at comments like:

“there’s a smell that’s going to out last religion.”

and the problem of a blocked toilet due to a
“2 inch arse but 1 inch pipe work”.

There is a trailer on the website: Kenny the Movie.
This film was so good, if you like that sort of thing, that I just have to let you know about it.

Noisy boiler not working… repair or service?

It is that time of year again. 

Eventually it will get so cold that people will turn their heating on.  Or at least try to.  Each year Mr T.P. has to explain to some people that he cannot service a boiler if it does not work.  Like servicing a car.

I am assuming it will get that cold eventually, I’ve never known November to be so warm.  Perhaps the days of central heating repairs are numbered and Mr TP should re-train in the field of Air Conditioning? 

What to do if your boiler has broken? 

1. Don’t try to fix it yourself, unless you are qualified AND on the gas safe register.
2. Don’t call Mr TP.  He only want to see them if he can be paid without having to actually diagnose problems, replace parts and get it all working again. Smart! 

He says the best people to call are either:

1. The person who installed it OR
2. the manufacturer. 

 The manufacturers of many common boilers have their own teams of well trained engineers who drive around in vans stocked with spare parts and can often replace broken parts cheaper price than a local Plumber/ Heating Engineer.

You may have noticed a lack of words being added to this blog in recent months.  Well, 14 months ago we had twins.  I’ve just about managed to avoid a complete nervous breakdown but one or two things have suffered: one being my creativity two being my spare time.  I hope to return to regular blogging and woo back my audience, we’ll see.

I’m not going to write about twins here, but will do so here.

Rebranding Margate – the pink £ or the children?

They got Margate so wrong on the Apprentice (BBC 1) last night – hardly their fault.  They had less than  48 hours and they do not know the town – it is not all doom and gloom, I think there are some marketing opportunities for our area.

It is not a question of who might come to Margate but why would they come? 

Yes it has sandy beaches – as can be found all around the British coast line. So what is unique that could really attract any people to Margate?

See Margate through children’s eyes indeed – what a load of RUBBISH! If you know Margate today, then you know what I mean. Apart from the beach need I point out there is no fun fair, there is very little to entertain a family.  The Museum in the old town was fascinating – BUT closed due to lack of funding.      

The mini golf place is excellent, but is not even within view of the Main sands,  you need   to know where to find it.  Walk west, along the seafront, to Westbrook.

If you asked me – re brand Margate I would say you need to focus on 2 things:

1.  Day trippers.  At the last minute you find the day is sunny, Margate is ideally located, with in 2 hours travel time of about 10 million people!

The biggest selling point is probably that you walk straight out of the station and you are facing the main beach.

If lots of families were in Margate with children on a rainy day just what would they do? (Not even a cinema unless you travel to Westwood).  And if they had come to Margate on holiday where would they stay?  

The lack of hotels was obviously not made clear to the apprentices.  There is a Travel Inn next to the station.  The interesting Walpole Bay Hotel and the Palm Court Smith Hotel.  Inland a little, at Westwood, there is a small Travel Lodge.

2. Short break, weekend away crowd – adults that is.  Hen nights, stags, dirty weekends etc.. What Margate can boast is lots of bars and night clubs as well as 2 casinos in the vicinity.  I think there are a few reasonable places to eat there too. 

I don’t want to be negative, but I will be.        

In the 1990’s with crowds of friends we would travel to Margate for a day out. If I lived in London now (and was still in my 20’s) I would be unlikely to think of any reason to choose Margate for a day trip.  Brighton and even Hastings would hold more appeal – there is more to do.  Coming in to Kent, I can’t see any reason why not stop at Whitstable or Herne Bay ( they are nearer) or even go to Dover or Folkestone.

Ants in my pants……

well, almost.  We are under siege.

In the last couple of days we have suffered an ant invasion in the Tara Plumbing strong hold. 

Our solid front door held up against their battering ram; our window locks were not picked by the nimble little ant fingers; and we did not fall for their Trojan horse trick.  Nevertheless, whilst my back was turned for a minute they seem to have tunnelled their way. 

I have retaliated with all the weapons at my disposal but it is not clear who is winning, I am bigger, stronger and with much greater fire power.  I  am not for killing mammals to eat them, but ant attack in my home is another matter…

Why is this suddenly happening, does anyone know?  Is it happening to others?  Mr Tara Plumbing thinks it may be to do with mating behaviour.  How our love life should affect the local ant population, however, I’m really not sure.

Supermarket etiquette – shopping dividers on the conveyor belt

This week’s Thanet Gazette was worth every penny for the debate on the letters page (13). Go read the issue in the library if you missed it.

Last week Jane Allen, who shops in Birchington, wrote:

“The person in front never puts the divider up between their shopping and mine. I think this is extremely rude. I was brought up to put the divider up after my shopping on the conveyer belt and ALWAYS do.”

Despite letters to the paper and going out to talk to shoppers in Margate it seems the Thanet Gazette were unable to find anyone else who felt passionately about this matter, in agreement with Ms Allen.

 

I was not the only person who checked the date to see if it could be an April Fools joke when I first read Ms Allen’s letter. Is she serious, or an agent provocateur? Anyway, being the pedant that I am I spent too much time pondering the issue myself because my gut reaction was that Ms Allen was actually wrong.

The divider of shopping etiquette is not as she stated.

With great joy this week I read the reply from Mark Goddard of Minis Road, Birchington, it is this I would urge you to read in full. He is a man with too much time on his hands to write about the trivia in life; he explains most eloquently why etiquette should suggest that when in a queue one is not responsible for what goes on behind the queuer. The queuer is merely responsible for ensuring appropriate space (barrier) between herself and the person in front.

If there is something trivial to argue about there will be blogs and websites dedicated to the subject, so I did a little search. The www is almost quiet on this matter. I did find a very entertaining blog, however, in which the author explains that the rules of etiquette are one should put the divider in front of your own shopping but the are strict rules governing your response if the person infront places the divider for you:

 

 

http://thedictionaryofoscarmacsweeny.wordpress.com/scintillating

   

“My point being that the checkout divider has no significance over and above the thousands of other things happening around you at such a point in your life.

“However, others see the matter differently.

“It turns out that there is such a thing as checkout-divider-etiquette. And, it turns out, that it is a gross infringement of this etiquette should you not put down the plastic baton whenever the chance presents itself to you – … it turns out, at no point are you, the person ahead of them in the queue, obliged to place the plastic dividers down for them, the person behind you in the queue.

“And on top of all of that, if someone puts one of those plastic batons down between their food and yours, and you are behind them, about to put your prospective purchases down on the conveyor belt, it is obligatory to mutter a thank you. Letting out a voluble thank-you isn’t advisable, as this may come across as sarcasm, but mumbling an indecipherable thank-you into your sleeve is the very least you should do.”

There are, however, many pages dedicated to the subject of queuing, jumping it, holding your place with your shopping trolley whilst you go off for forgotten item, paying with small change, not getting your money out ready until it is time to pay, etc…

 

  

 

I think – people who find these things all so worrying might be better doing their shopping on line and/or sticking to small shops. Supermarkets are not going to be pleasant.

I found one angry supporter of the Jane Allen view.

 http://aaronbramson.blogspot.com/2006/05/rant-checkout-divider-idiocy.html