Cold facts and uncomfortable truths about retrofitting our homes

With the soaring costs of energy, the Irish Examiner Property team asked Superhomes to assess two very different homes built a century apart to see how much it costs to improve their energy rating

The aim of course is a cosy home that doesn't cost the earth to heat. For older houses, retrofitting could eventually pay for itself in energy savings — but it will certainly involve a significant outlay to begin with. Picture: Getty Images

With topics such as CO2 emissions, rising sea levels and temperatures, other devastating impacts of climate change — and, oh, the future of the planet and humankind — rightly set to swamp discourse over the next three weeks of the 26th UN Conference of the Parties (Cop26) our choices and reaction are (a) despair, and/or (b) action.

Where else can one start to act but at home, and with one's personal behaviour? The days and decades of wanton waste and cheap energy are long gone; we’ve gotten wise to the new consensus, cosy or uncomfortable, that it behoves all — corporations, governments, citizens — to act now.