Staying at home has never been so expensive. The energy crisis means the average household will pay around €2,000 more for energy over the next 12 months than it did last year. Space heating will be over 60% of the cost; hot water about 19 percent. Spending crazy money on your heating bill is even crazier if your home is poorly insulated.
Those with older homes, drafts and inefficient heating systems will pay more to heat their homes this winter while experiencing the least comfort. Their heating systems are expensive to run, heat is needed longer for any effect, and temperatures drop rapidly when turned off. A big energy bill is one thing, but paying it and still feeling cold is totally disheartening.
“Efficiency in Irish homes is weighed down by low efficiency, and these homes are going to be hit the hardest in terms of cost this winter,” says David Flannery, chief renovation adviser at Electric Ireland Superhomes. Indeed, only 3% of households nationwide have a Ber rating of A, with 9% having a B rating, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. These homeowners will pay the lowest energy bills and have the warmest homes this winter. About 30% of homes have a Ber rating of E and F. They can expect big bills but little comfort.
Around 35% of Irish homes have a C rating and 25% have a D rating. These two groups potentially have the most to gain from least cost renovation measures. If you can’t afford to renovate the whole house at once, and few people can, start with some handy fruit. The SEAI offers individual energy subsidies for owners wishing to renovate their home, step by step. Start by isolating the parts of your house that you can access the most easily and therefore the least expensive.
The energy bill war starts in your attic. “Your attic is the lowest fruit at hand,” says David Flannery. Heat rises and up to 30% of your home’s heat can be lost through the roof, he says. So instead of paying top dollar to keep the spiders warm up there and the night sky beyond, insulate your attic and keep the heat in the rooms below.
The payback for attic insulation is pretty instantaneous, says Flannery. “Your heating probably won’t need to be on for as long and it will reduce your heating bills.” When your heating turns off, your home also retains heat longer.
In the past, you may have insulated your attic yourself. Heavy government subsidies and the fact that a SEAI registered installer will lay the insulation efficiently while maintaining ventilation make this the recommended route. The SEAI grant will cover much of the cost of the work, says Flannery.
“For an average-sized house, the cost of attic insulation is €1,800 or €1,900 and the subsidy is €1,500,” he says. So what is the real return on investment? Meet Mary. She has a detached house of 150 m² with four bedrooms. Last year, his heating bill was €1,600. Mary had 100mm of fiberglass insulation in her attic but decided to upgrade to 300mm. According to SEAI estimates, having benefited from SEAI’s Attic Insulation Grant for Home Energy, Mary is expected to save €250 each year on her home heating bill. These savings will be even greater now that energy prices have skyrocketed.
Up to 30% of the heat in your home can be lost through your exterior walls. Insulating them will reduce this heat loss, avoid drafts and reduce your bills.
There are three ways to do this; cavity, external and internal insulation. Homes built from the mid-80s and 90s are likely to have cavity walls that can be pumped up with insulation. “Doing this is comparable to insulating the attic, it will make a huge difference,” says Flannery. “The savings on Euro spend is very compelling, there is a high return on investment,” he says.
Take John, he has a 150m² detached house with four bedrooms. It has hollow walls without insulation. Last year, his annual heating bill was €1,600. Having benefited from the €1,700 Home Energy Cavity Wall Insulation Grant, John’s house is warmer and he saves more than €300 each year on his home heating bill, according to SEAI estimates.
Typical costs for this type of upgrade are around €700 to €1,000, excluding subsidy. “Most of the grants were doubled last year, which is a bit of a game-changer,” says Flannery. “For eligible homes, the subsidy is a big part of the cost.”
If your walls are not suitable for cavity insulation, there are grants for external and internal insulation. Exterior wall insulation is the most effective form of insulation, but it is expensive. For a semi-detached house with a floor area of 115 m², expect to shell out between €19,000 and €27,000 with a grant of €6,000. In addition to a warmer home with lower annual energy bills, such insulation can also solve problems such as rain penetration, poor air sealing and frost damage.
If your boiler is nearing the end of its life, it might be time to grit your teeth and upgrade to a heat pump. Old gas and oil boilers waste energy and are expensive to operate. Indeed, the days of installing new boilers are numbered. Environment Minister Eamon Ryan has announced measures to restrict the use of fossil fuels, including gas boilers in homes, leading to a likely ban on their installation at a later date.
Replacing your old oil or gas boiler with a heat pump means no more oil and gas bills. You’ll use less energy to heat your home, have an almost unlimited supply of inexpensive hot water, and have a warmer home. Insulating your home to the B2 energy rating needed to support a pump is the largest cost component, according to a report from ESRI. If you’ve already insulated the attic and walls, you’ll be on the right track though.
Air to water heat pumps are the most popular choice. The first step is to engage an SEAI Certified Service Advisor who will tell you what you need to do to reduce heat loss in order for a pump to operate efficiently. A house with poor insulation and single glazing will cost significantly more to upgrade than, say, a well-insulated home with newer double glazing. To benefit from the €200 technical expertise bonus and the heat pump bonus, you must carry out the recommended fitting-out work. For those living in a semi-detached house with a floor area of 115m², expect to spend €14,000-17,500 on an air-to-water heat pump and radiator replacement. A grant will cover €8,500 of the cost.
The cost can be high, but heat pumps offer significant long-term savings with average annual running costs of €600-1000 for heating and hot water. “Most households will save €600-700 per year on their heating bills,” says Flannery. “When you combine a heat pump with a full insulation package, those savings increase and payback time decreases,” he says.
Many homeowners may be closer to enjoying these savings than they realize. “A lot of homes built from 2002 or 2004 are actually very close to the heat pump,” says Flannery. “There’s somewhere in the region of half a million homes in this country that could actually, with a few little insulation measures like the attic, swap out their oil or gas boiler for a heat pump and maybe also solar PV because there are really big subsidies when you combine those two things.
“If you have savings, SEAI’s One Stop Shop service provides greater subsidies than if you had to upgrade one at a time over time. Let’s take the example of a semi-detached house built in 1981 with a Ber rating of E2. Using SEAI’s One Stop Shop service, works including roof insulation, exterior wall insulation, cavity wall insulation, new double glazed windows, performance doors, heat pump, new radiators, photovoltaic solar and mechanical ventilation will bring it to a B2 level. energy rating. The approximate cost would be €50,000 to €69,000 depending on the size of the house, according to SEAI estimates. The One Stop Shop grant will cover approximately €27,300. If the owner had opted for the individual energy upgrade grant, the total value of the grant would be well below €15,600. Upgrading a house from E2 to B2 could reduce annual energy consumption by around a third.
“For anyone looking for that generational or transformational change, the One Stop Shop, Whole House approach will suit them best. It’s not cheap. It’s an investment, but that payback will last for decades. says Flannery.
Renovators have never been busier, he says. Higher energy costs, better subsidies and working from home just might tip the renovation curious into action.
“In people’s minds, you can’t predict the future, but if you insulate your home and have a very efficient heating system, you’ve done what you can,” says Flannery. “People who did the work last year have even more savings now because energy costs have gone up.”
Keep in mind that the cost of remodeling seemingly similar homes can vary. And a word of warning, too, about SEAI’s estimates – while grant amounts remain stable, its installation and savings estimates have yet to be updated for inflation.
#Stop #Costly #Heat #Leaking #Walls #Windows #Roof
