There are effective ways to make your home more energy efficient at a fraction of the cost of a full retrofit.

Is it time to turn on the heating yet? An end to energy credits might give you pause.

The universal credits that knocked €1,500 off household energy costs over the past two years were just a band-aid solution, so if you want a longer term solution, it’s time to make a plan.

A full house retrofit will give you a warmer house and lower bills, but costing up to €38,000 for a typical semidetached home after grants, it’s pricey.

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There are ways to retrofit on the cheap, however. By picking off the fattest grants, and doing some basic DIY, a semi-d can be made warmer with cheaper bills for just over €1,000.

Attic

The best place to start your budget retrofit is in the attic. These insulation grants are among the most generous and can give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Why attack the attic? Turn on your heating and up to 35 per cent of the warmth is escaping through a poorly insulated roof. It’s a waste of heat and a waste of money.

“For the vast majority of people, insulating the attic is easy to do, there’s little disruption, it’s done in a day and given that heat rises, it has an almost immediate impact,” says Brian McIntyre, high performance building technologies manager with the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI).

McIntyre is in the process of retrofitting his own home, bought two years ago, on a step by step basis.

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