Original subtitles

# (Cheery music) # I'm Ciaran McCarthy,

and I've been working as a building engineer for nearly 30 years.

I get asked all the time,

how do I save money on energy costs?

Well, retrofitting is all over the news lately,

and in this series, I'm travelling around Ireland,

checking out homes that are getting energy upgrades.

That dark blue is the coldest.

This is typically what I'd expect to see in an old house.

With prices only going up and the planet under pressure,

more and more people are saving money and energy

in their homes by taking on the retrofit challenge.

I'll be showing you what's actually doable

and what grants are out there to help.

From heat pumps to HVAC,

I'll break down the technical jargon

and make sense of all the retrofit lingo so it's easy to follow.

You're just bamboozled with all the decisions that need to be made.

So come with me as we retrofit Ireland

and discover how you can reduce your energy costs.

This is Heat my Home.

Today, I'm on my way to meet 39-year-old software engineer

Adam O'Brien, who is currently living at home

with his parents in Ballincollig in Cork.

This temporary stay is pending on a major energy retrofit

of his grandparents' house,

which he bought from the family two years ago.

It's a 1950s-euro bungalow on the Commons Road in Cork.

Adam hopes to bring this house up from an F

to at least a B2 energy rating,

and he is doing a lot of the work himself on the house,

to which he has a strong emotional connection.

My mother grew up in the house.

They moved in sometime in the '60s.

My grandfather had gotten a job across the road in the HGW factory,

which then became the Dulux Paint Factory.

The house was freezing.

We all lived in the dining room and the kitchen, and of course,

then they got the gas, but my mother would have been

delighted that Adam has it,

and the fact that he's doing all this work now

to make it such a habitable and warm,

comfortable house.

My initial fears going in to doing the work myself was,

Am I doing it correctly?

Am I doing it the right way?

Looking up YouTube videos asking friends who've done the same thing,

you realise that any direction that you go will be the right one.

There's no major mistakes.

If anything does happen, it may take a bit more time

and a bit more money, but you can go back from your mistakes.

The initial dream was to get my own place,

somewhere that I'm comfortable in.

I came into the house with three priorities.

I wanted the place fully rewired.

I wanted a nice big kitchen, and I wanted warm and dry.

After 15 plus years of renting in different houses,

I've done a couple of winters without central heating.

I'm just craving somewhere warm and dry.

Climbing the steps up to Adam's house,

I can see he's well underway with the clearing out,

and I'm curious to get a rundown

on his plan of action for this big project.

I see you're up and running with some work already anyway.

Yeah, just a little bit of debris outside.

You've a lot of the big, thick old block walls and the breeze blocks.

What's your plan on the outside from an installation perspective?

I'm going to go with the external insulation.

So the entire house will be encased in hard insulation.

It's the most expensive way to insulate your house,

but it's a really good way

because the dew point on the insulation is

on the outer surface, so it just blows off in the wind.

I'm dying to see how you're getting on inside.

Will you show me around? Yeah, great. Come on.

# (Cheery music) #

So this used to be the good room.

This floor was suspended.

So I started filling in the sub-based floor

with recycled materials from elsewhere in the house.

The important thing here is you got to watch cold bridging,

that you're going to have edge insulation around the edges

so that the walls,

which will be typically a bit colder,

won't transmit any coldness.

To help reduce heat loss,

putting an insulating barrier between the wall and the floor

around the edges is a simpler way to reduce thermal bridging,

which affects areas of a building where cold can be transferred

more easily due to breaks in the insulation.

Tell me, the windows don't look that old.

Are you keeping these or are you upgrading?

They'll be upgraded to triple glazed.

On top of having the triple glazed,

which will dramatically reduce the noise outside,

the air tightness membrane around the windows

will help with air leakage,

so a double benefit.

Next up on the interior tour I take a look at the attic,

and there are no surprises here.

This is typically what I'd expect to see in an old house.

Sometimes you wouldn't even have insulation,

but you have an amount of insulation here already.

It's the only insulation in the house,

so this should be taken out and replaced with new insulation.

One of the most important things in an old attic like this is,

you see here, that's old sarking felt,

which has no breathability whatsoever.

So when you have all your insulating

and air tight as everything done in the house,

you need to make sure this area can still breathe

because it will be cold and you can potentially

get condensation on the underside of the sarking felt.

So you need to make sure you have adequate ventilation.

The attic can be the main culprit for heat loss in any house.

So I'm going to carry out a quick test

to check for any possible trouble spots.

What I have here is a thermal imaging camera.

What it does show you is it shows you where some of the cold spots,

so areas that are basically sucking cold into your house, right?

When you look at here now,

you can see the insulation in between the joist.

It's doing a little bit of work.

It's not deep enough,

but the biggest issue is that the timbers in between the installation

are actually cold bridging.

You can see them as cold lines on the thermal imaging camera.

So what you'll be doing here now,

you'll be laying insulation between the joists,

and you'll also be laying insulation over the joist.

The benefit of that is they're no longer bringing coldness

back into your building.

We're done with the interior for now,

and Adam takes me to the garden to reveal his plans for the roof.

So out here, I'm hoping to place solar panels.

This is south-facing,

so it's obviously the best place to put them.

And so the plans have about eight panels.

Adam's plan to install solar panels on the south-facing roof

is a fantastic idea

and will be a good source of electricity for the house.

Even in dull Irish winter weather,

solar PV is viable as the panels generate power from light,

not heat, and can still produce some electricity

on a day with heavy cloud.

After an in-depth viewing of the house,

it's over to Adam's family home,

where we go through some of the costs involved.

Although he's doing a lot of the initial works himself,

Adam has decided to avail of the one-stop shop

programme for everything else.

Let's see how we're doing generally.

One of the advantages of going to the one-stop shop

was that I wouldn't have to manage multiple contractors

across multiple weeks, months, or even years.

So this is a fantastic hub.

Yeah, I mean, look, there is an awful lot to doing a deep retrofit.

There's a lot of different contractors

doing a lot of different things,

and they all have to be staged,

and there's a bit of work in putting all the grant together.

So I guess there's a bit of value in all the project management.

Yeah, there is entirely, definitely.

So the total cost of all the works before the grants

is a whopping 83,427.

And of course, the total cost of retrofit works

after grants is 48,867.

It's still a very large sum of money but this is a single payment.

And I suppose you're looking at the lifetime of your home

as a long term investment and many years of living

in a very comfortable home, and of course,

dramatically reduced energy bills. Yeah.

And I think it's somewhere that my parents,

that my mother can come over,

or my aunts and uncles and cousins

and still get to feel that it's still in the family,

but now it's something new and exciting.

Alright. Thank you very much.

We'll see you again soon. Thank you very much, Ciaran.

You have a lot of work to do. I definitely do.

Nice to look. Take care. Thanks very much.

< So we've spoken about some very big figures there,

and this is after Adam doing a lot of the demolition work himself.

He still has a load more to do,

and I'm looking forward to coming back

to see if he gets it all done because it is a huge task.

# (Buoyant music) #

It's day one on site for the contractors,

and Adam has popped by

to check on progress for the first big ticket item

of this retrofit project, the new windows.

I'm feeling excited about it because it is obviously the first step.

It's something I've been waiting for.

It's the first big job to getting it warm, getting it dry,

getting it a bit quieter as well because of the main road.

I understand that my grandmother got used to it over the years.

Also for some of the windows that are being put in,

they're essentially smaller panes for less vibration.

It's not the end of the line for the old windows,

as Adam has a plan for them.

The windows that were taken out,

they had to cut the frames to take them out properly.

The initial idea was that the quickest thing

is to just break the windows themselves

and just take everything out.

But my brother down in West Cork was hoping to get the windows

to be able to recycle them into a greenhouse.

So it's another aspect where the windows will be recycled.

The windows are in,

and the next job to be tackled is the external insulation,

which consists of slabs of rigid insulation

covering the entire outside of the house.

The guys are putting it together,

and it provides obviously a greater layer of insulation,

a greater layer of keeping the heat in to the house.

The guys start with a white plinth at the bottom

and then build up with this rougher insulation material

that can take on a bit of plaster.

The guys only started this morning, so this has only been a few hours.

The only difficulty for them,

really, is just being able to cut around windows and everything else.

Say the gable wall doesn't have any windows,

so that will just be plonk, plonk, plonk, straight away.

The work continues at a blistering pace,

but lead contractor Jamie has spotted a problem

that could slow things down.

This being your neighbour's alleyway.

They've been kind enough to allow us to do this wall,

but at the very end of the wall there,

that gate would need to be removed. Right.

And then attach it to their wall so we can insulate that part.

Alternatively, we can go all the way down

to the end of this lane way.

The little bit at the corner, the workaround will be

we can do internal installation on that room there,

on the wall facing out, if you get me. Okay, I'd have to assess.

For the internal, what would that look like?

The gable-end wall comes as far as this line here.

So the gate is attached to the other side of this wall.

So if your neighbours don't allow you to move that gate,

we can't externally insulate this section of the wall.

Now, the workaround will be this whole wall here

gets an internal slabbing.

I have to think about it.

I don't want to annoy the neighbours- Sure, I get it.

More than I have to. Yeah.

And so it does, again, more doubly insulate this room as well.

This has always been the wettest one.

You can see remnants of mould and everything in this corner.

Sure. So I I just have to assess it

because it's just a small other job for myself to get done. But yeah.

# (Cheery music) #

Today, I'm on my way to catch up with Adam O'Brien from Cork,

who's carrying out a deep retrofit on his grandparents' house,

which he purchased a couple of years ago.

Since I last visited Adam,

he has done an amount of work on the property.

Both the windows and the external wrap have been installed,

and the solar panels,

which will supply a good portion of his electricity for the house,

have been fitted on the roof.

But there's still lots to be done,

and Adam's place is a hive of activity.

Hello, Adam. Ciaran.

I'm seeing loads of vans outside today.

What's happening?

So the ventilation system is being finalised, put in.

The second fixing, as it's called.

The conduits were put in previously for it,

and the ducting for all the air.

So now they're popping it in and checking it out.

And then while they're up there in the attic,

they're finalising all of the attic insulation.

So they're rolling out a lot of new insulation for me.

Okay, sounds very exciting. But just show me around.

Yeah, absolutely. Let's go up and check it out.

The mechanical heat recovery ventilation system

that Adam is getting installed is a system

that brings fresh air into your home while recovering

heat from the stale air it removes.

It works by passing outgoing warm air through a heat exchanger,

which transfers its heat to the incoming cool air

without mixing the two.

This means you get fresh,

filtered air at a comfortable temperature,

reducing energy loss and improving indoor air quality,

all while keeping your heating bills lower.

One of the reasons I wanted the heat recovery unit

is because the house has been very damp in corners.

Even with the windows open in the summer,

it doesn't move the air within the house.

So be very interesting to see that that's able to extract all

that moisture and that condensation as well from the house

to keep it not go mouldy.

And I see you've also fitted your solar invertor.

Yeah, so the solar invertor and battery

were placed in a few weeks ago.

They were connected up to the solar panels here on the rafters,

so that's the connection.

And you have a battery fitted as well?

Yeah, the system is a three and a half kilowatt solar system outside,

the five kilowatt battery, and that battery,

I do actually have a direct connection to it.

So if there's ever an instance that the power is cut

in the house and I need to just run something off of a plug,

I should be able to pull directly from the battery as well.

And then anything extra is actually fed back into the grid.

The one-stop shop helps set it up to get it fed back

into electric Ireland.

The other It benefit the battery is there's a setting on the system

so you can have your night saver electricity

fill the battery at night as well.

So you can actually put your reduced price electricity

into the battery at night,

particularly in the winter,

when you wouldn't be generating as much power.

< Adam's ultimate goal is to someday get off the grid

and become self-sufficient with his energy needs.

His dedication has me wondering about the steps

your average household would need to take

in order to get fully off the grid.

This curiosity leads me to County Kilkenny

to meet with Mike Wilkinson,

who is somewhere down the road towards his own energy independence.

I hear you've been living off the grid.

Can you tell me a little bit about that? That's right.

My wife and I have been living off grade here for the last two years.

It's been a dream of ours for the last five years,

but realistically, we've only been doing it for the last two.

But I think the best thing to do is to come and show you the setup.

Okay, lead the way.

# (Buoyant music) #

So the first thing you're seeing then and hearing, obviously,

is the wind turbine. These are known as micro-turbines.

They generate AC electricity,

which is then sent into a control unit inside the shed there,

where it's converted into DC and stored into batteries.

And of course, with the wind turbine,

you can generate electricity at night as well,

when you wouldn't be generating any electricity from your solar.

Absolutely. And not just at night.

Even on days like today,

where it's quite grey and dull or in the depths of winter,

we can still have a source of power coming in

that we can store and then use inside in the house.

And when it comes to solar panels, what an array have we got?

How many panels? We're running 36 panels at the moment,

but they're all small ones because we bought at the wrong time,

unfortunately, but we're due to upgrade that in the near future.

Currently, we're running 1.4 kilowatts

from the ground mount array and 3.6 kilowatts from the rooftop array.

Combined, we get roughly five kilowatts.

I have never seen such an array of battery power in one room.

How did you go about designing a system like this?

There was a bit of trial and error involved.

Technology is moving so fast in the industry

that it's hard to keep up with what's the latest thing.

So we started off with camper van stuff in mind.

We found out very quickly that that wasn't quite powerful

enough to run a whole house.

So we were scaling that up and scaling that up until the point

where we realised that, no, you have to go

with domestic-level stuff in order to live a modern lifestyle off-grid.

If someone was inspired by your story and was starting today,

what tips would you give?

Okay.

Make friends with an electrician, be first one.

A lot of this equipment can be bought individually,

and realistically, you have to spend a good 6-9 months

learning about how to set it up.

So everything that's done here is always done from a safety point

of view first. Because at the end of the day,

you're investing somewhere in the parish of 10,000 into this.

And if you do it right, it'll last you 10 to 15 years minimum.

However, a small mistake could cost everything in that.

Living off the grid certainly has its challenges,

but with the right amount out of solar, wind, and battery storage,

it's definitely achievable.

It takes planning, patience, and a willingness to adapt,

but the independence it offers makes it all worthwhile.

For anyone looking to make the switch,

start small and learn as you go.

Back in Blackpool, County Cork,

and the retrofit on Adam O'Brien's grandparents' house,

which he purchased a couple of years ago,

is moving into its final stages.

All the work in the attic is done,

and today it's time for the installation of the heat pump

and underfloor heating.

It's one of the biggest changes to the house

to get the heat back into it.

I've been working for a couple of months to try

and get the floor installation to an acceptable level.

So there's been a lot of communication

with the retrofit company.

I was obviously concerned that they may come in and say, Oh,

no, that's not right. This is not right.

You should have done this.

So essentially critique and then pushing back the project

another few weeks. But that doesn't seem to happen.

The floors are level, the water pipes are in place,

and project manager, John, is doing a last review

to ensure all is up to scratch.

Let's check in here to make sure that there's nice,

even centres on the pipe work that the lads have laid.

Everything looks good inside here.

As you can see, they've reached all areas of the room.

There'll be no cold patches here once the job is up and running.

Now, your under floor will be tested today,

and it will maintain pressure.

So we know that there's been no damage done to the pipework

before the screed is poured.

It's a big moment for this project.

Everything has has been installed and tested,

and it's time to pour the concrete.

So this seals everything on the floor

and becomes essentially a mass.

For the pipes to heat up,

it needs to be of a certain consistency

or density to be effective across the house.

And then the screed is a self-leveling screed,

so it should come out to a nice level across the entire house.

And once the screed is dry inside,

it may take a few days to up to a week to cure,

and then I should be ready to start designing and developing inside.

So this is very much the watershed,

the end of the major stage of a lot of

the DIY construction development work,

and it's on to design next.

It's been almost a year since work began on this big retrofit project

for Adam O'Brien, near Cork City.

Insulation, windows, floors, and heating have been fitted

to bring this 1950s bungalow bang up to date.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the results.

I'm hoping Adam's hit his target,

and today I'm making one final visit to see how the place looks

now all the work has been completed.

Well. How's it going? Good.

How's are things? Good now.

How are you? Very good.

Do you want to come inside? Yeah, let's go.

Wow, it's roasting in here.

Yeah, it's a definite change to what it was before.

I won't need the jacket. No, definitely not.

So how's everything been going? It's been going very well.

Things have really come together in the last few months.

It's been a massive DIY project.

So just going room by room just to finish it off,

get it to my comfort level.

It'll be nice and warm and everything else in here.

Adam, this room is completely transformed as I was last here.

And the one thing I'm really noticing is

there's busy traffic outside and I can hear very little of it.

Yeah, massive change from when the double glaze was in.

Being able to sit down and chill out in the sitting room,

nice and quiet.

Just ignore any weather or traffic outside has been amazing.

And I see you've refitted your precious stove.

Yeah, I had that installed previously just to try

and get a bit more heat into the house prior to the energy upgrades,

but haven't necessarily needed it yet.

So I haven't fired it up this season at all.

It does slightly impact your BER,

but a lot of people nowadays like to have the stove

just so that they have that backup plan

in case there was a power cut.

In this room, I had a problem with a cold bridging here

where the external installation couldn't be put on.

It was just approximately about a metre, metre and a half,

where the gable end of my bungalow

and the neighbour essentially have a gate there.

So they were very kind to allow

the external installation to come up all the way on the lane way

that they have access to, which is on their property line.

So for this room, I put in insulated boards here,

insulated plaster board, just to cover that last little bit.

I did the entire wall to keep it uniform

because I didn't want any little notches

or little bits the wall coming out.

It doesn't take too much away from the room itself.

It still feels quite spacious.

So it was a very easy decision to make.

The new insulation and underfloor heating

ensure Adam's home is cosy and warm today.

But I want to see just how warm it is compared to a year ago.

So let's have a look at your attic

now that you've all the insulation work done.

God, there's a huge difference.

This is keeping your heat downstairs, and of course,

the attic is cold because you're keeping the heat downstairs,

none the heat is coming up into the attic.

Yeah, it's great to see all the extra fluffy insulation up here

really encapsulating that envelope.

Throughout this renovation project,

Adam has been aiming for a BER rating of B2.

Has he achieved this goal?

So all this work has been done to dramatically improve

the energy efficiency of your home.

So the real question is, where did your BER land?

Yeah, the BER.

So when this whole project started, the BER was an F.

So it was pretty, pretty, at the bottom, G,

obviously being the lowest.

And so it was reassessed recently.

So I'm happy to report that I have an A1 rating.

Really? That is an amazing achievement.

Well done. Well, that's amazing.

That is superb.

So it's really good to have that to show off the level of work

and the investment in time that I've put into the house.

# #

My work here is done and dusted.

All that remains is for Adam to throw his new hall door open

and welcome family family and friends to have their own

tour of his transformed home.

(Chatter)

He's had frustrated times and everything,

but he stayed motivated in fairness through it all.

He's put a lot of love and blood, sweat, and tears into this,

so it's fantastic to finally see that it's all paid off.

Hopefully, he'll have many happy years in his cosy new home.

Adam, to celebrate the lovely warm house you've welcomed us

into today, I brought around a little bit of champagne.

Thought we might have a glass and raise a toast.

If you marked my ceiling. (Laughter)

I think I'll just add it to the snag list.

< Kind of excited to see how the winter fares inside here.

Two years ago, when I was asked in here,

when it was all intact, it was very cold,

wearing a hoodie the whole time,

trying to get the fire going.

Not great, but I'm hoping to sit on one of the couches,

look out onto dark, sleety, snowy weather,

and just be warm and comfortable inside,

and just that cosy feeling.

Thanks, everyone, for coming. Cheers.

(All) Cheers. Well done.

< This has been a long road for Adam.

Getting hands-on and taking on any renovation project yourself

takes a lot of courage, especially when you have all

the technology of the deep retrofit to think of.

But now, their cherished family home is safe and warm

for generations to come.

Subtitling RTÉ 2025.