Budget: new grants for boiler scrappage & solar batteries?
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onlyonpaper
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I suspect however that the boiler scrappage will not be open-ended but for old boilers that are near end of life anyway
Found answer on Irish Examiner site
I'd love to take this up but would need to make my house more energy efficient first and the external insulation on a detached house is quite pricey
Hooverfish
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If it involves the wretched "one stop shop" contractors this will have poor take up. They need to make it a simple online application for homeowners and installers like the solar. The coverage on the Examiner site is a little confusing as O'Brien is saying in the Indo this morning it's only €2K for getting rid of the kerosene - but this already exists within the €12500 heat pump grant - and it's nearer €4K at the moment. You don't get that bit if you keep your oil (hybrid systems). And if you are one of the 18% of old-house owners you are currently forced to try to use the "Traditional Homes Pilot" which supposedly now has 470 on its books, yet nothing published yet about the costs and homeowner experiences and the pilot was supposed to finish last March. I'd say only about 150 of those are probably completed and the cost and disruption involved are reportedly extortionate - when the grant typically only covers about one third of the costs and the damage caused to the buildings is little short of criminal. So for most people with old houses, good old fashioned "slow and shallow" non-grant retrofit actions (do a bit, test what you've done, add another element when you can afford it) are currently preferable! Also: try finding any installer with any capacity.
I fear the battery grant benefit will be eroded by the energy providers who will make sure they are not losing revenue by tweaking their rates further. Many people who invested in solar with a battery top up the battery overnight, especially over the winter months using an EV rate plan. Looking at recent price increases of 30% in the EV charging window alone (generally between 0200 and 0600) and simultaneously bumping up the standing charges by 29% (from €262 to €339), it is very concerning. The regulator needs to examine this.
I was thinking that - it applies to old electric storage heaters also, that's why I knew about it and was confused
This is a far bigger issue - loads of homes that never had an adequate heating system, and are now locked in by listed or historical area status, and cannot escape it. Same issue with reuse of period homes that had been flats or tenements, and require 6 figure sums to undo 150 years of damage to become modern family homes.
Actually the CRU has approved standing charges increases recently.
I still have 1995 storage heaters. Is there something that I could avail of to replace them? On the other hand my electricity bill for the year is "only" c. €1.5K so maybe there's not much to gain here? No gas, only electricity (and the occasional use of a fitted solid fuel stove). BER C probably moving to B when I get my windows/doors replaced.
I just got rid of these energy guzzling inefficient heaters in a rental property and replaced them with simple electric heaters with wifi and timer controls. Cost about €1,000 for the heaters and €420 to install them. No fee to dump the old heaters as they came under WEEE
Storage heaters seem to only be of use if you are in the property all day and have the time to adjust settings frequently based on the weather forecast.
Having solar and a 10kw battery also is part of the equation as the 10kw is effectively a leak proof format of storage compared to the storage heaters.
onlyonpaper
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Went into the SEAI site and I notice that the 2000 euro grant for boiler scrappage is already included in their Heat pump grant scheme and didnt indicate any restriction for applying. Minister had indicated 2027.
I think the speculation in advance was it wouldn't be available straight away but the release confirming the measures did state the scrappage grant was effective immediately while the other grant tweaks would be available from October 6th,
It applies if you replace a legacy system with a heat pump. Definitely if its an air to water system (though you'll spend something on pipework and radiators) not suer if it also applies to air to air (with the additional caveat that cooling is disabled on install).
The chances
Thanks. I'm not sure that it's worth my while installing a heat pump due to my relatively modest use of electricity - c. 5,000 kWh p.a.? Also, even if I get to a B BER rating when I get the windows/doors replaced I'm not sure that this will be good enough for efficient use of a heat pump? And external wall insulation isn't in my plans.
That's why you need a technical assessor to work it out first. If you go ahead most of that cost is paid out of the grant.
SEAI only pay €50 towards one BER survey under the windows/doors grants scheme. And you need two - pre and post works. So that's €50 off €500 in my case. I'll ask my BER guy about additional improvements when he's doing the post works survey after I get my windows and doors done in the next couple of weeks.
Sarah Ryan
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You don't necessarily need a pre-works if you have the technical report of your existing BER.
I got my technical report of my current BER and I was able to ascertain that my heat loss indicator score was 2.31.
I knew that to be able to qualify for the grant, I had to get a heat loss score of under 2.30 which I figured would be easily achievable given I was replacing the whole house would triple gazed and installing a porch.
Now that said, I did not get a refund of anything in relation to the BER with the Grant and it is something that I am currently challenging with them.
My house never had a BER so I had to get a pre works survey done before applying for the grants.
I think that the €50 is actually towards the post works survey.
Sarah Ryan
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Yeah that's the only one I did to confirm the hli score to qualify, I've read that the ber company may not have registered the report correctly.
Fingers crossed it gets sorted but I won't give up without a fight!
Re your B rating and heat pump, I got to B and the assessor didn't even recommend heat pump for my house, said the cost involved would be too prohibitive, at least he was honest, wasn't in our plans anyway.
Saw an add for infrared heaters on facebook today, could they be replacement for storage heaters? Yours seem to 'work' though with reasonable cost, my sister loves hers swears by them in her apt.