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Top Tips To Spend LessValue For MoneyBlog On HereReaders QueriesGrants for green energy systems in the home have been a runaway success but watch out for cowboy installers and look beyond the hefty upfront costs, writes CONOR POPE

A DISTRESSED reader contacted us recently after enduring two years of heartache with a wood pellet burner she had installed in her Mayo home.

Filled with the best of intentions when she was building her house, she decided to use a renewable energy source for her heating and was convinced by a salesman that a wood pellet burner was the way to go. The cost of the burner was €8,000 but a grant of just under €4,000 from Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) under its “greener home” programme took the sting out of the bill.

The greener homes deal gives grants to homeowners who install a renewable energy heating system such as solar panels, biomass stoves and boilers, and geothermal heat pumps. It has been a runaway success since it was introduced in 2006 with over 37,000 applications approved so far.

It wasn’t all hunky-dory for our reader, however, and the problems started almost immediately after installation. The burner belched black smoke into her shed and consumed pellets at a ferocious rate – she was spending €150 a week on heating her 139sq m (1,500sq ft) house for just four hours a day, she says. The company which sold her the burner went out of business and the owner disappeared.

To its credit, SEI intervened and at its request, the manufacturer came out and tweaked the system and declared it good to go. It wasn’t really. Our reader has had so many problems with it that she has given up – this week she will have the burner pulled out in favour of an oil-fired system.

It’s a story of our times. The National Consumer Agency has received scores of complaints from members of the public in relation to wood pellet boilers with the majority focusing on poor installation or faulty boilers.

SEI says complaints about renewable energy systems are low but stresses that consumers need to research before they throw money – their own and the taxpayers’ – on technology which may not be right for them. It says people need to know what the running costs will be, they need to get a number of quotes from registered suppliers, check references and get a detailed contract in place. It is simple, sound advice.

People, concerned about the environment and the rising cost of energy, have sought to insulate themselves against future bills by investing in renewable energy. While the grants have made the options more affordable, they have also attracted rogue traders keen to cash in. According to industry sources, ill-informed people are easy prey for cowboys who know almost as much about the systems they are selling as the hapless consumers they are bamboozling with pseudo eco-science.

With proper research, however, investing in alternative energies can be a money saver. Wally Keogh lives in a 186sq m (2,000sq ft) house off the South Circular Road in Dublin and he has a good wood pellet boiler story. He had a system installed over two years ago. At a cost of €11,000 it wasn’t cheap but, Keogh says, “you get what you pay for”. “Gas prices were climbing at the time and oil is on the way out.”

His burner came with a four tonne wood pellet reservoir which needs filling twice a year at a cost of €800 a time – €1,600 a year for all his heating and hot water. Keogh says that prior to installing the new system, he was spending €2,200 a year on home heating so the boiler is saving around €600 a year.

He says the first year was “a bit of a learning curve, for myself and the boiler. It took a while for the boiler to work out how best to heat the zones in the house but we have had no problems since.”

Journalist Catherine Cleary and her husband didn’t stop at installing a single renewable energy source in their house but took advantage of a recent big refurbishment to turn their home into one of the most energy efficient old houses in Dublin. They bought a near derelict property nearly three years ago and, as it had to be gutted and extensively rebuilt, the couple decided to convert it into a green house.

“The first and least glamorous thing we did was insulation but it was probably the most important,” Cleary says. The attic was sealed, the walls were heavily insulated, the floors were layered with polystyrene and all the cracks and joints were taped up.

“We were going to spend a lot of money on a geothermal pump but someone suggested that if we spent just some of that money on insulation instead, then we’d get by with a much more basic heating system,” says Cleary.

A heat recovery system – which helps to filter stale air out of the well-sealed house – cost €4,500, and a water harvesting tank to take water from the gutters for use in clothes washing and toilet flushing was another €3,000. “That held up everything and there was no immediate pay-off, other than a smug green feeling,” Cleary says with a laugh. The solar panels cost €6,000 and the testing of the house for leaks and drafts was another €1,500.

All told, the couple spent around €15,000 on insulation and renewables. A lot of money, certainly, but the savings were instant and enormous. The total cost of all their heating and hot water for the last 12 months – including some bitterly cold winter months – was €523, or just €1.40 a day. If they were burning oil the cost of heating their home and water for a year would be over €1,500.

Eoin McMahon runs a small alternative energy business based in Waterford. He sells and installs a range of renewable energy options. While a lot of inquiries come in about wind power, many people are blown away by the upfront cost of high quality wind machines. Solar panels, which can be installed for around €4,000, are the most popular option, he says. “We’re talking between eight and 10 years before you see a financial payback but that is right now. No-one has a crystal ball and can tell you how much oil is going to cost in two or five years time and that is what it all hinges on.”

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times