Location:
Knocknacarra
Home Type:
Semi-detached house built in 1994
Tenants:
Retired individual
Retrofit Project Goals:
First and foremost, the homeowner is passionate about sustainability and wants to ensure that their home is in line with NetZeroCities climate action initiatives.
Secondly, they want to enhance home comfort, and lastly, improve the financial efficiency of the home for the future.
Retrofit Project Summary:
Sinead approached us with a desire to improve the sustainability and comfort of her semi-detached house.
After an initial assessment of previous upgrades, including partial DIY attic insulation, we identified key improvements that could be undertaken including installing a stove, high-performance wall and attic insulation and PV solar panels.
The main factors affecting her BER rating and energy bills were an open-fire fireplace and a lack of effective modern wall and attic insulation.
What Homeowner Say
Hear from those who know. Uncover the secrets of happy homeowners.
Sinead, Knocknacarra
I had been thinking about retrofitting my house for a good while but did not know which areas of the house should take priority, and which grants applied. I remained very excited by the idea of generating my own electricity by simply having PV solar panels under bright daylight.
I then met Kieran at an EirGrid Energy Roadshow in September 2023, and I followed up with him as I had no idea how to proceed with retrofit works.
I knew from a chat with SEAI that the one-stop shop is really designed for a major refurbishment of a dwelling, so not for me, and that the best approach is to start at the top of the house.
The next question was what exactly to do... Kieran and Sandra were great and helped me to work through the best work to undertake.
I had information on the grants from the EirGrid show, so was able to work out gross and net costs, gross to be paid upfront.
It’s important to budget to allow gross costs to be paid to the supplier, with grants following a number of weeks after application, following the completion of works.
I feel that the house retains heat better since stove installation and insulation, but they happened in December 2023 and February 2024 respectively; I feel I need a full winter to assess things in greater depth, including looking at gas consumption and weather compared to last year.
I’m delighted and will follow the money saved against the cost of the panels over the coming years.
I’m really pleased to have done this work, but it would be great if there were more help for the public to get going; WHH is doing this very thing!”.
