ENERGY SAVING BLOG

As confirmed by SEI on 08/07/2009 the HES (Home Energy Saver) scheme is still in operation and there is no “end date” set yet. SEI also confirmed to QR EnerStar that the funds are still available for homeowners interested in applying for a grant to increase the energy efficiency of their homes. In response to our enquiry SEI replied that the most popular applications are the grants for roof (attic) insulation and the wall insulation.

Despite the fact that a BER (which is partly sponsored by the grant) is not required to qualify for the insulation grant we receive numerous calls with enquiries and requests for before and after BER Certificates. Most homeowners already know that a BER Certificate is valid for 10 years and use this grant as an opportunity to secure a BER Certificate which can come handy at a later stage.  Another benefit of having a BER done is the availability of a professional energy assessor to advise the homeowner during the construction/upgrade works on the efficiency of particular materials and insulation methods which is a free service included in our before/after BER price.

Here is an example of the improvements achieved by one of our clients :

The property was a typical 3 bed house in Dublin 4, built in mid 1950’s with no attic insulation. The original boiler is 75% efficiency with no room thermostat and no TRVs (Potterton FF60 produced by Baxy Heating), the windows are single glazed wooden frame, there are no heating controls and the walls are solid brick 325mm.

The client was advised that if they applied for the attic insulation grant alone the application would not qualify for a grant even if they decided to get a Before/After BER (the BER grant cannot be part of the minimum application which is to exceed €500).
After an initial assessment it was established that the BER of the property was E2 (356.60 kWh/m2/yr) CO2 emissions 74.72
We recommended that the clients apply for attic insulation and a high efficiency boiler grants. The recommendation for the replacement boiler was that the efficiency should be at least 92.2% or higher. The recommended attic insulation was 300 fiberglass. 
After the works were carried out our assessors re-visited the property and noted the improvements.

The revised Energy Rating of the property is D1 (225.89 kWh/m2/yr) CO2 emissions  47.9 which is 36.5% more efficient than the original BER.

Total cost of improvements including the BER:  €3075

Grants: €1150

Cost to the householder: €1925

Potential savings:  est. €600- €700 p.a with a payback period of around 33 months.