The grants available to upgrade your home

Thinking of upgrading your home?

Well, if so, you could be entitled to a grant.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) offers a range of home energy upgrade grants that may be applicable to you. These can range from attic and wall insulation, to heat pump systems and even renewable technologies such as solar PV.

The SEAI also has over 1,000 registered contractors nationwide who can carry out the works and an easy-to-use online application system to help homeowners get started.

In addition to the range of individual measures you can take, the SEAI also provides a ‘One Stop Shop’ service. One Stop Shops offer homeowners all the services required for a complete home energy upgrade.

Registered private operators manage the entire process, from the initial assessment through to applying for the grant, carrying out the works and completing a final BER (Building Energy Rating) assessment.

One big plus for the homeowner is that the value of the grant is deducted upfront from the cost of works, helping cashflow for projects.

If you’re considering investing in one or more of the individual energy upgrade measures, SEAI recommends starting with a BER assessment. This will give you a list of the measures likely to have the biggest impact on improving your home’s energy rating, and a personalised roadmap to bring your home up to a BER rating of B2 or better.

You can get a quote for a BER Assessor here.

If, however, you are considering a full home energy upgrade in one go, then you should contact an SEAI-registered One Stop Shop and get a home energy assessment.

SEAI offers a stand-alone grant of €350 for this assessment, which provides a detailed technical report of the upgrades needed to meet the One Stop Shop grant requirement, as well as a rough estimate of likely costs. You are not under any obligation to carry out these works after the assessment, but you will still receive the grant for the home energy assessment.

You’ll find a full list of all of the One Stop Shops in your area on the SEAI.ie website.

Typically, these projects replace your oil- or gas-fired boiler with an air-source heat pump, which draws solar heat from the air and then boosts its temperature using electricity.

For homeowners who do not want a whole-house upgrade, or don’t have the resources for that right now, it is possible to opt for one or a number of individual upgrade measures — things like attic or wall insulation. You’ll find the full list of possibilities, and the grants available, below.

In this case, the homeowner manages the project themselves. They select a registered SEAI contractor, apply for the grant and claim it back from SEAI on completion of the works. There isn’t any requirement to have a minimum BER rating to be eligible for one of these individual energy upgrades.

All of these measures seek first to improve the building fabric so the house needs as little energy as possible to stay warm. Any energy needed is then generated by sustainable technologies.

It is important to point out, however, that heat pumps use electricity, and because electricity has become so expensive, the energy savings as a result of an upgrade are not as good as they once were.

However, it is also worth pointing out that a whole house energy upgrade transforms the comfort of a house. If you live in a draughty, poorly insulated home that relies on an oil boiler, you’ll be used to going from freezing cold to boiling hot very quickly, or having pockets of the house that never warm up.

An energy upgrade gives you stable temperatures and great air quality throughout the house. So while savings are very important, they’re not the full story.

SEAI Home Energy Upgrade Grant Routes

* The grant for the Technical Assessment is only payable in conjunction with the Heat Pump System grant