Meet HELPer: SEAI's new tool for home energy insights
Try HELPER, SEAI's new smart energy tool that shows you how a Heat Pump, Solar PV or an EV could cut your bills and carbon footprint. Take control of your home energy use and your electricity bills.
Meet HELPer
Managing energy at home has never been more important. From choosing the right electricity tariff to considering technologies such as heat pumps, solar panels and electric vehicles, homeowners have more options than ever to consider. But understanding what works best for your home, your lifestyle and your budget can be difficult, overwhelming and complex.
SEAI's new smart energy tool, HELPer, is designed to make these decisions easier. It provides personalised insights into your home's energy use, helping you understand your options, compare different scenarios and make more informed choices about how you use energy now and in the future.
What is HELPer?
HELPer is a free, interactive tool that provides a clear picture of how your home uses energy today and helps you understand what you can do to take greater control of your energy costs. The tool creates a personalised energy profile of your home, allowing you to explore how changes in energy use, electricity tariffs and Low Carbon Technology (LCT) upgrades could affect your energy bills and carbon emissions.
How it works
Start by entering a few details about your home, including its BER rating, dwelling type and heating system. If you have a smart meter, you can upload your own electricity consumption data for a more personalised experience. If not, HELPer estimates your energy use using national data and typical consumption patterns for homes like yours.
HELPer then helps you explore how different energy choices, electricity tariff structures and home energy upgrades could affect your energy use, your energy bill and your carbon emissions. The assumptions used throughout the tool are transparent and clearly explained, so you can see how the results have been produced.
Low Carbon Technologies (LCTs)
HELPer provides guidance and insights on the impact of adopting Low Carbon Technologies (LCTs), including:
- Heat pumps – replacing your existing heating system with an efficient electric heating solution.
- Solar PV – generating your own electricity from rooftop panels.
- Electric vehicles – understanding the impact of switching to an EV, including removing petrol or diesel fuel costs and the effect on your home's total energy bill.
The tool's load profiles for each technology are derived from modelling of their performance and usage in Irish homes, helping to ensure that projected electricity demand accurately reflects real-world behaviour.
Features
- An interactive platform that enables you to test upgrade scenarios for your specific property
- Personalised insights based on your own or estimated consumption data based on your home.
- Side-by-side comparison of your current home energy consumption versus one or more LCT upgrades
- Transparent, published assumptions behind every calculation.
- All information is downloadable so you can keep it.
Benefits
HELPer turns complex home energy information into practical insights that are easier to understand and compare. By connecting your personal energy profile, the tool helps you build a clearer picture of what is driving your energy costs and where opportunities for savings may exist.
Using information specific to your property, HELPer provides tailored insights to support more informed decisions, whether you're planning improvements now or considering options for the future. The tool helps you understand how your home's energy needs align with your lifestyle and priorities, enabling you to make choices that work best for your household. It also provides insight into how those choices interact with the wider energy system, supporting a smarter, more flexible and efficient electricity grid.
