All language subtitles for Heat.my.Home.S01E06.1080p.RTE.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-DoRN_track3_[eng]

# #

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 kind of 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 Dublin to
meet with Cillian McNeill

and Rachel Meehan, who are getting
ready to carry out

a full retrofit on their 1970s
mid-terrace house in Donaghmede.

Their aim is to improve their home
from a chilly BER of E1

to a snug and warm A rating.

This is going to be a challenge for
the couple who have been living

here since 2023, but haven't done any
major work

in the place since they moved in.

A lot of the heating system,
insulation, hasn't been upgraded,

and that's just made things
significantly colder

than they need to be.

So through the winters, it's been
difficult keeping warm.

We have blankets on ourselves
trying to keep warm.

Sitting in the sitting room, we can
see your breath

in the evenings sometimes, so that's
not great. No.

Initially, I thought the best way to
go about it was just to replace

things out myself or hire out some
tradesmen.

And over time, it started to feel
like it was

going to become an all or nothing
situation.

So then the stage was research what
that might mean.

Now I have an electric car,

so I was familiar with the grants
that they were offering for that.

So that led to this journey.

Our dream house, for starts, it's
nice and warm.

We don't have to worry about
insulation.

We have everything fully electric as
well.

Make it more of a green house.

More of a green house as well, yeah.

We've always taken a very green
approach to things.

We are big into the of renewables.

Currently, yes, it's the oil that we
have,

but hopefully when that's done,
we're not going to rely on things

like gas or oil and rely wholly on
solar

or cheap nightly rates that we can
get off the grid.

Imagining another winter in the
house the way it is,

is not great, no.

Rachel and Cillian's home is part of
a classic 1970s housing estate,

and I can see there's a lot to be
done

to bring it into the 21st century.

On the upside, terraced homes of this
vintage

tend to be very well built with solid
partition walls on each side.

The downside, back when these houses
were constructed,

insulation wasn't seen as a big
priority.

I've got to close the door, keep the
heat in.

I'm sure you can feel it even
walking in.

It's not like there's much of a
difference between

the outside and the inside.

You're looking for a total
transformation, so.

Yeah.
Okay, so this is the blank canvas.

Do you want to show me around?
Yeah, please.

Come on.

# #

So this is our dining room.

We spend most of our time either
in here or in the sitting room.

So how is this room going to change
now? What's the plan in here?

We're looking to get a heat pump
installed,

and there's a possibility we might
need to upgrade

the plumbing system.

And I see you have a suspended floor
here.

Is there any work happening with the
floor or such?

No, we're not doing anything
with the floor at well.

Well, that's great because a lot
of people,

when they consider a deep retrofit,

they assume you have to hack up all
the floors, which is really invasive,

but you're getting your A1 rating
without having to touch the floors.

(Both) Yep.

This is a lovely room.

It's beautifully finished.

I hope they're not going to take this
apart and rebuild it, are they?

No, the hope would be that we just
get the front window done as

they're coming and going with things
like

the insulation and whatnot.

But you're having external
insulation? Yeah.

The huge benefit of external
insulation is, yes,

it is the most expensive way
of insulating a house,

but it is the best.

The other thing is because you're
mid-terrace, you only You have

to do the front and the back
because the two side walls are

considered warm because they're
between your house, which is warm,

and your neighbour's house,
which is warm,

so they don't have to be insulated.

< I want to have a look upstairs,

and I'm very surprised to discover
that as we go up,

the temperature goes down.

This is our bedroom.

I think you can tell, as soon as you
walk in,

the difference in temperature.

This is one of the colder rooms in
the house?

Probably the coldest room in the
house, actually. Is it?

And normally, the first floor of most
houses is usually

warmer because of all your insulation
in the attic.

Is there any insulation in the attic?

No, there's nothing in the attic at
all.

The good news is you have quilt
insulation going up into the attic.

That's going to make a phenomenal
difference because warm air rises

from your ground floor to your
first floor,

from your first floor to your attic.

So trapping that and keeping it in
your first floor

will make an immense difference.

As a bathroom, what's the moisture
like?

If you're going to take a shower,
the window has to be open.

If you leave it closed, you're
turning this into a sauna.

I Now, we know you're getting a
demand control ventilation unit

that will mechanically extract the
steam from this room

and expel it through a centralised
duct.

It's time to figure out what a
steam-free future for Rachel

and Cillian will cost, and I have the
numbers right here.

The couple are using the services of
a one-stop shop contractor

to help them with the retrofit.

The contractor will carry out all of
the work involved

and will also help with the official
paperwork they need.

So the total cost of your retrofit
works

before the grants is just under
80,000, 79,820.

The total cost of retrofit work after
the grants is 55,768.

That's a big drop.

It's pretty much what swayed us to
go towards this in the first place.

We could have sat here and
piecemealed it all out,

tried to get the best possible
price.

And yeah, maybe we could have hit
a number similar to this,

but the amount of time and
investment that would have

taken on our part to do it, this is
one thing,

one set of grants, everything taken
care of for us.

It's hard to argue against value
like that.

For once, you'll be looking forward
to winter coming.

(Laughter)
Test everything.

# #

Retrofitting a mid-terrace house
presents a lot of unique challenges.

With no gable windows, there's no
natural airflow

or light coming in from the sides,

and no rear access means that every
tool,

material, or tradesperson has to come
through the front door.

It only takes one delay to throw
a job like this

completely off course.

But if everything stays on track,

this cold, outdated house will be
transformed into something brand new.

Rachel and Cillian have a lot
of work ahead of them,

and they want to be fully prepared.

They've arranged to have a pre-work
air tightness test carried out

so they can discover just how
draughty their chilly home is.

Today, we're getting the air
tightness test done

just before any of the work starts.

Just get an idea of what we're
dealing with right now,

how the windows are, how any of the
draughts are,

but it's going to come back quite
airy, I would say.

An air tightness test is just
a test to see

how draughty your house is.

That would give us a number.

To put the number into perspective,
a new build has to be five.

So the lower the number, the better.

So this house, expected to probably
come in the region of 10

because it's an older house.

So the reason we're doing the test
is to find out

if there's any easy to fix air
leaks.

We're going to turn the fan on, it
will really emphasise any leaks.

So if there's a draught coming
somewhere with the fan running,

it will stick out.

There'll be a huge draught there.

So what we're doing now is sucking
air out of the building

with the fan. So that's
depressurising it.

So that means anywhere there's
a leak, it's going to be revved up.

It's going to be like a leaf blower
blowing out through it.

So it really emphasises where it
leaks there.

It's like we're in a bouncy
castle at the minute.

I'd be pretty optimistic.

It is a mid-terrace house, but it's
concrete hollow block.

Half of Dublin is built on concrete
hollow block,

and it's generally quite draughty.

So we're going to walk around
the house now,

wear our smoke pen, put our
detective's cap on,

and see can we find some leaks.

# #

This is what happens when you don't
put air-tight hoods

in the spotlight, the air is just
flying through.

That's a huge source of your
draughts.

So right next to it, we have the hot
press,

and the hot press has a huge leak.

So here we have a huge hole in your
attic.

So there's no point renovating your
house, putting a heat pump in,

insulating it, and leaving a hole
like that

for all your heat to get out.

It's one thing to live in a house
and feel the cold,

but having that visualised for you
and confirmed, it's surprising.

So with the result of your
pre-work's air test,

a new house has to be five.

So this house I'd expect it to come
in around 10 or worse,

but it's surprisingly been at 7.8,

so it's a bit better than expected.

Oh, I mean, that's good to hear.

I suppose it means that

whatever work we can do now is

definitely going to bring that
number as close to five as it can.

So you can have light fittings,
your trap door,

your hot press is always one.

Guys come and put pipes through
the attic, leave a huge hole,

your fuse board is another one.

It's all very easy stuff to fix.

So you can make a house very air
tight,

and it requires a lot of work,

but you can get most of the way
there

by doing very simple jobs,

which is what we're going to do here
for Cillian's house.

With the results from the air
tightness test in the back pocket,

work can be in in earnest on the
house.

First up is the replacing of the old
single-glazed windows

with the new triple-glazed,

and project manager Martin is on site
to make sure it all goes to plan.

Windows and doors are extremely
important because

they're stage one.

This is the new type of door that we
would install with all

of our retrofit houses.

Now, it's a composite door, but very
good for air tightness,

a lot of draught seals on it.

Very good for keeping in heat and
keeping out

any of your breezes or cold.

The windows for this house is
totally unique to the project,

and it's a very vital part to get
right.

If they don't fit, they really hold
up the rest of the project.

This is the room I work from home
in.

The current windows are quite old,
small openings,

a bit harder to actually manage and
open up.

So the new window will open a lot
more light into the room,

and the new ones will be A-rated,
so it'll be triple-glazed units.

Even this one, the hinges on it are
starting to rot.

You can see there, the screws
are letting in in the end.

So to service your windows should be
done every six months.

A bit of WD should be applied into
the hinge here and here,

just to allow the window to be more
easy to access.

Working on camera a lot,

so being in a dark and dingy room
doesn't exactly look well for me.

It's fantastic to finally get
something a little bit more modern.

Triple glazed window,

it cuts down a lot of even road
traffic noise,

but particularly in these areas
here,

where you have lots of planes
flying over and back,

it's very good. So the like of this
window is a triple glazed window,

it has huge benefits for a house
like this close to the airport

because as you can quite clearly
hear,

with the windows slightly tilted,

you can hear the roar of the plane.

Now, if you were to close it out,

it simply deadens the noise
completely, almost.

# #

That looks fabulous, doesn't it?
Yeah, yeah.

You like it? Oh, I love it.

Really love it, yeah. It's perfect.

Stage two will take care of
everything in one go,

which will be the external
installation.

It'll be the heat pump, the new
radiator system,

attic installation, ventilation.

So the important stage is to get the
windows and doors out of the way,

and now it gives us a clean run to
go through it to rest.

# #

# #

Today, I'm on my way back to
Donaghmede

in Dublin to catch up with Cillian
and Rachel.

They are carrying out a full retrofit
on their 1970s mid-terrace house,

which they moved into in 2023.

Since my last visit,

the work has been charging ahead
at a blistering pace,

and it's great to discover that
changes to the front of the house

are not just cosmetic.

I see you've new windows installed.
They're fantastic.

You can already feel the difference
in terms of the heat

and the sound as well.

Can't hear anything out here.
Super.

Will you show me around?
Yeah, of course.

Great. Thank you.

# #

You took the wall down.
We did indeed.

Managed to find some space in the
budget to get it done,

and I think it was well worth doing.

It must have been an amazing moment
when you walked in

seeing it done, was it?

So the light coming into the room
was just fantastic,

and the space we're getting, it's
unreal.

It's all very well having great
insulation from the new windows,

but one of the big issues with this
house

is the lack of any proper insulation
in the attic.

There's an awful lot of work has been
done up here.

When we would have came up
and actually surveyed this attic,

we would have seen that insulation
was quite poor.

It probably would have started off
at 150 millimetre,

it's now reduced to 50 millimetres.

So this is what it would have
reduced itself

to over the last number of years.

It's literally like a carpet.

This is an issue you'd often come
across, I guess, in older houses,

but definitely for anyone,

it's worth checking their insulation
level in the attic.

Insulation is a very cheap thing to
do.

But has a huge impact for heat
loss, for everything,

and it's not a big expense in
anybody's home.

So even when you compare it, like if
the new wall,

which is even under the walkway,

so we have 300 mill of wall
compressed

under the walkway for a little bit
of storage.

It's much, much, much superior in
its look.

The ventilation system is next to be
installed here in Donaghmede,

but I'll lead them to it as I'm on
the road to Cavan

to check out a next-level ventilation
system.

It's part of the retrofit of a family
bungalow

which has been transformed into
what's known as a passive house.

Barry, thanks for inviting me down

to have a look at your wonderfully
efficient house.

Thank you. You're very welcome.

It's a 1970s bungalow that we've
retrofitted

to the full It's a real passive
house standard.

Tell me, what are the key features
of a passive house?

Number one, you're insulating
the floors, the walls,

and the roof to really good levels.

Then you're dealing with thermal
bridging.

And in our case, in our house,

we were able to externally insulate

And that deals with an awful lot of
the thermal bridging.

Then the third principle is
triple-glazed windows.

We did careful consideration about
the orientations here,

and we went for a really
high-quality window.

And then that brings it to four
and five,

and they really go hand-to-hand.

You're making the building as air
tight as you can

so that you mechanically ventilate
it.

You're able to adjust the
temperature

and you're able to breathe good,
clean, healthy air. Right.

Well, you certainly set the scene.

Will you show me inside?
Yeah, come on ahead.

Great. Super.
No problem.

# #

This is a total surprise and not
what you'd expect coming

into the bungalow from the outside.
Thank you, Ciaran.

This was something we were really
trying to achieve

in the design of the house was
to have a wow factor

and one that surprises people.

Tell me a little bit about the
design and building work here.

We lived in it for a number of
years.

We decided to retrofit, and in 2022,
we took the plunge.

It took a year, a long year for me
and my wife,

but the real thing was to do as
best we could

based on today's standards.

And the best standard that was
sitting there was

passive house for us.

The overall build cost in terms of
investment into

the existing bungalow worked out at
a little over 300,000 euro.

We're saving conservatively 2,500 a
year with a 27,

28 year mortgage period.

That's going to run into a a good
50,000,

60,000 over the lifespan of our
mortgage.

Our mechanical heat recovery
ventilation unit

services the whole house,

pulling in nice, clean, fresh air,
filtering it,

and at the very same time,

it's pulling the air from exhaust
rooms in the house.

The outgoing air heats the incoming
air.

That means that you're not losing
all the energy

that you paid to heat in the air in
the house.

We've had it in for two years.

We change the filters are roughly
every six months,

and it's been brilliant.

We're up here in the children's
bedroom,

and you can see here,

just because they have a wall vent
here and the air is coming out,

we can just see the impact of good
indoor air quality,

and we can see how the system...

Maybe it's another illustration of
how well the system works.

In a house that doesn't have active
mechanical ventilation,

that air just isn't moving at all,
we're talking about.

Correct and right.

You can't but not have good
measurable indoor air quality,

and that's one of the things

that me and my wife were looking
to have

for just us and the children in the
house.

A healthy, comfortable,
high-performing home.

Back in Dublin, the retrofit of this

1970s house in a Donaghmede estate
is entering its final stages.

As part of the retrofit, Cillian and
Rachel have taken

the opportunity to knock walls and
put in bigger sliding doors.

The external insulation has been
applied

and the new windows have gone in.

Today, project manager Martin is
overseeing the installation

of a part of the heat pump system in
the old hot press.

So this is the new cylinder.

We're just bringing it up now at
the minute

to install it into the hot press.
It's pretty tight.

Sometimes they don't fit into the
hot press location.

So what we would have to do
sometimes is adjust the back

of a a wall to make it slightly
deeper to fit the unit in.

We could take the doors off
and build this out,

but if we can get away without
changing the look of the place,

it's always better to leave it the
same as you get it.

Retrofit, you come up against
all various different things.

So it's not new builds.

If you're doing a new build, you
design bigger hot presses,

bigger wardrobes to allow these
bigger your items to fit into it.

You just adapt to suit each
circumstance different.

# #

That's fun.

It's been a long road for Cillian and
Rachel.

Thankfully, they didn't have to dig
up their floors, but nonetheless,

it's been a fairly a big project,

which included installing an
energy-efficient heat pump,

a new electric car charger, and
up-to-date triple-glazed windows.

I'm back for one final visit,

and I'm looking forward to seeing how
it all went.

Whoa, what a transformation.
Isn't it?

I see you've got the external
insulation done,

you've got the brand new windows in.

What's it all been like?

It's like a different house now.

It feels more like our house.

We were able to make the changes we
wanted make,

set it up for what we hoped to be a
very long time.

And how long did the whole process
take? Three months.

Did you move out for a spell or did
you stay in the house?

No, we were in the house
the whole time.

I work in the office primarily,
so I wasn't here

during the day-to-day when they were
doing stuff.

So more, I'd come home in the
evening and see what got done.

Big shock.

Right, so let's get down to brass
tacks.

Tell me about the BER.

What was it before and what IS it
now?

We were at an E1 when we first
started,

and after all the work was
completed, we got to A2.

That's a fantastic result, isn't it?
You must be delighted.

No, you can feel the difference as
soon as you go in

more than anything else.

I don't think we need the letter to
tell us. Okay.

# #

Come on in.

I can spot the difference
in temperature already.

This room has totally changed now
when you look at the window,

it's so slick and simple.

It's brilliant to see such a
dramatic improvement.

It's completely the opposite of what
it was before.

We used to sit here just covered
in blankets in the evenings.

It would be just freezing in here
before.

So it's a really big improvement.

A huge transformation.

The wall coming down here,

it's made a fantastic difference.

It's so much nicer and brighter
in here now

between the new big window and the
sliding door there.

It's nice and cosy, nice and warm.

The ventilation ensures that it
never gets too stuffy.

If you're cooking, it actually takes
care of a lot of the smells as well.

I see the windows are generally PVC,

and you went for aluminium
for the sliding door,

which costs a fair bit more than the
PVC.

Because we got the grant for the
doors,

we were able to splurge a little bit

and upgrade it to something a bit
more heavy duty.

The difference in this room is
incredible.

I'm really happy with how the office
turned out for Cillian.

It was dark and it was cold
in here,

but now it's just right now and
I'm glad.

I see you have the outdoor unit of
your heat pump here.

How is that going so far?

You wouldn't even know it was there.

Granted, size-wise, but noise, no.

Much nicer view than the big oil
tank in the back of the garden.

Certainly have a greener view
anyway, isn't it?

Yeah.

# #

It's open day at Rachel and Cillian's
house in Donaghmede.

They're welcoming family
and friends

into their newly heated home.

Good to see you.

It's time to celebrate their A rating

and for their guests to check out all
the changes.

I'm really pleased for them because
I know ever since they moved in,

they've been planning to do
something like this,

so it's great to see that it's
finished for them

to have their forever home now.

It looks amazing. There's a lot
of work done,

and it's totally different to the
last time I saw it.

As Cillian's mum, I'm so proud
of them, and both of them.

The heat and the warmth is just
amazing when you walk in the door,

so it's really great.

I like it as well.

It's really good.

I'd like to congratulate Cillian
and Rachel

on their beautifully turned-out
house.

It looks almost brand new from the
outside,

and that's thanks to Martin and his
team.

So congratulations, and I hope you
have many happy years here to come.

(All) Cheers.

The house, comfort-wise,
it's a completely different home.

Before, we'd be sitting in the
living room

and you'd see your own breath.

You might have to throw on a few
blankets,

but now you could walk in short
sleeves,

no jackets needed, nothing like
that.

Live your life comfortably.

If you're someone who's wondering
if it's worth it

or not to do a retrofit,

I would say definitely look into it

because you never know how much of a
difference

it could make to your quality life
in your house.

It definitely feels more like our
house now

after getting all of this work done.

We were able to put in windows in a
colour

that we picked out and we got to
pick the front door.

It's been great to put our own mark
on the house.

Cillian and Rachel's house is a
classic 1970s mid-terrace

that wasn't built with energy
efficiency in mind

and had become a little
bit dated over time.

Retrofitting a home like this comes
with its own unique challenges,

from limited access to poor air
flow,

but they've come through them all.

The result is a warm, modern,

low-carbon home that turns a house

from the past into a home for the
future.

# #

Subtitling
RTÉ 2025.