Have you considered which Home Energy Grants might help you?

Every government is fighting to lower their carbon footprint, and in some cases, they are offering grants that will make homes more energy efficient to assist with this aim. In Ireland, the main two grants available are ones from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI). It depends on the type of work and the cost involved as to which is the most suitable for you, but whichever you opt for, you need to be awarded the grant before the work starts.

Home energy grants from SEAI

To make your home more energy efficient so it reduces your utility bills and means that your home produces less greenhouse gases, the SEAI offers grants for various things.

For instance, insulating your home can save you 20 – 30% heat loss. Attic insulation is one of the cheapest and most effective ways of saving heat, but cavity wall insulation is also effective, internal wall insulation and external wall insulation all help. Grants for insulation start from 400 euros and rise to as much as 6000 euros depending on the size and type of home and which insulation you are having installed. Your grant can be increased by a maximum of 400 euros if you have more than one type of insulation fitted to your home.

There are also SEAI home energy grants available for heat pump systems (600 to 3500 euros), heating control upgrades (7800 euros), solar water heating (1200 euros) and solar electricity (1800 to 3000 euros including 600 for battery storage).

The aim of the SEAI is to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases all across Ireland and to help achieve this they offer grants to businesses, communities, and they have a range of grants to help individuals and businesses change over to electric vehicles.

Applying for home energy grants from SEAI

As with any application, there is a procedure to be followed when you want to apply for home energy grants from SEAI.

1. You have to decide which measures are going to help make your home more energy efficient. Insulation and heating control grants are available for homes built and occupied before 2006. Ones built since then are generally well insulated. For heat pump systems and solar water heating grants the home must have been built and occupied before 2011.
2. If you are applying for a grant relating to a heat pump system, you will need the services of an SEAI registered Technical Advisor.
3. You then need to choose an SEAI registered contractor to carry out the work., and have a contract showing all the work and costs involved.
4. Then you can apply for the grant either online or by post. You have just 30 days to accept the grant offer so do not ignore it when it arrives.
5. Once everything is agreed, you have eight months to get the work completed.
6. You will need to obtain a BER assessment upon completion of the work.
7. You can then submit your declaration of completed works, your BER assessment and your request for payment. If all this is in order, the grant will be paid to you without delay.

HRI home energy grants

HRI home energy grants do not come in the form of a lump sum, but in the form of tax relief against your income. It is a scheme that lets homeowners, local authority tenants and landlords claim tax relief on repairs, renovations and improvements to their property. To qualify:

• The work must have been completed and paid for between 25^th October 2013 and 31^st December 2018 for homeowners, between 15^th October 2014 and 31^st December 2018 for landlords and between 1^st January 2017 and 31st December 2018 for local authority tenants.
• The only exception to this is if planning permission was required then the completion date must be before 31^st March 2019.
• Homeowners must be occupying the home they are applying for the grant on.
• Landlords have to have their rental properties occupied by a tenant and be registered with the Residential Tenancies Boards within six months of the works completion.
• Local authority tenants need written permission for the work from the local authority they rent from.
• You must be a taxpayer.
• You must be up to date with your local property tax.
• The contractor used must be compliant with the HRI rules, such as being VAT registered and their affairs being up to date and in order.

Most types of repair, renovation or improvement fall within the scheme, including extensions, attic conversions, kitchens, bathrooms, new windows, rewiring, heating and decorating. If you are unsure if the work you had done qualifies, you can find more examples of qualifying works at revenue.ie.

To qualify, the work you had done must have cost at least 4404 euros before VAT and there is a maximum amount of 30,000 euros before VAT. This equates to the lowest amount of tax relief being 595 euros and the highest 4050 euros.

The amount of tax credit is 13.5% of qualifying expenditure. This means that if you spent 4600 euros, for example on painting and rewiring, you would receive 621 euros in tax credit.

Let GasSafe Engineering help with your home energy grants

At GasSafe Engineering, we are not only registered with the SEAI but also with the National Guild of Master Craftsmen and we are Registered Gas Installers. We can help you choose the right upgrades for you home to obtain home energy grants from SEAI, and then you can also have piece of mind that our engineers will only work to the highest standards. We can even help with arranging your BER assessment once the work is completed.

Why not give our friendly team a call on 01 969 5219 or email us at info@gassafe.ie.

We will be able to help with all types of heating, gas and plumbing servicing and installation, oil boiler servicing and installation, and many other services that come within the home energy grants in Ireland.