Cost of retrofitting a house to A energy rating

Some people might put a monetary value on their efforts to save the planet and consider the extra € 20-30K well worth it in moral, if not monetary, terms
 

I believe this was one of the issues seen with the recent Deep Retrofit scheme - the monetary & CO2 savings weren't as high as expected as people who were previously walking around in jumpers and thermal socks, were now wearing t-shirts indoors and leaving the heating on for longer.
 

Another issue is in pre-Covid times, many houses were unoccupied for much of the day. So even in winter, heating was only on for a few hours in the evenings as traditional heating systems have fast heat up times. Upgrade those to use heat pump technology and the heating must be left on much longer to bring the house up to temperature.
 
Leo said:
True, you can't put a value on smug, but it is important for people to understand that it is not always possible to achieve a payback, and the further you want to get towards an A1 on an old house, the more likely you are to be wasting money.
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I really don't understand your comment about "smug".
I was just trying to point out that there is more to it than just payback. End of.
That comment says more about you than me!
 
I think the key point is knowing what you will get. A lot of people have no problem in spending 30+k on a new car which will rapidly depreciate, the difference of course being that they can test drive a new car and know what they are buying. This isn't possible with a deep retrofit so is a lot more difficult to understand the quality of what you are buying.
 

True, but a car is tangible, you spend your money and you immediately get that shiny thing you spent your money on. Spend on on a deep retrofit and you pay a lot of money up front to have the same house, just slightly more comfortable with savings taking decades to achieve. We've been conditioned to value to immediate hit over delayed gratification.
 
Yes I think I will try and get an independent survey first.Difficult to find. I looked at Superhomes.ie who organize a complete package but wondering if the initial survey is really independent as they have a complete package. I also looked at An Post who it seems offer loans for retrofit, the scheme has the backing of the woman quantity surveyor who use to be on Room to Improve.The only problem is you cannot seem to access the info unless you avail of their loans.. May concentrate on insulation first before deciding on heat pump. We are both in our early 60's retired . We have the same oil burner dating back to 1989.It is still working at 90 % efficiency. Wondering if a heat pump will make the house much warmer? Maybe cheaper to run but as one would have to replace all radiators for heat pump it is a big outlay. Will remain open minded as our oil boiler will perhaps run out at some point. My original good plumber has a similiar oil boiler told me to ignore all the hype around condenser boilers as he has come across condenser oil boilers that have only lasted 10 years and not 31 years .
 
Leo said:
No, it won't. Only more insulation and better air-tightness will help a home retain more heat. If you don't have those at a level where your existing gas or oil boiler rarely needs to be on, a heat pump will cost you way more to run.
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and will not be up to the job during extreme bouts of weather
 
I have sent e mails to a number of people looking for quotations for a full Technical Assessment and air tightness test to see if it is possible to bring the dwelling heat down to 2 Watts/Kelvi/m2. with a view if it is possible to install a heat pump. My house is a large 4 bed dormer bungalow with an adjacent granny flat and garage.I have only got 1 reply back so far from a person living 4 miles away. He quoted me €1000 +vat. Is this expensive? How long does the test take? I am awaiting other replies.Just wondering what an average quotation is?
 
Wow, thats quite expensive, imo. My surveys which include testing for airtightness take generally 6 hours from start to finish.
 
Hi hallie, i have a similar 4 dormer bungulow selfbuild at around 1998. I have slowly upgraded it. I installed a 6kw wind turbine about 13 years ago and used most of this energy for hot water. Then i installed 4 solar thermal tube panels. Very good input between march to september. Doubled up on floorjoists in attic and insulated to 300mm . Uped insulation in creep spaces and put new seals on my pvc double glazing. Then iretrofitted an mhrv system for better quality air. I removed open fire and installed a stove. I am lucky enough to be able to do it all myself, but it was hard work running everthing through existing house. It has made an enormous difference. I think you should definitely insulate really well first and then think about other technologies. Hope this long winded post is of use.
 
@Micks'r I would be interested in contacting you about getting a survey done as you seem to talk a lot of sense on the topic here.
Micks'r said:
Wow, thats quite expensive, imo. My surveys which include testing for airtightness take generally 6 hours from start to finish.
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