Govt Green Energy Rating

Hi all,

Got a call from govt person asking to come to my home (approx 1hr) & assess the energy rating. Assessor comes & looks at appliances, insulation etc & gives you a rating.

He explained all new houses have to have an energy rating of 5. He said exisiting homes should have min rating 2.

Does anyone know about this 'service'?.

I asked what happens if our rating is under 2 & was advised the info goes onto a govt databse for future reference.

Daughter chose this moment to throw up on both of us so I had to get person to call back later:D)

Is there any advantage to getting this done?
Does anyone know exactly what this service is?
Any advice appreciated :)

Thanks,
M&M
 
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The assessment gives you access to the green loan scheme, otherwise not much. If you get a good rating you can brag, if you get a bad one you have an incentive to do stuff.

Thousands upon thousands of these assessments have been done (I thought they'd run out of funding to do it some time ago, actually) but hardly anyone has got a green loan.

New houses have to be 6 star soon.
 
Are you sure it was a government employee? It wasn't this mob?

http://www.greenrate.com.au/energy_rating_victoria.htm

Lots of these types of companies try to cloak themselves with the names of government programs or incentives to push their products. Even those that are giving out freebies like lightbulbs or shower heads will then turn around to claim money or energy credit from the government via a process you could probably follow yourself.

Not to say there aren't legitimate services but there's plenty of dodgies too.
 
Anyone who wants to do something I didn't ask for, or rings me when I haven't asked to be rung, I don't trust and simply say no to. :)
 
Probably a sales call.

But there is a thing called Mandatory Exclosure that is being rolled out. For some years properties in the ACT that were sold have had to have an energy efficiency rating. You would have noticed it in the ads of RE.co.au.
 
Not actually sure how useful this report is now....

The government green loan was scrapped a while back and I have yet to hear/see any differences in pricing with houses that have this report (around brisbane, qld that is).

So like to know if anyone managed to get their property higher in value due to this report..
 
Thanks very much for all your advice...very helpful, as always :)

(My partner says I'm a bit of a sucker for these sorts of 'offers'.)

Regards,
M&M
 
Probably a sales call.

But there is a thing called Mandatory Exclosure that is being rolled out. For some years properties in the ACT that were sold have had to have an energy efficiency rating. You would have noticed it in the ads of RE.co.au.

And recently introduced in Qld. Huge fines for vendors and REAs who don't disclose. But the reports can be completely meaningless anyway, as if you don't know the answer, you can leave it blank!
 
Spoke to a customer of mine today who is in the business of manufacturing a certain type of industrial product. He says that to get an official star/efficiency (?) rating, then he has to pay $$ for it, otherwise, no rating. Bad for business. But he won't pay on principal.

His main competitor who does pay the $$ has the star rating on an inferior product, and gets a lot more govt business etc. It stinks.

Reminds me a bit of the tick from the Heart Foundation situation.
 
So to spend money to make money as oppose to not spend money based on principal and not make money.. He is in the business to make money right?

Surely he would see this as a way to show his competitors whose product is superior.....
 
His business, his loss I suppose.

But the point is, to get the official rating is based on merit plus $$, not just on merit.
 
Are you sure it was a government employee? It wasn't this mob?

http://www.greenrate.com.au/energy_rating_victoria.htm

Lots of these types of companies try to cloak themselves with the names of government programs or incentives to push their products. Even those that are giving out freebies like lightbulbs or shower heads will then turn around to claim money or energy credit from the government via a process you could probably follow yourself.

Not to say there aren't legitimate services but there's plenty of dodgies too.

There is currently two very different government 'energy rating' type initiatives going on.

Firstly, there is the green loans scheme which invloves getting a free assessment of your house. As part of this assessment they will recommend ways you can improve the energy and water efficiency of your home, (like replacing shower heads, installing solar etc) and then you can get a interest free loan to follow through with some of these. This scheme has recently been shut down, and was notorious for shady operators that would call you up or knock on your door.

Secondly, there is the 5 (and soon to be 6) star energy rating required by all new homes in some states including Victoria. This invloves getting an assessment (known as a thermal performance assessment or enrgy rating) done on the new design of any new home before a building permit is granted and construction can begin. The star rating will reflect how well the building can maintain a pleasant and liveable temperature. Nothing to do with light bulbs, shower heads, applicances or anything like that. This is just a protocol that every new building now goes through, and is what is offered by companies like Greenrate.

With so many government green inititives going on it can all get a bit confusing!
 
Nothing wrong with the green loan to improve the rating of your house - it was a Government thing, and virtually noone took it up.

The dodgy was the assessments themselves - as far as I know they are (were) free to the householder but the assessor gets $$ from the govt for each assessment, so absolutely thousands of assessments were done.
 
Nothing wrong with the green loan to improve the rating of your house - it was a Government thing, and virtually noone took it up.

Does it make sense that no one would take up a $10,000 interest free loan?
Didn't think so.
Hardly any reports ended up being sent out even after they fixed the 2 month 'software problem' at the department. Until you received your report you couldn't apply. I had the assessment done early July 09 and got the report in march(?) 10 right after they announced it was being scrapped. By then the banks had pulled out. Kudos to Community First credit Union who worked around the clock to process all the applications that could be done by the deadline, which was only a few weeeks. I ended up being extremely 'lucky' as my loan was funded about 2 weeks ago. Not without considerable work & manouvering I can tell you! I do hope they bring it back, as it will make it easier for people to upgrade some things in their homes that they may not prioritise otherwise.
 
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