3cea partner with ERI to provide home retrofit service for homeowners in the South East
3 Counties Energy Agency have partnered with ERI Managed Energy Solutions to deliver SEAI’s National Home Retrofit Scheme.
Homeowners in the South East of Ireland who wish to improve their home’s BER rating are being advised to apply for a new retrofit scheme which offers 35% grant aid.
Stephen Harte, Managing Director of ERI, offers his expertise on the new retrofitting scheme.
Stephen, the founder of ERI, has an Engineering qualification from University of Limerick with 30 years’ experience in the building and commercial sectors.
“ERI specialises in helping homeowners with deep energy retrofits. Since starting in 2007, ERI have carried out over 1,000 building energy assessments and consulted on hundreds of low energy construction projects.”
In the last five years Stephen has spent three years as Project Manager for the deep retrofit scheme from its inception as a pilot in 2015 through to 2018. Stephen has also been involved in the management of over 150 end to end whole house retrofits in that time.
What is the National Home Retrofit Scheme?
“The National Home Retrofit Scheme is a new government grant scheme supporting energy upgrade works on your home. It promotes a fabric first approach to energy upgrade measures and encourages homeowners considering improving the energy efficiency of their homes to look at both the heat loss from their house and the efficiency of their heating system.”
What measures are covered?
“The grant adopts a whole house approach to the upgrade and its purpose is to encourage homeowners to consider multiple energy upgrades. Your home must achieve a post-works BER rating of B2 or better . To qualify for the scheme, it will be necessary to have your insulation to a high standard. You will also have to improve your air tightness levels, review your ventilation, and likely install an air to water heat pump.”
Typical energy upgrade measures covered under the scheme include:
- Attic, internal, external or cavity wall insulation.
- Heating system upgrade.
- PV solar panels for electricity.
- A heat pump to replace oil or gas.
- Window and door replacement.
- Demand Control Ventilation or Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery.
- Certified Wood Burning Stoves.
Who should apply?
“If you are living in a cold draughty house, have just purchased a house, are considering a whole home renovation, have an old inefficient boiler or are spending more time at home and you are concerned about your indoor air quality and heating costs then this scheme is right for you. The scheme applies to homes built before 2006. Homes must meet the minimum standard of a B2 BER after the completion of works and a minimum improvement of 100 kWh/m²/yr. This means if your home is already at a C1 BER before the energy upgrades, it must then meet a B1 BER standard or better after the energy upgrades.”
The grants are available now for projects starting in January and continuing until September 2021.
How does the scheme work?
The scheme is only available through a limited number of One Stop Shop providers who organise all elements of the works from specification and grant application through to works completion and payment of grant monies. Homeowner’s wishing to avail of funding under this scheme must do so through their local One Stop Shop.
3cea in partnership with ERI are your local One Stop Shop. We will project manage the entire process for you – from your initial application right through to completion and sign-off. Once on the One Stop Shop Journey, we will ensure you get peace of mind and ultimately gain a comfortable and energy efficient home.
“Our three-stage process allows you the benefit of progressing through the process on a phased basis. There is no obligation on you to proceed through the different stages of the process. We would however encourage you to get on the ladder, complete stage 1 and get your bespoke energy upgrade report for your home. The aim of the report is to enable you to make an informed decision on the next steps of your retrofit process. The report presents the different retrofit measures for your home, identifying the estimated impact on energy and costs and the necessary SEAI grant qualifying criteria.”
Details of our 3-stage process and associated professional fees are outlined here.
How can we help?
3cea have partnered with Waterford based company ERI to extend our One Stop Shop home retrofit service to homeowners in Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, and Waterford.
3 Counties Energy Agency have up to 10 years’ experience in coordinating energy retrofit projects for homeowners. That ensures a quality retrofit focus for clients. 3cea have helped complete retrofits on more than 2,500 houses as well as 500 deep retrofits since 2012.
ERI have been retrofitting domestic homes since 2009 and have been involved in the initiation of the One Stop Shop delivery concept for whole house retrofits since the initial pilot in 2015.
“All you need to do is register your interest and let us look after the rest. You get the benefit of the combined experience of over 3,000 houses retrofitted nationally. We take the hassle out of completing the works and offer financial assistance via grant support through SEAI. Our approach is always to do what makes sense for you as a homeowner and for your home. We want you to live in a warm, comfortable, healthy home and we want to do this in a way that is affordable for you.”
Homeowners who avail of grants for energy upgrades will benefit from a warmer, more comfortable home. They can also expect to see reductions in their energy bills and a decrease in their carbon footprint. 3cea and ERI are accepting applications now for deep retrofit projects in 2021 with funding of up to 35% discounted up front.
This is great news for customers who can now avail of home energy improvements from two of the country’s most trusted and experienced providers.
3cea and ERI partnership
“I am delighted to have teamed up with 3cea to offer the benefit of our combined experience in delivering energy efficiency upgrade measures to homeowners. We share the same vision of providing the homeowner with a hassle-free energy retrofit upgrade. Our aim is to do what’s right for the homeowner and the home and promote the use of local contractors and suppliers in doing this. It is great to be able to do our bit for climate change and help the country achieve its energy efficiency targets.”
“3cea completed 61 (12%) of the homes under the SEAI Deep Retrofit pilot programme that ran from 2017 – 2019. Our strategy outlines the number of homes needed to be delivered by 2030 in order to meet national energy targets – we know we cannot do this alone and partnership with key stakeholders and qualified, competent contractors is key to successful delivery across the South East Region. The newly formed partnership with ERI is one such step to delivering quality energy retrofits that homeowners can depend on.”
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