Kieran McCarthy answers your home energy upgrade questions

Kieran McCarthy is an engineer and builder from Cork. He runs a building company, KMC Homes, and has also renovated his own cottage in Cork availing of all the grants on offer from SEAI. His home is now A1 rated, and he has solar panels and drives an electric car, so as he says himself, ‘I'm certainly living the brand’.  Kieran is also heading up a new TV show on RTE, deep retrofitting homes in Ireland, called ‘Heat my Home’. 

We spoke to Kieran for our brand-new podcast ‘House Warming’ about some of the common challenges and misconceptions around a home energy upgrade. 

Check out his conversation with host Kim below:

Kim: Kieran you're busy retrofitting other people's homes, but you've actually gone through the process yourself. So, when you're speaking to your clients, you can speak to your own experience. Tell me a little bit about your own retrofit. It's an A1 now, but what was it before?

Kieran: It was about a D or an E. It was a cottage and there was an old lady living in it. There was negligible insulation, the windows were old PVC, a mixture of single and double glazed and no air tightness to speak of. It would have been a grand house in the summer, but in the winter, you'd have noticed it. And you would see condensation on the walls and that kind of thing. So, while we extended the House, we also deep retrofitted it and put a combination of external insulation, cavity insulation and a bit of dry lining as well. We got a heat pump, a heat recovery ventilation system and solar PV.

Kim: And how is it now that it's A1? Super warm and cosy?

Kieran: Yes, it's a vastly different house. When you're dealing with an old home, there are always challenges. Because you have the old footprint and old fabric to deal with, you must be sympathetic with an old house.

Kim: Going back to square one, Kieran, if first time buyers or even second time buyers are looking for a home. In terms of upgrading that home for energy efficiency, what do people need to look out for to avoid a money pit?

Kieran: I think the age of the house tells a lot and even where the house is located. It's generally easier to renovate houses that are in the city because they'll be connected to the local city sewage system. The older the house, the harder it is to renovate. I mean, the most beautiful houses are the old stone cottages, but when you start working with stone, it's tricky. Stone holds a lot of dampness; the stone needs to breathe. You can dry-line the inside but there’s nothing you can do on the outside really to insulate it.

The easiest house to renovate would be homes from the mid-1970s onwards which might have block work cavity that you can fill. 

occasionally you can see some amount of asbestos in an old building. As long as you don't move it, it's perfectly fine to leave it in place. It's only when you start moving it that it needs to be taken care of properly.

And I suppose things like subsidence and that sort of thing which generally should be picked up with an engineer’s survey. 

Kim: What are the biggest challenges homeowners face when they go to undertake a deep retrofit?

Kieran: You’ve got to make sure you have the money available, though generally there's a   good news story when you start putting all the figures together, because when you look at the SEAI grants, which are very generous, they can take up to 40% off your overall figure, so you can find out at the end of the day it's a much smaller figure than you first thought. Albeit still quite a large figure in some cases, not all. In other cases, you might have to move out for a few months while the work is carried out but sometimes you can live in the house while the retrofit work is being done because it might be a lot less invasive if it's a much newer house. So, I suppose you must look at the monies involved. 

Kim: And Kieran, you've obviously been working with clients over the past number of years. How have attitudes changed towards home energy upgrades? Are people more open to it? Is it something that is top of mind now compared to a few years ago?

Kieran: Yes, particularly in the last few years, I think after the recent war in Ukraine, when you had spikes in electricity and gas, people became much more conscious of their energy bills and energy usage. And then you start looking at the energy efficiency of your home and realise that you’re paying a fortune for your gas and electricity. And of course, finely, solar PV systems have been improving dramatically year on year, so more people are beginning to invest in that. 

Kim: Do you think finance is the main incentive for people making their homes more energy efficient or do you think climate awareness and consciousness is also a factor?

Kieran: I think there's a lot of things, younger individuals feel the need to be doing their bit for the environment, and it’s a no brainer for them. Whereas, 10 or 15 years ago that wasn't the case. People would often get an extension, get the nice open plan kitchen and upgrade as they went along, they didn't do it holistically, all in one package. And we've seen older couples who've renovated their house or build a new house and they're like brand new people. I mean, there's a new lease of life, and they feel they're back in touch, and they've really modernised their whole setup and they feel much better about it.

Kim: What are the main misconceptions that people have before undergoing a home energy upgrade.

Kieran: Some people feel that when the house is airtight, they'll barely be able to breathe. Whereas airtightness really is to stop uncontrolled leakage of warm air. In the winter, that's really what you're looking to do, just to get rid of all the draughts but you will also need to get a ventilation system to bring in some fresh air just keep the air quality good, which is what your ventilation system is doing. But, on the other side, I often get asked, ‘can I open the windows in the summer?’ 100%! I mean ventilation units don't need too much in the summer, they tip along. 

Another misconception is that people think that if they've an older house they’ll have to hack up all the floors for insulation but that isn't always the case. Like if you've well insulated walls and a well-insulated attic, you can have enough compensation there that you don't necessarily have to take up all the floors depending on the BER assessment.

Kim: I know you mentioned people thinking it might be too warm in the summer. We have had a particularly warm summer and now we're coming into autumn, people are concerned that buying a new A rated home, they’ll be too warm up the top of the house. What would you say to people who have those worries?

Kieran: I had this conversation with a client this morning. You really have to look at where the heat coming from? If you have an open plan, kitchen, dining, living with loads of glass and sliding doors facing south, you get all the sun, the strongest rays and heat and all that from the South, so triple glazed windows will certainly help with that and you can get reflective glass. There are various films you can apply to the glass that help reflect some of that solar gain, and one of the biggest elements that I found really good are canopies over your windows.

Kim: So, you don't think Ireland is going the way of air-conditioning in residential homes?

Kieran: I've heard people talking about it. I've seen one or two people do it, but I haven't seen the need myself in any houses that we've built.

Kim: And we don't want to waste energy around here!

Listen to the full episode below: