"Lobster" wrote in message
...
Hi

I'm probably going to buy a new boiler via www.energy-smart.co.uk, the
government's energy saving initiative wotsit - I can get a Worcester-Bosch
Greenstar 24i Junior for 711 GBP including VAT and flue, which seems the
best price I can find anywhere.

They also sell heating controls at good prices (Danfoss and Honeywell).
However, all they put out is a pricelist, and for the Honeywell kit it's
extremely vague which models they are selling - phone then up and they
claim to have no more information. I wondered if anybody else has dealt
with them and knows any more about it? I'd like to be able to make an
informed choice (otherwise I'll just have to buy the controls elsewhere.

Items which I'm interested in are described as follows:
Honeywell 24H Progg R Therm/s (32.32 GBP + VAT)
Honeywell 230V Room stat (5.98)
Honeywell Digital Room stat (13.99)
Honeywell 7 day prog therm OP stat) (34.00)

(As an aside... householders are supposed to order this kit via a CORGI...
given that this means the CORGI would loses a large chunk of profit by not
being able to mark up materials, I'm curious to know how many CORGIs are
willing to take on this scheme, and how effective it is therefore? How do
the above prices compare with a decent trade price to a CORGI?)

Thanks
David

I'm presuming that this link gives the same info:

http://www.uselessenergy.org/boilers_prices.asp#AnatC

Our CORGI guy got our Alpha CD32C and associated equipment through this
scheme and he's not one of these guys who gets materials at trade prices
then charges the customer retail - the price he gets it for is the price you
pay and that's it.

When we were getting prices for a complete new system, we toyed with the
idea of buying all the materials (possibly on the Internet, maybe locally,
depending on price) and just getting a CORGI to do all the work. When we
asked him about this he said not to buy on the 'net but we could use his
account at the plumbers merchants as he would only charge us what he is
charged.

When a good craftsman can charge a handsome amount of money for his skills,
there's no need to add more money on by marking up materials and I'm
surprised that anyone still does this and gets away with it. For instance,
there are no "true" electrical wholesalers anymore (round here, anyway). A
friend of mine used to have to take his union card (or other proof of being
an electrician) in before getting trade discount - now any member of Joe
Public can go in. And places like Screwfix and TLC-Direct negate the "trade
discount" as well.

John.