Under the national home energy upgrade scheme there are very generous incentives to encourage you to upgrade your entire house in one fell swoop.
And the benefits are huge too. From a warm, cosy home, to lower energy usage and bills, and you will be helping the environment too.
Undertaking a complete home energy upgrade in one go isn’t always an option for some, even with the supports and grants available.
That’s why it’s great to know there are lots of individual steps we can take, all of which can have a meaningful impact on your home’s comfort and costs.
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Like eating an elephant, improving the energy efficiency of your home can be achieved in bite-sized steps.
It’s how Tom Halpin, head of communications at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), improved the comfort of his home, while significantly reducing his energy consumption.
Last summer he and his family installed a heat pump. “We’ve just come through our first full heating season with it and I have to say, it has proven to be really, really comfortable,” says Halpin.
“The whole house is now heated in a much different way. Because it stays at a consistent 19.5 to 20 degrees, we were no longer running around opening and closing doors to keep it comfortable like we were with our oil-fired central heating. Our old heating system meant we were often either too hot or too cold, with a tolerable bit in between. The heat pump really has been utterly transformative.”
Don’t let your heat go through the roof
His advice for householders facing into their own home energy upgrade journey, and who wish to undertake it on a step-by-step basis, is to start with insulation.
SEAI has a range of grants available depending on the kind of insulation you opt for and the size of your home.
One of the most effective steps you can take is to make sure your attic is sufficiently insulated, to stop heat going through the roof, literally.
“For our grants we require attic insulation to be at least 300mm thick, which is around a foot deep on your old school ruler,” says Halpin. “Depending on when your house was built, you might only have 100mm or 200mm. Indeed, you might already have 300mm but what happens over time is that it gets crushed by all those suitcases and Christmas decoration boxes, which reduces its effectiveness,” he explains.
SEAI grants for attic insulation are available up to a value of €1,500 for what is still the most effective energy upgrade any of us can make.
Keep your warmth within your walls
The next step is to insulate your walls. How you go about this will depend on the construction methods used in the building of your home.
If there is a cavity in the wall, check to see if it is already insulated. “If there is no insulation in the cavity, you can have it filled with blown polystyrene beads. If there is already some insulation in the cavity, there may be an opportunity to top it up,” says Halpin.
“If the wall is not suitable for cavity insulation, you might have to have it insulated internally or externally.”
SEAI grants for cavity wall insulation are worth up to €1,700. If you need to put on internal wall insulation instead, grants of up to €4,500 are available. If you choose external wall insulation, the most effective job of all, the grant is up to €8,000.
“Adding insulation, either in the walls or in the attic, is the easiest step to take and the one with the quickest payback. Your home will heat up faster and retain the residual heat for longer, so you get a much more comfortable home and lower energy bills,” he says.
To figure out which part of the house to insulate first, the first step is to get a building energy rating (Ber).
“It’s an assessment from a technical specialist who can determine exactly what is good and bad in your home in relation to energy. They look at all elements so that you can prioritise the worst performing aspects and thereby make the most gains,” explains Halpin.
“You might think your attic is the worst performer but it might actually be your walls, for example, or vice versa. So if you are going step by step, start with the high priority areas and work your way through, with the Ber assessment giving you a roadmap for the next few years of investment, if that’s the pace at which you want to do it,” says Halpin.
Ber assessments cost just a few hundred euro but the information they generate is invaluable. “You can’t manage what you cannot measure. By measuring your Ber you’re able to say that when you insulated your walls you went from, say, a D2 to a C3. When you installed attic insulation you moved to a C1, and so on,” he explains.
“By undertaking a Ber assessment after you have completed your energy upgrades, you’ll not only have the huge improvement in comfort but you’ll see an improvement in the rating of your home, which in turn adds value.”
That’s because research shows the price achieved for a home typically increases by one per cent for each of the 15 bands within the Ber classification system, from G to A1.
“For two identical houses,” he says, “the one with the higher Ber rating can secure a higher price because the incoming homeowner has a lot less work to do to make it a comfortable home.”
‘Everyone deserves a more comfortable, energy efficient home that costs less to run‘
Once you’ve sealed your home through insulation and perhaps replaced windows and doors, you’ll then get the best bang for your buck from a new heat pump system.
Your new heat pump system will come with zoned controls, which allows you to control the temperature in different parts of your home to suit your requirements, further reducing heat waste.
SEAI offers a heat pump grant of €6,500 for all house types. For apartment owners they can get a heat pump grant of €4,500. And for those opting for the smaller air to air heat pump systems, there is a grant of €3,500. In addition, all homeowners can avail of a €200 grant for a technical assessment to help you make the right choice.
If your current oil or gas fired central heating system is coming towards the end of its life, summer is a prime time to change it, advises Halpin. “Don’t wait until it breaks down, typically in the middle of winter, when you need it most, because then you risk locking yourself into a replacement oil or gas boiler which you’ll be stuck with for 10 or more years.”
It’s also a good time to consider the installation of solar panels, SEAI grants for which are available of up to €1,800. Solar panels are a great addition to your home if you are installing a heat pump as they generate renewable electricity. On their own, a properly sized solar PV system can meet your average daytime electricity needs. Any unused electricity can first be diverted to heat your water, or, if you generate an excess, be sold back to the grid, all of which will help reduce your electricity bills.
“Everyone deserves a more comfortable, energy efficient home that costs less to run, and the SEAI has a range of supports and grants to help you get there, every step of the way.”
For more information on the steps you can take to upgrade your home, visit seai.ie
