Are you wondering if individuals aged 70 and above can apply for the SEAI retrofit programme and secure low-interest loans to finance it? In old houses, often inhabited by senior citizens, the need for energy-efficient retrofits is more likely.
A few elements are essential to consider if you’re contemplating retrofitting your home. Mainly, these elements comprise of funding, the availability of incentives and whether the decision is financially worthwhile in terms of the time it will take to recoup your investment.
Acquiring the necessary funding for this endeavour can be either through personal finance or a loan. Presently, Permanent TSB (PTSB) is the only major bank in Ireland to offer the low-cost retrofit loan scheme. The rates offered range from 4.55% on amounts up to €14,999 to 3.55% for loans between €50,000 and €75,000. In comparison, the best rate for personal loans of up to €20,000 in the general market is 6.4% APR. However, An Post offers a rate of 4.9% APR for loans ranging from €20,000 to €75,000 under the green loan initiative.
The significant query is whether anyone would consent to lending to a couple in their 70s. “We evaluate each application individually, ensuring it aligns with the customer affordability,” stated a representative from PTSB. She also asserted that a customer’s age or pension income wouldn’t exclude them from being approved under the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme.
However, it is advisable to wait for a definite approval from PTSB before making concrete plans or scheduling the retrofit work. While it’s commendable that PTSB offers these loans, it remains the sole bank providing low-cost financing for retrofits over two years after energy Minister Éamon Ryan launched the low-cost loan scheme and despite assurances that other lenders would join the initiative six weeks ago.
There are several determinants that affect the potential savings to be made from installing solar panels.
Further incentives are offered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). They provide an array of financial aids for those considering retrofit renovations, either as an encompassing, whole-house retrofit through a sole provider, or a piecemeal approach, chosen at the homeowner’s discretion.
The major pros of conducting the comprehensive retrofit include simultaneous completion of works by a registered contractor, and supplementary financial support over the usual entitlement for the phased approach. Although the monetary aid for similar work is not increased, additional grants are accessible. These include window replacement (maximum of €4,000 reward) and rafter insulation (up to €3,000), among others. The complete information is available on the SEAI’s official site.
In every circumstance, it is mandatory to receive approval for the grant before commencing the work. It is noteworthy that the grant offers remain valid for only eight months from the notification date. Broadly speaking, homes built prior to 2011 are eligible for subsidised energy efficiency retrofitting initiatives. However, for heat pumps and solar thermal grants, residences built before 2021 are also qualified.
No SEAI scheme possesses an age limit, therefore, age is not a decisive factor.
The potential savings from the installation of solar panels is reliant on various factors, including the electricity consumption, its cost, the price of panel installation less any potential grant, and the energy production of your panels.
As per switcher.ie, households with two or fewer members should consider the installation of 3KW solar panels. A rough estimate suggests that the cost of installation ranges from €1,500 to €2,000 per kilowatt, thus, overall expenses would fall between €4,500 and €6,000 pre-grants.
The estimated savings, subject to panel size, roof orientation and prevalent weather conditions, could reach 2,600 kilowatt hours of energy, or approximately 60% of a typical Irish family’s annual energy charges.
If you are a resident of Dublin and regularly use electricity, installing south-facing solar panels can give you a return on your investment in approximately nine years, whilst those with northern-facing roofs may have to wait for eleven years, according to data from the SEAI. Notably, Switcher.ie believes it could be sooner than this.
Regarding financial aid, the SEAI provides grants worth €800 per kilowatt for the first two kilowatts installed, with subsequent kilowatts receiving €250 each. Thus, a 2kW installation will receive €1,600, a 3kW one will be eligible for €1,850, and 4kW or more can fetch €2,100. Interestingly, this financial aid saw a cut from a previous high of €2,400, despite the Government’s initiative to motivate homeowners to invest in energy efficiency.
The aforementioned calculations, however, do not take into account costs correlated to the price of battery storage of generated electricity, or the potential benefits of the same. The investment for this can teeter between €4,000 and €8,000, a figure which could make a considerable difference to the breakeven point of this investment, especially considering the possibility of needing to replace the battery at least once in the panel’s lifetime.
On a more encouraging note, homeowners equipped with a smart meter can sell excess power back to the national grid, albeit at around 60 per cent of what they pay for their electricity.
The primary consideration, though, is whether the payback period will justify the initial investment in upgrading your home. It’s a positive that any earnings less than €400 from selling power back to the grid will be tax-free after the Government doubled the tax-free threshold in the last budget.
On the durability side, most providers guarantee solar panels for 25 years, although they are usually expected to last nearly up to 30 years. This will therefore benefit younger families the most in terms of value for money and saving potential, while the profitability for those in their 70s who are considering installation remains debatable.
Solar thermal solutions, which utilise sunlight to heat water, is an affordable alternative to consider for your home’s heating requirements. Although reportedly more temperamental, there is a €1,200 SEAI grant available should you opt for this solution.
Now, addressing your home’s insulation, the quickest return on investment can be seen from insulating the attic. For an average three-to-four bedroom house, you’re looking at expenses in the range of €1,700 to €2,500. Within three years time, experts claim you can anticipate a return on this investment. Be aware, if you own a bungalow, your costs could be higher.
Depending on the type of property you have, the SEAI offers different grants: €1,500 for detached houses, €1,300 for semi-detached or end-terrace houses and €1,200 for mid-terrace properties, while flat owners could receive up to €800.
Moving onto wall insulation – pricing depends on the walls themselves and your chosen solution. Modern homes featuring cavity block construction cost somewhere between €600 and €1,700 to insulate. However, insulating older houses typically composed of solid block or hollow brick is a more complex and expensive task. To insulate these type of walls, you would either dry line the interiors or apply insulation externally – this could increase the cost anywhere from €6,000 to €10,000 or potentially even more.
The choice of insulation you opt for will invariably impact the time it takes to see a return on investment. Also worth considering before moving forward are other potential drains on energy efficiency such as your windows’ condition and other spaces allowing energy outflow, like chimneys which are more prevalent in older properties.
Moreover, window replacement can be a considerable outlay that depends on your home’s number and style of windows, as well as the type of window technology you choose for the replacements. Beware of a potentially lengthy payback period on this investment.
SEAI provides financial assistance to help with costs related to cavity wall insulation, dry lining of internal walls, and external wall insulation. For detached homes, cavity wall insulation attracts a grant of €1,700 while semi-detached and mid-terrace homes receive €1,200 and €800 respectively. Apartments manage a lesser amount of €700. When it comes to dry lining, the grant starts at €4,500 for a detached property, scaling down to €3,500, €2,000 and finally €1,500 for the rest. For external insulation, the relevant grants are €8,000, €6,000, €3,500 and €3,000.
Another commendable form of heating for homes in Ireland is heat pumps. They pull heat from the environment, whether from the air, the ground, or nearby water bodies, and use it to warm your home’s interior air or water. Although air-based heat pumps aren’t as efficient as their ground and water-based counterparts, they are more sought after because they do not require large gardens or bodies of water. These pumps can slash energy bills by half according to Switcher.ie, while other variants can result in three-quarters cost savings.
The energy usage shift from gas and oil to electricity means that the latter’s cost could see a slight increase since running these pumps can cost between €500 – €1,500 annually. The installation, involving the attachment of the pump to the home’s exterior, can cost from €12,000 and €18,000 for an air-sourced pump for an average three-bedroom house. Ground or water-sourced pumps can come at a higher €17,000 to €28,000 price range.
SEAI provides a grant aid of €3,500 for an air-sourced heat pump and €6,500 for other types. Apartments can receive €4,500. A technical verification, required for homes built before 2007 and optional for newer ones, attracts €200 in financial aid. However, the question remains as to whether senior citizens in their seventies could secure lending.
Even without opting for heat pump technology, a €700 grant is available to offset expenditure when transitioning to a more efficient heating control system.
At a time when emission levels are a global issue, making one’s home energy-efficient is unequivocally a smart move, and not just for the potential savings on utility bills. Upgrading energy-efficiency standards also enhances the property’s market value, which comes into play if you consider selling.
A 2014 research by ESRI suggested that every improvement on the Building Energy Rating (BER) scale could potentially boost a property’s market value by 1.3 per cent. Reinforcing this, architect and housing policy analyst Mel Reynolds suggested more recently that for every euro spent on boosting home energy-efficiency, the home’s value could increase by €2.
The eligibility criteria for these programmes and related grants, as well as the affordable loans offered, don’t discriminate on the basis of age. Although, those who are not working any longer could face challenges when applying for loan assistance.
Yet, unless the upgrades are purely for environmental reasons, it’s worth considering whether the payback period makes the investment worthwhile for you, or whether the responsibility of upgrading the energy system should fall on the future owners.
While many in their seventies continue to be sprightly and zestful, statistics reveal that most Irish men and women do not typically live past their early to mid-eighties, respectively.