Lorraine Gumbs, Project Development Manager at LEAP (Local Energy Advice Partnership) sits down to chat about the LEAP appliance scheme, how to secure white goods help with LEAP and shares a few useful tips about managing your appliances at home efficiently.
Want to find out if you’re eligible for white goods help through the LEAP Appliance scheme?
The LEAP Appliance Scheme is a replacement scheme. The objective is to replace old, inefficient white goods with modern ones. So it includes refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, and electric cookers.
The system works like this: if you have an outdated appliance that is more than eight years old, we can replace it with a new model that is more energy efficient. So we will remove and dispose of your old appliance, and we will install your new appliance for you. The old appliance is disposed of in an energy-efficient manner.
The essential point is that they will be significantly more energy efficient than your old appliance. So, when you’re looking to buy an appliance, you’re aware that you have several ratings; it goes from G to A. The ratings have altered slightly as a result of some of the laws implemented in Europe, so it’s actually very difficult to get an A-rated appliance now. However, if you have an older appliance, it will cost you significantly more to run.
These new appliances are a lot more energy efficient, which means you’ll save money on your energy bill because they’ll cost less to run.
An oven can be 2 or 3 kilowatts. Also, you’re going to put something in the oven, make sure to turn it on approximately 10 minutes ahead of time to warm it up. Then you put it in the oven for an hour, half an hour, or whatever time works best for you. When compared to an air fryer, which typically consumes around 600 or 700 kilowatts to operate, the actual running expenses are obviously much lower.
And, if you only want to do a few tiny items, it will be much more energy efficient to use the air fryer because the cost of running the appliance will be lower and it will be on for a shorter period of time. But if you’re going to cook a full roast meal, you might as well put it in the oven because you’ve got your meat, vegetables, potatoes, and everything else.
But if you’re just wanting to make something really fast like garlic bread, pakoras, samosas, or something like that, bang it in the air fryer. A lot quicker and a lot cheaper to run!
We have expanded the appliance scheme – we now provide air fryers, and we have recently added electric airers and dehumidifiers to our product line. The concept is, if you’re attempting to dry your clothing indoors, rather than using a tumble dryer, if you have an electric airer and a dehumidifier, it’ll be far cheaper to run than the tumble dryer.
The most common appliances are under-counter refrigerators and freezers. We provide two types of refrigerators/freezers: standard and family. So, one is a little smaller, the other a little larger. We also do washing machines and electric cookers. We don’t service gas appliances.
The eligibility criteria are fairly similar to those for the LEAP Scheme. So,, it’s a means-tested benefit, or if your total household income is less than £31,000.
The appliance strategy is based on having a home visit with us. So, we offer the majority, if not all, of the appliances as part of a house visit. So you must schedule a house visit, and once there, the advisor will be able to inspect your appliances and determine whether or not we can assist and support you in replacing them.
On the telephone advising call, we only offer a restricted amount of equipment. So what we don’t do on phone advice calls are washing machines, electric ovens, and undercounter fridges or freezers.
