The Green Deal appears to be a black art, it's as clear as mud. I can't say whether I like it or not as I'm not qualified, so if the following is a load of rubbish feel free to put me right.

As far as I can tell if I want some insulation for my house the Government will lend me some money to get it done and I can repay the loan from my energy savings. The whole idea being to raise the insulation standard of the current housing stock to reduce carbon emissions.

I've just heard a horror story. One of my customers has an old, draughty cottage with no heating, solid walls and single glazing. He has been using a mixture of oil filled radiators and open fires to keep warm for the last few years. This year he has decided to lag the house with celotex on the internal walls and to install a heat pump and rads throughout, to bring the house up to modern standards. This, I would assume, is exactly the sort of behaviour the Green Deal would be designed to promote.

The Green Deal assessor has been and done his report, because my customer doesn't have a gas or oil bill and only uses £500 a year for electricity for lighting heating etc. The assessor has assumed that the cost saving that can be made by installing all the lagging is zero. So he's getting no help and no financial assistance. To really put the boot in, this report will be used to estimate his renewable heat output and therefore his RHI. I assume this won't be very generous either.

Is this really the case or can something be done in this sort of property?

Brief answers only please.