Just keep calm and retrofit!

THERE’S simply no avoiding energy cost anxiety these days. All costs are increasing, with those of fuel and electricity undergoing eye-watering increases – the figures leaping before our disbelieving faces in black and white on our electricity and fuel bills.

It means that everyone is now looking at every way possible to keep our costs down and prevent any heat we create from escaping our homes. But it requires money and it’s not easy to spend the seemingly large sums required if we don’t have it because we’re spending every last spare cent on keeping up with escalating bills.

Thankfully, the Government (with some assistance from the European Union Regional Development Fund) is trying to help. They have made it a priority to convert as many homes as possible to the higher A-rating in the Building Energy Rating (BER) system. Many Irish homes are in the ‘C1’ category or lower (some 70% of all homes built between the 1970s and the early 2000s, according to the Central Statistics Office) and the Government is actively encouraging people to make their existing homes more energy-efficient.

Seai Grants

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is the governmental agency that administers grants to help people make their home more energy efficient.

There are grants available to everyone, with the level of aid being prioritised for those on lower incomes. If your home has been built and occupied before 2006, for example, and you’re in receipt of certain welfare benefits (such as Jobseeker’s Allowance for over six months with a child under seven or Carer’s Allowance or Fuel Allowance), then you could be in line for Fully Funded Upgrades.

This scheme prioritises the older homes, starting with those built before 1993. Once you check your eligibility and apply online for the grant (on seai.ie/grants), the SEAI kicks off the process by sending a surveyor to assess your home’s requirements in terms of an energy-efficiency upgrade.

The SEAI then appoints a contractor from their panel of operators to carry out the upgrade works. These can cover the following areas:

• Attic insulation

• Cavity wall insulation

• External wall insulation

• Internal wall insulation

• Secondary works such as lagging jackets, draught proofing and energy-efficient lighting

• New heating systems and windows (which are occasionally recommended) One thing you need to be prepared for – no matter what level of assistance you’re applying for – is the fact that you will have to wait. Normal waiting times can stretch well into 18 months and beyond before you get the green light to get the upgrade works carried out to your home. With the Individual Upgrade Energy Grants, there is no means test and any homeowner or private landlord is eligible for them. The homes must have been built and occupied before 2011 to qualify for the insulation and heating controls and before 2021 to qualify for the area of heat pumps and renewable systems.

These grants cover a broad range of works –from attic and wall insulation to heat pumps and heating controls, as well as solar thermal and solar PV systems.

The grants won’t cover the entire cost but they will go a long way towards the cost of the project and you must get approval before the works begin.

Grants range from €700 for attic and cavitywall insulation and can go as far as €8,000 for external wall insulation. For a 1970s bungalow, properly insulated walls and attic can yield annual energy savings of up to €700 so although it will involve a big spend, it can be an area well worth investing in.

Solar PV (photo-voltaic) panels are becoming increasingly popular in Ireland – particularly as more and more people realise that you don’t actually need sunshine for them to create power.

The grant given is €900 per kWp (the kilowatt peak of a system) up to a cap of €2,400. A good shorthand example would be to say that if you were installing a typical system on a detached bungalow involving a 6-panel 2.43kWp, the cost would be in the region of €10,000 and would be reduced to roughly €8,000 with a grant of just under €2,000. The savings on your electricity bill should be in the region of €350 per year.

Solar thermal units use the sun’s energy to specifically heat water and there are grants of up to €1,200 available for their installation, providing 50-60% of your annual hot-water needs.

Green Finance

If you don’t have the cash to have your retrofit done, you might want to look at financing the operation.

It’s an option that many people are opting for and the lending market is responding with approaches that are specifically designed for the green age we live in.

Many lending institutions are making it easier for people to make their homes more energyefficient, with some of them offering to manage the entire process from start to finish, including the process of applying for the relevant grants and offering customers a competitive ‘green’ interest rate at the same time.

With An Post, for example, they offer such a service in conjunction with SSE Airtricity (the well-known Scottish-based energy company that have been operating in Ireland for some time now) whereby your grant application is managed by someone else – a tempting cherry for anyone who detests the whole form-filling process.

Many lenders are also tempting mortgageholders away from their current lenders by offering them the carrot of a competitive ‘green rate’ if their house qualifies.

For example, AIB will give you a five-year fixed green rate starting from 3.65% if your home has a BER of between A1 and B3 and you want to switch over to them. Not to be sniffed at in these days of rising rates.

At your credit union, meanwhile, there’s more opportunity to avail of competitive green-tinged loans. They even have a helpful blog dedicated to the subject of retrofitting your home, with input from RTE’s Roisin Murphy (of ‘Home Rescue’). See creditunion.ie/house2greenerhome for more details.

Are you building or new or existing property?

Are you building or renovating a new or existing property?

Are you building or renovating a new or existing property?

Have you a requirement to WATER-PROOF and RADON-PROOF the building to comply with the New Building Regulations?

Have you a requirement to WATER-PROOF and RADON-PROOF the building to comply with the New Building Regulations?

Have you a requirement to and RADON-PROOF the building with the New Building Regulations?

ARE YOU BUILDING OR NEW OR EXISTING

ARE YOU BUILDING OR RENOVATING A NEW OR EXISTING PROPERTY?

ARE YOU BUILDING OR RENOVATING A NEW OR EXISTING PROPERTY?

Are you building or renovating a new or existing property?

Have you a requirement to WATER-PROOF RADON-PROOF the building to comply with the new building regulations?

Have you a requirement to WATER-PROOF and RADON-PROOF the building to comply with the New Building Regulations?

Have you a requirement to WATER-PROOF the building to comply with the new

Contact Radon Ireland

Have you a requirement to RADON-PROOF the building to comply with the new building regulations?

Contact Radon Ireland who can design, install and certify a Radon / Water-Proofing system to suit your property whether it is residential or commercial.

Contact Radon Ireland who can design, install and certify a Radon/Water-Proofing system to suit your property Contact Radon Ireland whether it is residential or commercial.

Contact Radon who can design, install and Radon / Water-Proofing system to whether it is residential or

ARE YOU BUILDING OR RENOVATING A NEW OR EXISTING PROPERTY?

Contact Radon Ireland

We are approved installers for the following manufacturers who can design, install and certify a Radon waterproofing system to suit your property whether it is residential or commercial.

Contact Radon Ireland who can design, install and certify a Radon / Water-Proofing system to suit your property whether it is residential or commercial.

Have you a requirement to WATER-PROOF and RADON-PROOF the building to comply with the new building regulations?

We are approved installers for the following manufacturers

Contact Radon who can design, install and waterproofing system to suit your it is residential or commercial.

We are approved installers for the following

We are approved installers for the following manufacturers

We are approved installers for the following manufacturers who can design, install and certify a Radon waterproofing system to suit your property whether it is residential or commercial.

We are approved installers for the following

We are approved installers for the following manufacturers

T: 021 7334880