Share this article:
As housing continues to pose one of the greatest energy efficiency challenges in Ireland, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) have created the Deep Retrofit Pilot programme to tackle this challenge.
The new SEAI grant aims to investigate the challenges and opportunities of deep retrofit, with the initial focus on the Irish housing stock built prior to 2007. SEAI estimates that a sum of over €35 billion will be required over 35 years to make the existing housing stock low carbon by 2050.
Mark Courtney, Chairman of CIF’s Retrofit Contractors Association and Managing Director at House2Home Retrofit Ltd
“From a contractor’s perspective, it allows us to ensure multi measures are being carried out on a dwelling and allows us to carry these out effectively.
The Deep Retrofit Grant aims to prevent single measures being carried out on a home which can result in a miss spend on the home owner’s behalf.
For example, if a home owner were to have a single measure such as a boiler replacement carried out, without addressing the need for insulation in the home, the home owner won’t see the benefit of money spent due to the heat loss occurring because of the lack of insulation.
The Deep Retrofit programme allows us to project manage from start to finish, ensuring the home energy project is completed in full as a whole and ensures a minimum of an A3 BER (Building Energy Rating Certificate)
The whole idea is to tackle underperforming Irish homes, which means if a household spends more than 10% of its disposable income on energy costs, its considered energy poor/underperforming. Carrying out these measures effectively ensures health, comfort and well being are considered along with energy consumption and performance. “
For the industry, the SEAI grants are setting a tone for contractors; to offer energy solutions, to meet the criteria of being SEAI and CIRI registered and to ensure all subcontractors are registered with their associated bodies, ie RGI. Home owners can find registered energy professionals on the SEAI website.
My own company, House2Home have a counterparty status with SEAI which enables House2Home to process grant applications on behalf of homeowners. Grants are discounted upfront as well as an energy credit discount with Energia, which allows House2Home to offer up to 60% towards the cost of energy efficient upgrades.”
For more information on the Deep Retrofit grant, contact SEAI at [email protected] or House2Home at [email protected]