Energy Upgrade Journey
Our step by step guide will help you better understand your energy use and support you to make the small changes before taking on energy upgrades to your home.
Step 1: Understand your current energy use
Energy Bills
- By understanding your energy bills, you can monitor your energy consumption patterns and identify areas where you can save money. This knowledge allows you to make informed decisions about your energy usage, potentially reducing your overall energy costs.
View our guide to understanding your energy bills
Smart Meters are a great way of keeping track of your energy use. These meters provide real-time information on your energy use, helping you make informed decisions about how to save energy and reduce costs. View our guide to smart meters
Home Energy Test Kit
- Conduct tests at home with the CODEMA Home Energy Saving Kit, the kit contains five tools you can use to measure how your home uses energy and where energy might be escaping. The Home Energy Saving Kit is available to borrow, free of charge, from selected libraries across Ireland. Learn more about the kit and find where to find your local library.
Step 2: Take small steps to reduce your energy use at home
Before making significant energy upgrades to your home, it’s important to implement small changes in energy usage habits first, such as taking shorter showers or turning down the thermostat. These small adjustments can have a noticeable impact on reducing energy consumption and lowering utility bills without requiring substantial financial investment. (Read our guide to cost free energy saving tips)
Draught Proofing Your Home
Sealing draughts is an affordable and effective way to reduce energy usage—and save money—in any building.
While controlled ventilation is important to prevent condensation and dampness by allowing fresh air in as needed, draughts are uncontrolled, letting in too much cold air and losing valuable heat.
To properly draught-proof your home, seal any unwanted gaps where cold air enters and warm air escapes. This will help retain heat, reduce energy consumption, and lower your heating costs, all while making your home more comfortable and cosy.
Our homeowners guide to draught proofing will help you identify where potential draughts are coming from and what you can do to make your home warmer and cheaper to run.
Step 3: Assess your home
To begin, it’s important to identify which home energy upgrades would be most beneficial for your specific residence. A Building Energy Rating (BER) assessment now includes a comprehensive advisory report specifically designed for your home. This report provides a detailed plan to help you achieve at least a B2 energy rating for your property. Utilize this report to determine which upgrades you’d like to implement.
If your home doesn’t already have a BER and you want to get one, you can hire an assessor to do a BER assessment. SEAI has a national register of BER assessors to help you find a BER assessor in your area.
How much does a BER assessment cost?
The price of a BER assessment can vary depending on the supplier and the size of your home. The cost for an apartment is around €150, while the cost for a standard house is between €200 and €300.
Step 4: Choosing energy upgrade measures for your home
The first step towards a warmer home is by improving the insulation. Much like when its cold at home we can put on a jumper before we turn on the heating, in energy upgrades we first look at improving the insulation before adding solar PV or a heat pump.
Improving the insulation in your walls, attic and floor will keep valuable heat in your home, increasing your home comfort and reducing your heating bills. Insulation can include the attic, external walls, cavity walls, and floor. You may also consider installing new windows and doors.
- Approximately 35% of heat is lost through walls in a home.
- Up to 25% of heat escapes through a poorly insulated attic.
- Even if there’s existing attic insulation, upgrading to current standards is recommended.
- By completing this step, you’ll benefit from a warmer home that’s more cost-effective to maintain.
Once you have your insulation, the next step is to add renewable energy systems to your home. The most popular renewable systems are heat pumps, solar water heating panels and solar photovoltaic panels. Adding renewable energy to your home will reduce your energy bills and help you to achieve an A-rated home. It will also support the move away from fossil fuels.
Step 5: Find a grant that works for you
There are a range of energy upgrade grants available to you depending on your home and circumstances. From free home upgrades under the Warmer Homes Scheme, individual grants for step by step upgrades, to full deep retrofits with the SEAI One Stop Shop and Community Energy Grant Programme, there is a grant for you.
Try our Home Energy Grant Finder Tool here
Home Energy Retrofit FAQ’s
We have complied the most frequent questions homeowners ask from getting started, planning your work, to financing energy upgrades.