Heating controls grant: €700
The same €700 for every home, and it is only paid when the controls are being upgraded properly, not just a new timer.
What would it cost on your home?
Your cert may say B2 — that's a B on the new scale.
A heat pump runs on electricity. Pick "Heat pump" if you have one.
A 1990s detached house on oil, rated CEnergy rating C
- Grants you’d get
- €12,500
- It costs about
- €16,500
- You pay
- €4,000 – €4,500
- Saves you each year
- about €820
- Pays for itself in
- about 7 years
The commonest home on file — 47,829 like it. Change an answer above for yours.
Modelled, not observed payments. Middle case €4,519; a quarter of these homes are over €8,930. Repaid in 7–13.4 years. Confidence 0.9.
Show what’s included
This is the job list that suits most homes like yours (4 in 10). The money above is the middle of every route we priced, so it will not add up to this list exactly.
Is the house warm enough to hold the heat? — SEAI's test before they'll fund a heat pump. The insulation steps are usually what gets you through.
Heat Loss Indicator ≤ 2.3 W/K·m² after fabric works. 29% of homes like yours already pass. Assessment about €276, grant €350 through a One-Stop-Shop.
Costs about €280 · grant €350 · the grant covers it
Heat pump — replaces the boiler, runs on electricity, pulls heat from the outside air. An outdoor unit the size of a large suitcase, bigger radiators in some rooms, three to five days. Runs cooler for longer — the house feels even, not blasted.
Air-to-water, SPF 3.5 heating / 2.5 hot water. Cost €16,832 · grant €6,500 + €4,000 (replacing oil/gas/coal) + €2,000 pipework + €700 controls = up to €13,200 · you pay from €3,632. 9.8c per kWh of heat vs gas 14.4c / oil 18.0c.
Costs about €16,500 · grant €6,500 · you pay €10,000
The paperwork — assessment first, grant approval, then the work, then a new energy cert, then the grant is paid. A One-Stop-Shop does all of it and takes the grant off the bill.
Order is mandatory — work started before approval is not eligible. Energy cert €276, assessment grant €350 through a One-Stop-Shop. Typically 3–6 months end to end (estimate).
Costs about €280 · grant €350 · the grant covers it
Do you qualify?
- Your home was built and lived in before 2011.
- The upgrade splits the house into zones with their own time and temperature control.
- The work is done by a registered installer.
Roughly 3 in 10 1990s–2000s detached homes already pass the first check.
What it costs for homes like yours
Worked out from the energy ratings of 47,829 homes like these in SEAI’s records. “You pay’ is what is left after the grants, for the middle half of them.
| Home | Grant | You pay | Saves a year | Pays back in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A 1990s detached house on oil, rated CEnergy rating C | €12,500 | €4,000 – €4,500 | €820 | 7 years |
| A 1990s semi-detached on gas, rated CEnergy rating C | €12,500 | €4,300 | €540 | 11 years |
| A 1990s semi-detached on oil, rated CEnergy rating C | €12,500 | €4,300 | €470 | 11 years |
| A 1970s–80s detached house on oil, rated CEnergy rating C | €10,300 | €5,000 – €8,900 | €760 | 15 years |
detached|1990-2005|C|oil: net p50 €4,519, p75 €8,930, repaid 7–13.4 yrs, confidence 0.9 · semi|1990-2005|C|gas: net p50 €4,332, p75 €7,420, repaid 10.5–14.1 yrs, confidence 0.9 · semi|1990-2005|C|oil: net p50 €4,332, p75 €4,832, repaid 10.5–14.1 yrs, confidence 0.9 · detached|1970-1989|C|oil: net p50 €8,930, p75 €13,884, repaid 15.1–16.7 yrs, confidence 0.9.
More home types
| A 1990s apartment on electric heating, rated C | €5,500 | €4,600 | €1,140 | 4 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A 1970s–80s detached house on oil, rated D | €19,000 | €9,000 – €16,300 | €1,790 | 9 years |
| A pre-1970 detached house on oil, rated F/G | €23,000 | €13,300 – €18,100 | €4,150 | 5 years |
| A 1990s apartment on electric heating, rated D | €5,500 | €4,600 | €1,490 | 4 years |
Why oil homes pay back fastest
The dearer your heat is now, the more you save by changing it. A unit of heat from a heat pump costs about a third of what the same heat costs on electric heating, and well under what it costs on oil or bottled gas.
What’s entailed
Heating controls — zones, a room thermostat and a timer that actually match how you live. A day's work, no mess.
Zoned time and temperature control to Part L. Cost €3,500 · grant €700 · you pay €2,800.
Costs about €3,500 · grant €700 · you pay €2,800
Heat pump — replaces the boiler, runs on electricity, pulls heat from the outside air. An outdoor unit the size of a large suitcase, bigger radiators in some rooms, three to five days. Runs cooler for longer — the house feels even, not blasted.
Air-to-water, SPF 3.5 heating / 2.5 hot water. Cost €16,832 · grant €6,500 + €4,000 (replacing oil/gas/coal) + €2,000 pipework + €700 controls = up to €13,200 · you pay from €3,632. 9.8c per kWh of heat vs gas 14.4c / oil 18.0c.
Costs about €16,800 · grant €6,500 · you pay €10,300
The grant in detail, by house type
| Apartment | €700 |
|---|---|
| Terrace | €700 |
| Semi-detached or end of terrace | €700 |
| Detached | €700 |
- The €700 is also included in the up-to-€12,500 you can get with a heat pump.
- It is the cheapest job on the list and it changes how the house feels straight away.
- It does not need a home energy assessment when taken on its own.
Amounts verified 2026-09-08.
How we worked this out
We group every home in SEAI’s energy rating records by kind, age, rating and heating, then work out the cheapest set of jobs that would bring each one up to a B. Prices for those jobs are the middle price SEAI recorded for that work last year; grants come from SEAI’s published amounts; fuel prices come from SEAI’s comparison table.
So these are worked-out figures for homes like yours, not a record of what anyone was charged. Your own quote will land somewhere in the range, and the wider the range, the less certain we are.
2025 medians (n=47,067 upgrades; OSS n=1,406). 2026-07-01. BER file 2026-09-08, 1,077,114 rows. DEAP standard occupancy.
Common questions
- How much is the heating controls grant?
- €700, the same for every home type.
- What counts as a controls upgrade?
- Splitting the house into zones — usually upstairs, downstairs and hot water — each with its own timer and thermostat.
- Is it worth doing on its own?
- Often yes. It is the cheapest thing on the list and it stops you heating rooms nobody is in.
Related
Applying, and who gets what
- One-Stop-Shop
- One job at a time
- Free upgrades scheme
- How to apply
- How long the wait is
- What you need first
- Checking your application
- If you are retired
Who does this work
Registered installers by county