Dermot Bannon: Knowledge is power in retrofitting and design

Property Editor Tommy Barker talks to architect Dermot Bannon, quantity surveyor Patricia Power and the SEAI

Sat, 30 Apr, 2022 - 05:17

Tommy Barker, Property Editor

We already have a climate crisis threatening us, our families, future generations, pretty much all other species and quite possibly the entire planet so it shouldn’t have taken an immediate and distressing war on Europe’s doorstep to focus our own attention on the use, cost and sources of energy in our homes.

But, human nature being what it is, we respond to short-term shocks like massive hikes in energy costs, for powering transport, greasing the wheels of the economy and keeping our homes ticking over, with light, heat and power.

Hilary Fairbrother's family home retrofit in Blessington, Co Wicklow, which featured in the recent series of 'Room to Improve' on RTE One, where Dermot Bannon was the architect as it underwent a deep retrofit and reconfiguration. Picture: Ruth Maria Photography

As sky-rocketing domestic bills plop in our e-mail inboxes and/or letter boxes (seal them up: There’s a draught coming in!), and the money gets hoovered out of bank account and purses, we’re on high-alert to price of energy and, the long-term cost to the planet from oil and fossil-based energy sources whose time is running out — Ukraine and Russia crisis notwithstanding.

“We didn’t need a war to highlight our dependence on oil,” says Ireland’s best-known architect, RTÉ’s Room to Improve presenter Dermot Bannon, “but unfortunately it takes people’s pockets to be hit to get the point across.”

As the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) confirms to Home magazine that the level of applications for individual home energy improvement/retrofit grants already this year is up a whopping 50% on the same period in 2021, to new heights (see below), Bannon reckons we’re now at a point of “a huge paradigm shift” in how we assess our homes, and nation’s housing stock.

He compares the shock to the system, and imperative to act, to the shift when the plastic bag levy was introduced as an anti-litter move 20 years ago, and how it altered our mindsets and consumer behaviour.

He quips that he struggles out of a shop now with his arms full of stuff if he has forgotten to bring his own bag rather than buy a plastic one: “it’s seen as shameful,” he observes.

Interiors in a retrofitted home by Brennan Furlong Architects, one of the practices taking part in the RIAI Simon Open Door campaign, from May 4-14, see www.riaisimonopendoor.ie. Picture: Richard Hatch Photography

As TV fans will know, the new Bannon family home got the ultimate in deep retrofits when they did up a 1930s house in Drumcondra, so he has put his hands deeply into his own pockets to get up to an ‘A’ BER — and, yes, of course it went over budget.

“It’s the same temperature inside on December 21 as it is in June 21, there are no draughts, we had to do it all as the roof had to come off, and the floors in the old house were all dug but I don’t regret it,” he says.

Retrofitting projects like wall insulating can save hundreds of euro a year on heating bills.

He acknowledges the huge sums the nation, and individuals, will have to invest to get 500,000 Irish homes retrofitted to a ‘B’ BER level by 2030. It’s going to take €28 billion, of which the Government in contributing €8 billion “so €20 billion has to come from homeowners’ pockets.”

“It’s quite a big ask,” he acknowledges, “but we’ve got to band together and buy into it,” noting that of an average cost now of a deep retrofit in an older home at, say, €50,000, up to half, or €25,000 can be claimed back in grants since thresholds were significantly improved in February of this year.

There’s be a payback in any case in living comfort, as well as energy bills (even more so if costs stay high), and homeowners can use savings or loans, or extend a mortgage, Dermot Bannon suggests, adding: “I’ve never put an A-rated extension of a home where the rest of it remains C-rated”.

Handily, some banks also give a slightly lower mortgage rates for BER B- or A-rated home too.

On the wider front of paradigm shift in thinking, leading architect Bannon says we need to be more conscious of where building materials come from and, for example, not to expect stone for a patio to be delivered from China in a fortnight, or steel from Eastern Europe and asserts “we should be growing lots more trees for timber”.

Dermot Bannon’s former Room to Improve co-presenter, quantity surveyor Patricia Power, is — like most of the rest of the country — looking at her own home’s energy source and use right now too.

She tells Ie Home that she’s in a c100-year-old house in Meath, with underfloor heating in her recent the new extension and radiators in the older, original part, with an oil burner powering it all right now: “While I love heat and the comfort, I need to get that changed.”

She reckons a move to a heat pump source will cost her €10,000 to €12,000, on top of any other changes she’s going.

Thankfully, for the rest of us who aren’t architects, or quantity surveyors, she describes what she has right now in her own home as “a bit of a cobble job,” and on the broader advice front she acknowledges that others will have their own sets of priorities and, most pressingly (and, sadly, de-pressingly) budget parameters.

Even the simplest jobs, such as improving draught-proofing, changing external doors and attic insulation can pay immediate dividends.

Wearing her An Post ‘Green Hub’ brand ambassador hat alongside her professional QS’s hard hat, Patricia Power advises home-owners to act, perhaps incrementally even, on jobs, and to keep it simple.

Comparing a well-insulated attic to wearing a warm hat in cold weather, she says retrofitting projects like attics and wall insulating (which can qualify for a higher level, 80%, grants refund too) can save €600 a year on heating bills.

She advises using the right experts for the right jobs, even in a relatively simple job like doing a proper job “up top”, like rolling out and fitting attic insulation.

“I’d rather earn money doing what I’m good at, and spend then on letting the specialists do their thing. Decide what you want to spend, the benefits you’ll get, and get started. You won’t get grants if you DIY in any case. You’re better off doing it once, and doing it right”, she advises.

The right starting point is, Patricia reckons, knowing what needs to be done, and having a plan — the An Post scheme she promotes is offering free home survey BER assessments under the Green Hub initiative (with partners SSE Airtricity, through www.anpost.com/green-hub).

“There’s a win-win there already,” she says, revealing that as an aside that she’s never been as pro-active in pre-planning designs as she is right now, at a time of soaring materials costs and notes that building is back to basics, i.e. blockwork construction, “given the costs of steel and timber, you wouldn’t be recommending them at the moment.”

For those planning an extension, her advice is to spend on retrofitting the existing building/envelope as a priority “and then spend anything you have left on your extension.”

Picking up on her old “side-kick” Dermot Bannon’s point made earlier here about not adding an A-rated new section to a C-rated property, she agrees: “If you don’t do the retrofit moves, you’ll end up living in your extension, and not in your house.

Quantity surveyor Patricia Power at the launch of An Post’s Green Hub. Picture: Marc O'Sullivan

“Knowing and improving your home’s BER rating will not only save homeowners money in the long run, but it will also vastly improve comfort levels. While certain changes will have a positive impact in the short-term, the long-term objective to improve the BER rating will ensure our homes are running as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.”

Power says: “We’re on the cusp of making the right moves, though, with most homeowners (60%) already knowing the benefits retrofit measures will yield, and 28% of those surveyed (by An Post/Green Hub) have undertaken at least some retrofit/improvement measures already, even if a full half of us appear to have no retrofit plans whatsoever.”

Of the 28% of those who have undertaken a retrofit project, over half (56%) have changed windows or doors: 80% have installed attic, cavity wall or external wall insulation; 47% have replaced their boilers. About 15% have installed solar panels but, to date, just 5% have installed a heat pump, this touted as the “holy grail” of home heating into the future, but only effective in a home that’s well-insulated, and with good air tightness levels.

Interiors in a retrofitted home by House7architects. This design followed a consultation during RIAI Simon Open Door campaign; see www.riaisimonopendoor.ie

While major retrofits eg via the rapidly-expanding network of One Stop Shops (up to 15 such setups are on the point of being approved right now) with grants of up to 50% available can impose cost of €50,000-€65,000 on older homes, surveys show a “colder reality”. The average amount most homeowners want to spend, or can afford to spend, is just over €8,000: in fact, 62% are prepared to spend less than €5,000, while 25% plan to spend between €2,000 and €5,000.

Revealing those stats last month, An Post/Green Hub pragmatically noted that it shows that “the investments homeowners are willing to make are not aligned with the Government’s ambitions, where the Government estimates that between €14,000 and €66,000 will be required to retrofit a home to a B2 rating.”

The staircase in a retrofitted home by Brennan Furlong Architects, one of the practices taking part in the RIAI Simon Open Door campaign, this May, see www.riaisimonopendoor.ie. Picture: Richard Hatch Photography

But, we’re already on the case to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint, with 28% of energy use nationally related to domestic/home uses.

The SEAI tells Home that there’s a 50% increase this year in grant applications for individual grants, with February 2022 representing “the highest rate of applications in a month since the programme began,” as well as a surge in interest (up 50%) in calls to its customer service centre, while web activity was up 190%, after the increased grant measures were announced in February 2022.

The SEAI recorded 3959 “unique applications”, from Jan to late March, for 5087 measures which means, on average, that people are applying for more than one measure at a time, they notice.

While costs are climbing “recent increase in the costs of material and labour have been taken into account in setting the newly-announced grant levels,” says the SEAI — but these will be kept under review and they add that “to date, applicants are not reporting difficulties in getting work completed due to labour shortages. However, we anticipate that lead times to complete works will increase across all programmes.”

OPEN DOOR CAMPAIGN

Knowledge is, indeed, power, and knowledge about power and energy is powerful too.

Architect Dermot Bannon is an ambassador for the RIAI’s annual Simon Open Door campaign, and points out that homeowners, and aspiring ones, can avail of the May 4-14 consultation session with a professional architect across a full range of retrofit/extension/home improvements.

Living space in the dairy farm retrofit in County Wicklow. This project was by Studio Red Architects following an RIAI Simon Open Door consultation. The Simon Open Door campaign takes place from May 4. Picture: Peter Grogan

They’ll get valuable, targeted advice, in return for a €95 donation, of which every cent goes to the Simon Community, working with Ireland’s homeless. It allies the start of actions addressing two crises, homelessness, and climate change.