Oil costs no longer a worry for pensioner

Heating oil was always a big worry for pensioner Jim Nolan and he tried to save €20 a week year-round so he wasn’t fretting about keeping warm once the winter came.

For years, the only source of heating in his home had been an oil-fired range. He liked to have the range on for as much of the day as he could manage, but he couldn’t afford to spend much over €600 a year on oil.

In previous years, the 76-year-old and his wife shared the cost of heating their house at Drombane, near Thurles, Co Tipperary, combining their pensions. But in January, Marie died. And so Jim became anxious about how he would finance home-heating this year.

But thanks to a community energy project driven by Leader, which was fully funded by Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and Better Energy schemes, this winter should be very different.

A condensing boiler has been installed in his St Vincent de Paul-provided house and its cavity walls have been pumped with insulation. And it didn’t cost him a penny.

“It is fabulous. The weather hasn’t been that cold yet so I haven’t used the heating at all, as you’d notice a difference with the insulation,” Jim said.

“But there was a cold night lately and I noticed a big difference. I didn’t even have the range on, just the boiler, and I only had it on for a couple of hours but the house stayed good and warm.”

The Drombane/Upperchurch Community Energy project began two years ago as a Leader-driven community initiative to stimulate economic activity in the parish.

Last year, 22 houses were given an energy efficiency upgrade. This year, they are working on 13 ‘can pay’ houses, 15 fuel allowance houses, and two community halls.

The State is spending about €13m on 80 such community projects across the country, with the intention that €7m in energy bills will be saved and up to 300 jobs created in homes where people can part-contribute to the costs and in homes which are solely dependent on welfare.

In a Kingspan Energy-driven project at Clonard Community Centre in Wexford, Murrintown Community Centre and Airtricity are working together to make 64 local authority houses and two community centres more energy efficient.

As another part of the scheme, grocery retailer Musgrave has selected 22 GAA clubs for upgrades.

The GAA sponsors will part-fund the Better Energy projects, saving the GAA in the region of €47,000 a year.

Fuel factor

Fuel is a worry for me too. Can I avail of similar free energy efficiency upgrades?

Accessing these funds is easiest when a community housing scheme or a row of houses applies for funding but individuals can apply too. There are many schemes out there, so the advice from Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland is to contact them and they will direct you to the most relevant funding stream.

Access to attic insulation, draught proofing, lagging jackets, low-energy light bulbs, and cavity wall insulation can be obtained via the Better Energy Warmer Homes scheme. Administered by SEAI, it funds energy efficiency improvements in the homes of the elderly and vulnerable, making the homes more comfortable, healthier and more cost effective to run.

To be eligible, the house must be a owner-occupied non-local authority home, constructed before 2006 and the owner must be in receipt of fuel allowance as part of the National Fuel Scheme or on jobseekers allowance for over six months and with children under 7 years of age.