A Comprehensive Guide to Home Energy Assessments
A Home Energy Assessment (HEA) is the starting point for anyone considering multiple energy upgrade measures. Your HEA will give the current BER rating of your home and outline a clear ‘pathway’ to reaching a B2 or better, as well as an estimate of the costs and grants available to achieve this standard. This document is ‘transferable’, which essentially means that you are in a position to shop around and get the best value in the OSS market.
Grant Support for HEA
If your home is built prior to 2011, and you haven’t received a grant for a HEA before, SEAI provides grant support of €350. This is deducted from the cost of the HEA, so you pay your One Stop Shop (OSS) provider, who organises the HEA for you, just the net amount.
Importance of Diligence and Clear Goals
While the steps in the HEA journey are reasonably clear, it does not mean that you, as a homeowner considering a retrofit, automatically gets the best solution and best value price handed to you. Diligence and commitment to a clear set of goals is rewarded with better quality outcomes and value-for-money. To guide you on where you need to pay most attention, we will focus on some of the key terms mentioned above- ‘B2 pathway’, ‘cost estimate’ and ‘transferability’.
Understanding the ‘B2 Pathway’
When we speak about a ‘B2 pathway’ it is important to acknowledge that there are often multiple pathways to achieving the desired BER of B2 or better. Your HEA usually contains just one pathway, however. This pathway is typically illustrated in such a way that you can see the improvements in your BER measure-by-measure. Bear in mind that it isn’t just the B2 standard that needs to be achieved to qualify for superior OSS grants, you also need to achieve a minimum BER ‘uplift’ (100kw/m2/yr). This might mean a BER improvement from a D1 to a B2, or even a B3 to an A1. Your HEA combines the B2 destination and uplift requirements in your retrofit pathway.
Given there are often multiple ways to achieve both, you need to be aware of what solution makes most sense financially and in payback terms. If you replaced your boiler recently, you should be looking for a pathway that involves combining other measures. Similarly, if your boiler is old and inefficient, a heat pump should be prioritised over solar PV. Every measure and cost above the B2 and ‘uplift’ requirement should be treated as optional- don’t be priced out of a good quality retrofit because of the escalating costs of aiming too high. Reaching the minimum standards of the OSS programme is an achievement- treat this as a ‘building block’ to stack optional measures upon.
Setting Your Homeowner Goals
You can retain some control over your pathway options by being clear with your HEA assessor about your priorities. This is captured in the HEA as ‘Homeowner Goal’, the field in which your assessor logs your broad preferences and even your budget range. You may wish to replace your windows, or retain them if possible, or you may wish to include advanced ventilation or Solar PV, for example. It may not always be possible to match homeowner goals for many technical reasons, but it should be a significant factor in determining your pathway. As such, it is important that you discuss this with your assessor before your survey happens, so that you are both aligned on these priorities.
Understanding the Cost Estimate
As well as providing your B2 retrofit pathway, your HEA should also contain an estimate of costs. It is important to be clear on the terminology here- an estimate is not a full quote. Some OSS’s will include a detailed quotation but an estimate is widely used. A quote differs from an estimate in that the provider of a quote does so on the basis of a final, detailed design, and stands over the price for a specified period of time. An estimate is subject to final specification and even choices such as window and door types. Understandably, this blurring of terminology can be a source of confusion for homeowners, as the journey from estimate to detailed quote can be significantly different between providers. When proceeding on the basis of an estimate, you should be aware of what is at stake in terms of potential revisions. All of which takes us neatly to our next HEA talking point- transferability.
The Importance of Transferability
HEAs are transferable on the basis that the document layout is standardised and this makes it possible to ‘shop around’ in order to get the best value for your retrofit project. In practice, there are some caveats to this feature. Firstly, a HEA is not necessarily a final design (which requires additional engineering work) but rather a ‘signpost’ document, intended to quickly and transparently outline your retrofit options. So when you shop around, it is often on the basis of this estimate, not a detailed design and quote, and so is subject to all the advice offered in the paragraphs above. Importantly, you need to be aware that estimates are not necessarily comparing like-for-like technologies. Heat pump and ventilation brands vary widely, as does windows and doors. Quality and reputation are absent from the HEA, and so you need to do your research and consider referrals where available.
Electric Ireland Superhomes Approach
At Electric Ireland Superhomes, HEA cost estimates are subject to a very limited number of items, such as inspection of pipework quality and your choices regarding windows and doors. If you have a HEA already, we may be in a position to quote from it, but we first require our Engineer to visit your home. Our engineer may even suggest an alternative B2 pathway, and price for this, if we determine you may get better value from the package.
Quality of HEA and the Retrofit Journey
The HEA process and associated grant replaced a very basic BER system and has significantly improved the retrofit journey for thousands of homeowners. It is equally true that the quality of your HEA will improve for the quality of engineering expertise underpinning it, not to mention softer skills such as your assessor listening to you and incorporating your priorities in the Homeowner Goals, as well as taking the time to explain your HEA and pathway once the document is complete. If one particular pathway is not viable or affordable, there may be others that your assessor or One Stop Shop can investigate for you.
Choosing the Right OSS Provider
The majority of homeowners who carry out a retrofit under the OSS programme engage the provider who organised their HEA to carry out this work. That is why it is important to choose your initial OSS carefully and, while the price of the HEA should form part of this evaluation, the spotlight should very much be on the service that is delivered to you in return.
Written by David Flannery
David Flannery is Head of Strategy and Corporate Development at Electric Ireland Superhomes. A graduate of the University of Limerick, David has over 20 years of expertise in home energy retrofitting, low-energy construction, and sustainable housing development. Now focused on strategy, he plays a key role in shaping initiatives that drive energy efficiency improvements. His extensive experience in home energy assessments, customer development and contractor engagement gives him a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the sector. With a strong track record of guiding homeowners through complex retrofitting processes, David now applies his insights to develop innovative and scalable retrofitting solutions.
