People looking to retrofit their home to cut their bills have been reminded that there are “very generous” SEAI grants available to help them install heat pumps. 

A new survey by the ESRI has found that just 44% of people in Ireland know anything about the heat pumps, despite the technology having been around for decades. 

A heat pump operates similar to an air conditioning unit by absorbing the air outside, changing the temperature and then emitting it again. 

Crucially, unlike gas or oil heating, they run on electricity and so have significantly lower carbon footprints that traditional heating sources. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, engineer Kieran McCarthy said some homes need retrofitting before a heat pump can be installed. 

“There were some houses [where] a lot of work had to be done,” he explained. 

“If you've an old house that had no insulation, you might have to add external insulation or dry lining to your walls and you will need to insulate your attic. 

“But there are plenty of newer homes that might have been built in the in the 90s or noughties where it's only a matter of pumping your cavity, pumping your attic. 

“You probably have a level of insulation in the floor already and you might be swapping out your radiators and putting in bigger aluminium radiators and installing a heat pump, assuming you have some level of reasonably good air tightness in those houses.”

A heat pump using ground sourced heat. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

However, once installed, a homeowner will typically save money on their utility bill, as they will be no longer using expensive oil or gas to heat their home. 

“The savings would have been bigger in the past when electricity prices were lower,” Mr McCarthy added.  

“Some of the savings have been eroded lately because of elevated electricity prices. 

“But then some of that is some of that is being eroded on the other side - on the gas and oil side - because you have oil prices and gas prices getting more expensive.”

Costs are not the only benefit of heat pumps, which also significantly reduce the air pollution within their owner’s home. 

“You have a much greater quality living environment in the house,” Mr McCarthy said.  

“[It] is more than just putting in a heat pump and getting yourself off fossil fuels.

“You have a much better insulated house; so when you do heat it with your air to water system or geothermal system, the heat stays an awful lot longer in your house. 

“When the heating system turns off, the heat doesn't lose back out the walls in a couple of hours.

“So, you've better air quality in that you're bringing fresh air from the outside in on a regular basis and because you have a very well insulated house with negligible cold bridging, you've next to no mold and all that sort of thing.”

Cost

For those wishing to install a heat pump, an SEAI grant of up to €12,500 is available. 

However, homeowners may need to upgrade their property beforehand, which the grant partly contributes towards. 

“There are houses that will take €70,000 to upgrade,” Mr McCarthy cautioned. 

“There's very generous grants from SEAI there as well. 

“You could have a house that was built 20 years ago and those houses are much easier to retrofit; you'd be dealing with a much lower cost than €70,000 there.”

Main image: A heat pump installed in the garden of a home. Picture by: Alamy.com.