Government programme to improve insulation in homes built before 2006

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AnnieC

Registered User
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Hi All,

Has anyone heard any details of this Govt. scheme? Read a small piece in the Metro yesterday but it gave no information as to how to avail of the scheme.

Apologies for the vagueness of this post but I would be really interested as my house is a disaster in terms of draughts etc!

Thanks,

AnnieC
 
the scheme is presently only open to contractors looking to register on the approved installation list. It is also open for home owners to register their interest.

all the details are on www.sei.ie under the home energy scheme
 
I was doing some digging on this as I'm also very interested in improving my home insulation and found this on the SEI website: [broken link removed]

Seems to be that homeowners cannot apply for a grant yet as they are waiting to compile a list of contractors to take part. I'm not sure why they are waiting on that if a person (like me!) is just going to use the grant to buy materials and do the work themselves.
 
Can you definitely buy the materials yourself and still avail of the grant? Would be perfect if i could shop around for the materials and get one of the contractors to do the work.
 
There is some information on the SEI website but it is fairly brief.
 
mbro said:
Can you definitely buy the materials yourself and still avail of the grant? Would be perfect if i could shop around for the materials and get one of the contractors to do the work.
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I'm not sure but I'm going to try and do it that way if at all possible.

In my own home, I have found that most of the costs involved in home improvements are labour so I try to do most of it myself by buying and haggling for materials myself and doing the work myself.
 
you cannot use the grant to do the work yourself. the grant will only apply if you use a registered contractor on the SEI list and you cannot register just to do the work on your own property. The SEI website has the full details of the scheme
 
kkelliher said:
you cannot use the grant to do the work yourself. the grant will only apply if you use a registered contractor on the SEI list and you cannot register just to do the work on your own property. The SEI website has the full details of the scheme
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Thanks for that info. I'll just be buying the materials myself then!

They're talking about it on Pat Kenny right now.
 
Just had a look at the site there, thanks for the link.

Would any of you know, do the granted amounts for each type of work seem like a small proportion of total cost for the job or are they quite reasonable?

Roof insulation and the heating grants would probably be what I would need most work done on so I'm just wondering about costs.
 
I checked the SEI web-site yesterday and there was no date on the post about the Home Energy Saving Scheme which made me wonder if it hadn't been updated to take account of the official announcement.

The Irish Times reported Prof. Owen Wilson of the SEI saying that the scheme was 'open for business' yesterday, but they don't seem to have the contractor element in place as yet.

One thing to be aware of - for your first application, you must request a minimum grant of €500. What this means is that if you just want to put in cavity insulation in your external walls (€400 grant) or insulate your attic (€250 grant), you have to commit to carrying out additional work in order to qualify. My understanding is that you can make as many applications as are relevant to your home but the first one has to be for the €500 min.

Seems a shame to be putting this kind of restriction in place when nearly 60% of homes in Ireland are actually in need of this kind of improvement. Homeowners are going to have to pay approx. 60% of the costs anyway - in these straightened times wouldn't it make sense to help people do what little they can to improve their homes?
 
I spoke to a guy from SEI last week about insulating my house. He told me this scheme was pending and from what I can gather, you registrer first, then you get a list of contractors that do the work you require.
Apparantly, this was done on a pilot scheme in some parts of the conutry last year and applicants could claim back up to 30% of a rebate.
Could be good timing for us as we badly needed our attic insulated and external walls drylined.
 
As of last week it would cost €900 (quote received) to insulate my house using the Bead system. Who thinks after this grant is introduced that the cost of getting the same thing done next month will be considerably higher?????
 
jasonr said:
As of last week it would cost €900 (quote received) to insulate my house using the Bead system. Who thinks after this grant is introduced that the cost of getting the same thing done next month will be considerably higher?????
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In present market i dont think it will as there will be alot of contractors on the list looking for the work.

It will be in your interest to get as many quotes as possible
 
What do you mean by Before and After BER?
For a homeowner to qualify for the Before and After BER grant they must undertake a BER before commencing any measures AND a subsequent BER once measures are completed.
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That, coupled with the paperwork and the fact you have to use a 'registered contractor' makes the scheme not worth the money and hassle IMHO.

Builders' suppliers often do bargains on insulation. This would be far better to pursue.
 
jasonr said:
As of last week it would cost €900 (quote received) to insulate my house using the Bead system. Who thinks after this grant is introduced that the cost of getting the same thing done next month will be considerably higher?????
Click to expand...


I suspect this will happen, I insulated my attic before christmas costing €150 aprox to do myself... The grant available is €250... I assume the cost for getting someone to do it would be at least €500-€250 grant = €250 paid by you, but only €150 to do your self.

I'll wait to see before I rant to much. I would be interested ig having walls bead insulated and upgrading mt boiler & heating controls.
 

€150 to do it yourself is a material only cost. Of course it will cost more to get someone to do it for you.

I would assume that in general there is a higher % of people (for many reasons) who will pay to get work done as apposed to doing it themselves.

Nobody can "rant" about it based on the assumption that its cheaper to do it yourself as that is not a fair comparison givin that you could say that about anything you get done.
 
I think people have to make sure they are getting value from builders etc who are offering this service as the usual thing to happen in Ireland with grant schemes is to inflate the price etc. This has happened in Construction, agricultrural etc. Solar panels went up in price as soon as they were grant aided. The same happened with Wood pellet boilers. I am thinking of setting up a service where I work with the client and openly show all costs and offer a 20% fee for this service. As I work in construction I can get boilers, insultation etc 50% cheaper than others. It should cost no more than €10,000 for someone in a 1970's semi D to achieve a B rating.
 
I was on the pilot scheme.

Overall happy with the outcome.

I paid 5300 for 11 DG windows with eglass and argon.

I paid 2500 for cavity wall insulation (EcoPearl by Gilmartin group) + blown rockwool by them as well in the attic. The house is 2200 sq ft detached by the way.

I claimed 2000 euro back, which is the ceiling amount, or 30% of your costs, whichever is less.

Pros:
2k back.
Using reputable firms that presumably want to stay in the scheme so expect good followup and aftercare (I feared cowboys as regards the insulation, as it would be easy to scam pumping a wall).
DG windows went in without any problem whatsoever - great contractor.
My contacts in SEI and their agents pushed to get it done as much as possible but were hidebound by others in charge, and the fact it was a pilot meant teething probs.
Incidentally the house is way warmer now.

Cons
Dragged on longer than it should in terms of paperwork and getting started.
Had to do a fair bit of chasing.
Started later than scheduled and caused me some problems due to family events, was not ideal but we worked round it.
Not happy with aftercare by one of the contractors, issue was found and is ongoing, and will be escalated to SEI probably tomorrow. Hope they can put the pressure on as IMO it is not acceptable to be on such a scheme and have zero aftercare.
Grant itself not paid yet but expected this week.
BER survey was box ticking exercise which told me nothing new and cost me 100 and was mandatory.
On the pilot I had no choice on the providers, could have got same windows about 200 cheaper ( I had to haggle hard to get him down to 5300). So with the BER and that, my effective grant was 1700. Better than nowt tho.
No choice in the type of insulation being pumped in or blown in attic.
Choices should be better in the actual scheme.

Overall it was a bit of a stress as I was never sure it would all come together, and meantime I was losing time and winter was upon us.
Great to get grants for bread and butter items that most people would be interested in (instead of solar / wood pellet which I wasnt interested in - not to go off topic).
Glad I did it but took a lot of time and energy to chase. If it hadnt come together I'd be raging.

Hope this helps.
 
I spoke to SEI yesterday and they confirmed that they will be open to processing homeowners grant applications before the end of March.
 
eamonn123456 said:
I paid 5300 for 11 DG windows with eglass and argon.
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Eamonn, I would love to replace a single pane window in my house... I don't think the new grant covers this though?? What a shame if it doesn't!! I would havae thought it would be top priority to move all to DG windows!

I also think it's a poor reflection on our house building standards if houses built just over 3 years ago can qualify for energy improvement grants
 
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