Ideal Heating is working with Citizens Advice to support vulnerable households living with old or broken boilers, by replacing them with highly efficient A-rated boilers, free of charge.
Citizens Advice advisers are set to refer up to 100 contacts to Ideal Heating that it identifies as being vulnerable and or struggling to pay energy bills due to the costs of running old, inefficient heating systems.
Replacing out-of-date boilers with the latest appliances can help cut bills by 30% or more as modern condensing boilers like those made by Ideal Heating are at least 90% efficient, so almost all the energy that goes in is used to heat the home and create hot water. In contrast, older boilers could have energy efficiency ratings as low as 60%, meaning 40% of the energy going in is wasted.
Sue Davies, energy advice development manager at Citizens Advice, added: “With people facing higher bills this winter, our advisers are hearing every day from people worried about affording their energy costs. We’re grateful to Ideal Heating for helping us to support people through this challenging time.”
Ideal Heating installers from across the UK, including The Edinburgh Boiler Company, 1st Call Gas and Prime Time have pledged to support the initiative by volunteering their time to install the donated boilers.
Chris Jessop, customer service director at Ideal Heating, said: “We know that the unprecedented increases in energy prices are causing real pain for many people. It’s not right that people with old appliances have to spend more on heating and we want to help. We’re incredibly proud to be teaming up with Citizens Advice on this initiative. It has the local links, experience and expertise to make sure this help is delivered where it is needed most.”
The new initiative comes after Ideal Heating announced a partnership with housing association Home Group to provide more than 200 of its customers with grants towards the cost of their energy bills.