Does the SEIs Greener Homes Scheme harm the environment more than it helps it?

maniac101

I've been a little troubled lately about the focus of Sustainable Energy Ireland's Greener Homes Scheme on selling stuff rather than on promoting energy efficiency or reduced energy use at home.

My main gripe (and I've a number of them) with the scheme is that some of the technologies it supports are best suited to the kinds of housing developments that we should be discouraging. Geothermal heat pumps are a typical example. Over 90% of heat pumps in residential applications are the horizontal ground source type. Using a very rough rule of thumb, a 150sq m house would require around 300sq m of outside ground space for the collector. This space requirement makes the system unsuited to most urban homes. My (anecdotal) information is that most new systems are being installed in new one-off houses in rural or semi-rural locations. Surely this is completely at odds with the kinds of sustainable housing development that we should be encouraging? Similarly, wood pellet boilers require considerable space when you take fuel storage into account, making the technology less suited to your average urban home.

I'm also concerned that one can qualify for a grant without having to prove any minimum building or insulation standard. Perhaps this explains why a few people I know of are disappointed with the performance of their GSHPs, given the COPs that the suppliers promised.

Surely these grants should be provided based on the sustainability of the new development or renovation project?

silverharp

I doubt if it eoncourages one off housing. The Planning authorities don't care what heating system you opt for. However their focus should be on benefititng the most amt of people and agreed these are niche products for new builds however given the amt of existing one off properties a retro fit would make a difference if they were adopted by more people.

They should really be lobbying the gov to increase insulation standards and passive heating, I believe a house built to Swedish building standards would need very little heating in Ireland

maniac101

silverharp wrote:

I doubt if it eoncourages one off housing. The Planning authorities don't care what heating system you opt for.

True, the scheme doesn't actively encourage one-off housing. However by supporting technologies that are best suited to this type of development, it concentrates subsidies on housing types that are least sustainable. Also, by subsidising a geothermal or biomass heating system in a one-off house, the government body effectively transmits an inaccurate message to the public that the development is environmentally sound.

I agree that the focus should be on insulation and on building standards. My view is that with this scheme, the government has used an environmental policy primarily to encourage trade, instead of using it first and foremost to resolve environmental issues.

ednwireland

i wonder what the sei actually does having tried to buy a wood pellet stove of my choice earlier this year most (all but one) of the installers on their list (in donegal) couldn't commision the stove and hence couldn't sign off the paperwork for the grant application gave up in the end goin to put in a log burner - slightly more hassle (to run) but cheaper in the end.

mr_blobby

Totally agree about trying to get people to sign off on the paperwork for pellet stoves, but you could check HERE for a list of dedicated pellet stove suppliers...they should know their way around things since they only do pellet stoves & boilers

Kelter

guys I accept that you can make a case to show that anything is bad... but did you ever think... maybe your over doing it.

I mean... come on. SEI can't be expected to seriously make such a sudden change to the way people act, can't you just accept that a gradual change, as frustratingly slow as it may be... is the best that can practically be achieved.

What do you think?

Kelter

also... individuals don't build housing estates. developers do...

So wouldn't it be nice if SEI ran another scheme aimed at developers... and isn't it a pity that they haven't been running it for the past 5 years...

Oh... wait a minute

http://www.sei.ie/index.asp?locID=665&docID=-1

Boggle

Watch SEI in the coming months - rumours from a god source indicate that heatpumps and possibly woodpellet are going to be removed from the scheme soon as they are getting far too many problems with the systems (ie heatpumps dont work in practice and woodpellet unless bulk are significantly more expensive than oil!!)

PS qualifying as an approved installer is a joke - all you have to do is show that your company has a tax clearance cert and ... !!!kapow!! your an approved installer!!!:D

And dont get me started on the Joke (Energy) Cert. Just goes to show that you dont have to have a clue to run things here... (Even the americans who are often slagged off on environmental issues would laugh at the pathetic attempt we made)
Pity finegael didn't get in - they had promised a complete overhaul of SEI but alas...