If heating requirement in your home is very low, possibly. A 1kw electric heater running at full power for 10 hours is going to generate a fraction of the heating needs for most homes so you'd need very low heat loss. I am in similar position as my house never had a wet system, so cost is prohibitive. There are newer ecodesign storage heaters that have far better controls that would be slightly cheaper to run than old 90s dimplex. It's a house so I am free to put an external unit outside so I'll probably go with air-to-air heat pump multisplit eventually. The heaters are far more powerful than a standard electric heater and give out multiples of the power consumed, so a lot of them will pump out 3-4 times the kw put in.
Budget: new grants for boiler scrappage & solar batteries?
- Thread starter Eblanoid
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"The heaters are far more powerful than a standard electric heater and give out multiples of the power consumed, so a lot of them will pump out 3-4 times the kw put in." - I seriously doubt that. 
en.wikipedia.org
First law of thermodynamics - Wikipedia
Ah, but heat pumps move heat, they don't create it.
Sarah Ryan
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I got a response from the SEAI this morning, as there was a grant paid out to this house in 2018 they have not paid it out again.
I have gone back to explain that was for the previous owner and that we took over the house in 2021, seems odd we would miss out as somebody else got their first!
It would appear once it's claimed that's it as it's based on the house and not the owner.
Disappointing considering my taxes pay for full retrofits for people who never work a day in their life (and who have the means too!)
SEAI grants are linked to the MPRN (electricity Meter Point Reference Number). What category of grant was paid out previously and what category were you applying for? Makes sense to me that a grant in the same category can't be claimed more than once to be honest.
Sarah Ryan
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Well I know that now, the €50 would be nice since the BER price is extortionate enough.
There's no standalone BER grant. The €50 towards a post-works survey is included as part of the other grant categories - e.g. windows, doors, external insulation, attic insulation etc.
My guy charged me €200 last year on another property and €250 on my own place recently for a pre-works survey. I don't think that that's extortionate to be honest.
He's lined up to do my post-works survey for the purposes of claiming the SEAI windows/doors grants now that the work has been done. I'm just waiting on some certification documentation from the installer before he can do that. That'll be another €250 less the €50 SEAI BER grant/subsidy.
Sarah Ryan
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€355 was what I was charged, the were all in around the same price in my area. That's why I didn't bother with the pre works, I would have had to spend nearly €750 in reports.
Mad money!
I don't understand. If you want to avail of the SEAI grants then you need a pre-works BER cert. In my case my house never had one since I bought it in 1995 so I had to get its first one done before applying for the grants.
Sarah Ryan
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Depends on your circumstances, the previous BER for the house done by the old owner in 2018 was in date. I knew from the report my HLI was 2.31
I needed to get under 2.30 to get the grant, so once the windows were done, I knew I would achieve that score as I had one of my front walls pumped and we constructed a porch as well at the same time as the windows.
There is nothing the pre report could tell me to do, other than to change my windows which is what I was doing. My HLI is now 1.86
Ok, in that case where you have a valid BER cert which takes doesn't predate significant renovations/improvements then you obviously don't need a pre-works survey.
Sarah Ryan
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Correct.
My point is that it's less a case of "didn't bother" and more one of "didn't need".