No SEAI grant will pay you to build a new passive house. Ireland’s home energy grants are aimed at the existing stock: the heat pump bundle now reaches €12,500, wall insulation up to €8,000, windows up to €4,000. Where passive house methods and grant money genuinely meet is deep retrofit.
That distinction trips up a lot of people, so this article separates the two cleanly: what exists, who qualifies, and how an EnerPHit-standard retrofit fits the system as it stands in June 2026.
Why is there nothing for new builds?
The eligibility rules are explicit. SEAI’s heat pump grant requires the home to have been built and occupied before 2021. The windows and doors grant requires construction and occupation before 2011, and you must be replacing existing single or double glazing. A new build fails both tests by definition.
The logic is fair enough. Grants exist to close the performance gap in older housing; new homes already have to meet NZEB requirements under the Building Regulations. Going beyond that to certified passive house is a voluntary step, and its payback comes through heating bills, comfort and asset quality rather than a state cheque. We make that case with numbers in the feasibility studies we run for clients weighing up the standard.
What SEAI grants exist right now?
The amounts below were taken from SEAI’s individual energy upgrade grants in June 2026. The heat pump figures changed substantially on 3 February 2026, when the maximum rose from €6,500 to a bundled €12,500, so treat anything older you read elsewhere as out of date.
| Measure | Maximum grant | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Heat pump system (air, ground or water source) | €12,500 for houses, €9,500 for apartments | Bundle of €6,500 unit grant, up to €2,000 central heating works, €4,000 Renewable Heat Bonus for scrapping a fossil or storage system; home built and occupied before 2021 |
| Air-to-air heat pump | €7,500 | Heats by air units; no hot water |
| Wall insulation (cavity, internal or external) | Up to €8,000 | A second wall measure is now allowed if you previously claimed one |
| Attic insulation | €2,000, or €2,500 for first-time buyers and qualifying welfare recipients | Often the cheapest kWh saved in the house |
| Windows | €1,500 (apartment) to €4,000 (detached) | Built before 2011; replacing single or double glazing |
| External doors | €800 per door, maximum two | |
| Heating controls | €700 | |
| Solar PV | €1,800 | |
| Solar water heating | €1,200 | |
| Technical assessment | €200 | Required before a heat pump in pre-2007 homes, unless a valid BER shows heat loss of 2.3 W/K.m² or better |
Two structural points matter more than any single amount. First, grant approval must be in place before works start; retrospective applications fail. Second, the heat pump rules enforce fabric first: SEAI requires the home to be adequately insulated before the pump goes in, which is precisely the order a passive house consultant would specify anyway.
How does an EnerPHit retrofit use these grants?
EnerPHit is the Passive House Institute’s retrofit standard: heating demand of 25 kWh/m²a or better (or a component-quality route), airtightness of 1.0 air changes per hour. The grant system never mentions it, and does not need to, because the grants are measure-based. An EnerPHit project claims the same insulation, window, heat pump and solar money as any other deep retrofit. The standard determines how well you specify each measure, not whether you qualify.
The two recognised routes onto EnerPHit map neatly onto SEAI’s two pathways:
- Whole-house in one programme. SEAI’s One Stop Shop service manages a complete upgrade to a minimum B BER, with grants deducted from the cost upfront and an average rating uplift of D2 to A2. A retrofit specified to EnerPHit clears the B threshold with room to spare.
- Step-by-step over years. The individual grants suit the EnerPHit component route: windows this year, walls the next, heat pump once the fabric is ready. The rule change allowing a second wall insulation measure helps staged projects that were previously locked out.
One caution from the PHPP models we build for retrofit clients: the grant list runs to insulation, windows, heat pumps, controls and solar. Ventilation with heat recovery, the lung of any EnerPHit project, is not on it. Budget MVHR yourself, and rough out your existing fabric numbers first with our free U-value tool.
Can landlords, housing bodies and councils use these grants?
Mostly yes. SEAI’s heat pump scheme lists eligible applicants as owner occupiers, companies, registered charities, holiday home owners, Approved Housing Bodies, and private and commercial landlords. So an AHB upgrading its stock, or a landlord lifting a rental’s BER, draws the same amounts as a homeowner.
Local authority housing sits outside this system; council stock is upgraded through separate exchequer-funded retrofit programmes rather than homeowner grants. At the larger scale, the State has shown it will fund passive house directly through capital budgets rather than grants: Shanganagh Castle, with over 550 Passivhaus social and affordable homes, was procured to the standard outright. For public clients, the question has shifted from whether passive house is fundable to whether the team can deliver it.
How should you sequence a grant-aided deep retrofit?
- Start from a whole-house plan, not a single measure. A heat pump in a leaky house is an expensive radiator.
- Model the existing building, then the target. This is where PHPP earns its keep, and where EnerPHit gives the plan a defined finish line.
- Secure grant approval before any contractor starts. The works must be done by SEAI-registered contractors to qualify.
- Do fabric before plant: insulation and airtightness first, windows with the wall works, heat pump last.
- Test and document as you go: a blower-door result, the post-works BER (there is a €50 grant towards it), and photographic evidence of what is now hidden in the walls.
Where Mosart fits
Mosart authored Ireland’s national Passive House guidelines, so we know where the grant system helps and where it stops. Our feasibility studies scope EnerPHit retrofits against the current supports, and our certification team takes projects through to the PHI certificate. Start by checking your existing fabric with the U-value tool.