"Better Energy"

Wed 11th May

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte T.D, today launched Better Energy – The National Upgrade Programme which will streamline the existing residential programmes, support jobs and help consumers lower their energy bills.

Welcoming the decision by the Minister for Finance to allocate an additional €30 million towards the new programme, Minister Rabbitte said, “Better Energy is a major step forward in this Government’s retrofitting programme. Given energy price trends and growing concerns over security of supply, the way we use energy is no longer simply a question of environmental responsibility but one of economic necessity. Every euro spent by homeowners and businesses on energy efficiency, not only brings about long term energy savings, but also helps support jobs and indigenous companies.”

If only, this were all true...Unfortunately, we have been grossly mislead about this new scheme. An additional €30 million has NOT been allocated to this scheme and this turn of events will COST us jobs and certainly not create any new ones. Comfort Solutions happened to take part in the Self Build, Extend and Renvovate show in Galway the week-end before the government's announcement on Better Energy and we had several potential customers very interested in our biomass systems (wood pellet boilers, wood pellet stoves, gasification boilers). Almost all of these were going to be looking for the grant if and when they purchased. Having spoken with many of these since the Better Energy announcement, it is plain to see that we will have less sales than anticipated. And the main reason? The grants being pulled. What does this tell us? Well, obviously sales being down won't help the economy or job creation, not on our part anyway.

What is Better Energy?

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) will monitor all activity by recording the Building Energy Rating (BER) of every home before and after works are carried out, and verifying what measures have been carried out and by whom.

Is "Better Energy" really better?

Well, unfortunatly the answer to this question is a resounding "No". Better Energy is simply a new name for the Home Energy Saving scheme with the addition of solar hot water and the overall reduction of grant amounts. All grant amounts have been slashed with the exception of the one for External Insulation so if you're thinking of this measure you had better act quickly. The Greener Homes scheme which once housed the solar hot water grant has been scrapped completely with no funding now available for heatpumps or biomass. This means that our government will now give grant assistance for fossil fuel boilers but not for renewable heating systems. In today's world, this truly beggars belief.

Another measure scrapped appears to be the proposed tax relief system that was approved in the last budget. This would have allowed home-owners to off-set against tax any home energy efficient measures up to a value of €10,000 or in the case of a jointly assessed couple, €20,000.

For full details on the new scheme please click here.