Home upgrades, explained

Ten jobs, one page each. What the work is, what it changes in the house, and where the saving comes from. The money is on the grant pages.

• What attic insulation is, and why it goes first

  Attic insulation is a thick layer laid over the ceilings of the top rooms. Heat you paid for stays in the rooms instead of rising into a cold roof.

• What cavity wall insulation is, and how it's pumped in

  Most Irish estate houses have two skins of block with a gap in between. Cavity insulation fills that gap with beads or wool, blown in through small holes drilled from outside.

• What internal wall insulation is, and what it's like to live through

  Internal wall insulation is insulated board fixed to the inside of every outside wall, then plastered and painted. The house looks the same from the road and warms up faster inside.

• What external wall insulation is, and what it does to a house

  External wall insulation is rigid board fixed to the outside of the house and covered in render. The walls get thicker, the house changes colour, and nothing inside is touched.

• What new windows and doors change, and what they don't

  New windows stop the draught and the cold pane at the sill. They are also the upgrade people want first and the one SEAI fund last.

• What heating controls are, and why they save anything at all

  Heating controls are the timer, the thermostats and the valves. They decide when the heating runs and which rooms get it, and they save money by not heating an empty house.

• What a heat pump is, and how it heats a house

  A heat pump is a box outside the house. It takes heat out of the open air and moves it into your radiators and your hot water.

• What a new oil or gas boiler actually changes

  A new boiler makes the same heat from less fuel. It does nothing about the heat the house is losing, and there is no grant for one.

• What solar panels do on an Irish roof

  Solar panels make electricity out of daylight. They work under Irish cloud, just not as hard as they do on a clear day in June.

• What solar hot water is, and how it differs from solar panels

  Solar hot water collectors heat water directly. They are plumbed into the cylinder, not wired into the fuse board, and they cover about half a year's hot water.