A substantial part of today was spent filling out forms because in the middle of the afternoon, I got an email from the Energy Saving Trust. Attached to it were three PDFs; a list of accredited installers, a pack for applying for a grant and a report on my home's energy efficiency measures including recommendations for renewable energy systems that might be installed. This latter PDF is the important one. It allows me to make my applications for a grant and a loan for my solar power system.
[Later note: The grants were discontinued and the loans were reduced to a max on £4,000 - all before I could get to take advantage of them.]
There's a tiny bit of silliness in these applications. Both forms are going to two different departments in the same building. However, the grant application only requires me to include a reference number to their report. The loan application wants a copy of it, and it's 27 pages long. So where one form goes in a small envelope with a printout of my quote, the other has had to go in a large A4 envelope and we'll need to go to the post office to get the appropriate postage. So much for saving carbon.
I have to wait for up to 15 working days - call it three weeks - to hear whether I'm going to be awarded either the grant or the loan. As soon as I know, I can give the installer the go-ahead.
One other thing I looked into today was planning permission. I phoned the local planning department in the afternoon but it seems the appropriate person was not there. I'll phone them again tomorrow morning. I am pretty sure I won't need permission (or so I'm told) because I'm not in a conservation area and my panels won't go more than 200 mm from my roof. I'll know more tomorrow.
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