We all know that the prices of Oil, Electricity and Gas are increasing all the time . With another winter on the way – many people will be worrying about the high cost of keeping warm.

There has been plenty  of publicity about Home Insulation Grants and Energy Efficiency – but it seems there are still hundreds of thousands of homes in Ireland that are poorly insulated and using inefficient costly methods of heating.
The government estimate that there are approximately one million buildings in Ireland that would benefit from some form of energy efficiency retrofit which could lead to lifetime energy savings worth €16 billion

The cost of buying and fitting  insulation and new heating systems can be expensive – but the savings on fuel bills that can be achieved could make it worthwhile and pay for themselves.

As well  grants available for insulation and heating systems there are now special types of mortgages that can be used to pay for retrofitting of green energy saving modifications to your home.
The “Retrofit Finance Initiative“  from the Irish Banking Federation has been taken up by a few banks in Ireland.
You can take out a  mortgage top-up in order to make your house more energy efficient through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s (SEAI) Better Energy Homes Scheme.

As well as getting grants to help with the cost – you can pay the balance by borrowing the finance required at mortgage rates of interest by releasing a portion of the equity in your home.

KBC is one bank in Ireland offering this Retrofit Finance -  They will lend a minimum of €10,000  for a minimum term of  3 years

In the case of older houses with poor BER ratings – the savings you could make on energy bills would even cover the cost of the loan.

For example : a 1970′s bungalow  150 sq metres – with a poor BER rating of E1 where there is no outstanding mortgage.  The house has very little insulation and an old inefficient oil boiler. The energy usage  is 80% oil and 20% Electricity with annual bills coming in at €4560 .

It is estimated that the cost of attic  insulation, external wall insulation and a high efficiency oil fired boiler with heating controls upgrade will be in the region of €17,650.

The owner could claim grants of €4760 towards these costs  – leaving the net amount to be financed of  €12,890

After installation  these changes should improve the BER from E1 to C2. This should result in an energy saving of about 40%  and a reduction in fuel bills of   about  €153 per month. (€1836 a year).  These savings will more than likely get bigger each year as energy prices  increase .

With a Retrofit mortgage – the homeowner could borrow the full amount of €12890 over 10 years – with repayments of  around €130 a month (interest rate of 4%) . This is less than the monthly savings on the fuel bills  – so the changes will in effect pay for themselves.

Irish householders can  avail of grants of up to 40% of the cost of energy efficiency improvement measures under the Irish Government’s Home Energy Saving Scheme (HES).
This Scheme, which is administered by SEI, provides grant assistance to homeowners for retrofit energy efficiency measures such as attic and wall insulation, very high-efficiency boilers, heating controls and Building Energy Rating (BER) assessments. The scheme is open only to owners of  a house that was built prior to 2006

The HES was allocated €49 million in 2009 but only €16.2 million was paid out in grants.  The Scheme attracted 40,724 applications in 2009 -  of which 36,454 were approved for grant aid.  The grants were used to upgrade 18,183 homes.
For 2010 €29.5m has been allocated for the Home Energy Savings Scheme.
You can find out more on sei.ie

There is a new scheme in the pipeline – the  National Energy Retrofit Programme which was announced in the 2010 Budget . Details are yet to be defined – but In broad terms the Retrofit Programme will bring together the Home Energy Saving Scheme and the Warmer Homes Scheme as well as the support programme for business and the public sector. It will also also involve the development and promotion of energy services by the energy companies.