As electricity prices stabilise, and with €3,500-€6,500 of government grant aid on hand, you would expect heat pumps to blow up the retrofit market like a BYD EV starring down a Tesla. However, new research just released by the SEAI, has shown some troubling statistics. 

It’s estimated that 250,000 Irish homes that are already suited to the installation of a heat pump as a sustainable heating source, are sticking determinedly with their fossil fuel boilers, largely oil boilers. “The research found that homeowners in these homes are willing to switch from a fossil boiler to an electric heat pump but only when their current heating system needs replacing. 

Many homeowners remain unaware of grants in the first place, while others are put off by complex grant paperwork and worry over possible unanticipated ancillary costs,” says Dr Hannah Julienne, seai.ie.

I find it hard to believe that we are unaware of grant aid for heat pumps, but I suppose you would only trip over that information if you were already looking for a heat pump. The SEAI put a lot of time and effort into behavioural insight studies, and the results are uncomfortable and revealing. 

In March last year, it released a report exploring the relatively low uptake in retrofit projects. It reads: “Retrofits are complex undertakings that can require a degree of project management. Homeowners may have to schedule or complete an energy audit alongside installation, with one field experiment finding a dropout rate of 60% between scheduling and completion of an audit.” 

The report adds: “The single most motivating factor for homeowners to retrofit is saving money through lower energy bills. This benefit is gradual, however. Due to present bias, the lack of an immediate financial reward, paired with the initial financial outlay of funding a retrofit, may lead homeowners to conclude that retrofitting is not an immediate priority.” 

It strikes me with the current level of financial aid unless someone has a fire raging in their soul regarding the environment and a good deal of idle capital, the incentive for change is still not there. Getting back to heat pumps, it makes perfect sense that the building must be heat-pump-ready before the SEAI drops thousands of Euros. A specific and obligatory survey termed a Technical Assessment must be carried out, and this assessment includes the suitability of the existing CH system, and the building’s heat loss characteristics (HLI).

Heat pumps are not plug'n'play replacements for boilers. The central heating system, its pipework and existing radiators may have to be altered and in some cases largely replaced to accommodate a new heat pump. Even a house with a high BER over a B2 may have problematic, uncontrolled air exchanges (a high HLI) that would make it expensive to run a heat pump with low-flow temperatures. Now, the air exchange must be managed, whipping away stale air and returning fresh air from the outdoors. Mechanical ventilation with integrated heat recovery can capture any heat in the exhaust air, but this is high-end stuff in a retrofit. The costs keep ramping up.

The SEAI writes, “Recent changes to scheme design have included simplifying the heat pump grant process and including additional supports for ancillary works that may be required when installing a heat pump.” The trouble is much of this juicy, additional support is available only to those going with the one-stop-shop approach in a comprehensive deep-retrofit. Windows and exterior doors for example are only covered in the one-stop-shop grant system. With oil and gas boilers effectively phased out of new builds (95% of homes built in 2023 received a heat pump system), environmental groups including NGO Friends of the Earth are calling for replacement oil and gas boilers to be phased out from the end of this decade.

I fall smack into that division of 250,000 homeowners who might be ready on paper for a heat pump but are not willing to jump — at least, not yet. I know how to handle an SEAI grant, I know about the sustainable benefits, and the increased appeal of my house at sale, and I’m convinced that in terms of performance, a HP might at least break even with my current kerosene run CH. 

Every caveat with the SEAI grant award for a heat pump is logical and well-intentioned. Still, after all my efforts at greening this house to a B1, I’m exhausted, personally, and financially. I am aware of just what it would take to make the house airtight, to renovate my functioning, economical heating system, and to possibly change out my radiators. Chances are, we would have to stick on a tiny extension to facilitate a larger unvented water tank and the controls in a new “plant room”.

Heat pump advocates have competition, and it's aimed right at energy renovators with wet central heating systems in place. A well-insulated house is cheaper to run whatever the heat source. A modern condensing oil boiler, teamed to smart heating controls, properly maintained, could last up to 15 years. There are alternative, green fuels that could work with an existing CH system without the alterations or complete replacement demanded of a HP system. 

Nationwide access to bio-fuels with significantly lower emissions including HVO appears to be on the way. Bio-gas blends are already here. It’s true that HVO and bio-gas are still emissive and remain expensive, and without an alteration, HVO will only work with the latest bio-fuel-ready kerosene boilers. However, Grant and Firebird offer all their new boilers ready-to-go HVO. Even producing heat pumps right alongside these new greener boilers, these market leaders are lobbying the government for choice and change.

Now my gander is up — why are we clinging to wet central heating systems in new builds? What happened to the passive and even passive-plus home, which could be heated by body heat, a small pellet boiler or an electric area heater? Surely if the government continues to refuse to back any CH source other than heat pumps for retrofit, the SEAI grant support and its scope need to be re-calibrated? It should contribute to all necessary improvements whether done over time with independent grant aid or in the one bound of the one-stop-shop to reach passive standards. If your home is suited to a heat pump, and if you are doing a full renovation tearing through the fabric of the building already, any fossil fuel boiler should be up for scrutiny. In terms of technology and design, I rate heat pumps right up there with solar panels — sheer, unadulterated magic. The trouble is, like many others, I can’t afford the magic.