Warmer Homes Scheme 2026: Free Energy Upgrades for Your Home

The Warmer Homes Scheme is a fully funded SEAI programme — you pay nothing for the work. To qualify, you must own and live in your home, the home must have been built and occupied before 2006 and have a published BER, and you must receive one of seven qualifying social welfare payments. There is no minimum BER rating. SEAI says applicants can currently expect to be contacted by a contractor approximately 15 months after submitting their application.

What Work Gets Done — Free

The scheme covers whatever upgrades the SEAI surveyor decides your home needs, from this list:

Two important rules on the heating side. Since 1 January 2025, the scheme will not install a new fossil fuel boiler — if your heating system needs replacing, you get a renewable system such as a heat pump. And if SEAI decides your heating system should be replaced but you refuse the renewable option, they will not do the other insulation work either. If a boiler is what you came looking for, our guide to the oil and gas boiler replacement grant covers what is and is not payable outside this scheme.

Who Qualifies

You must meet all three home conditions and receive at least one of the qualifying payments.

Your home must:

• Be owned by you, and you must live in it
• Have been built and occupied before 2006
• Have a published BER. If you do not have one, SEAI will carry out a BER at no cost to you.

You must be receiving one of these payments:

• Fuel Allowance
• Working Family Payment
• Jobseeker's Allowance for over 6 months, with a child under 7
• Disability Allowance for over 6 months, with a child under 7
• Domiciliary Care Allowance
• One Parent Family Payment
• Carer's Allowance, where you live with the person you care for

If you don't receive any of these payments, you won't qualify for the free scheme — but you can still claim the standard SEAI individual grants (up to €14,500 for a heat pump, up to €8,000 for wall insulation, €1,800 for solar panels) towards the same work. See also our guide on what pensioners specifically qualify for on solar.

A note for the over-66s: Fuel Allowance is the qualifying payment most pensioners come in on, and once you are 66 you can claim it on a means test alone, with no other welfare payment needed. We walk through that route, and every other grant open to pensioners, in SEAI grants for pensioners.

The Waiting Time Nobody Mentions: About 15 Months

The scheme is free, but it is not fast. SEAI says applicants can currently expect to be contacted by a contractor approximately 15 months after submitting their application. You cannot ask to be moved up the queue. SEAI does order it, though: homes constructed before 1993 that also have a BER of E, F or G are treated as priority homes for surveys and works, and everything else is taken in the order it arrives.

That waiting time matters for planning. If you are facing high heating bills now, two practical takeaways:

• Apply immediately — the queue only moves if you are in it. Application is free and online.
• Don't wait for the scheme to address your electricity costs. Solar PV and a battery were added to Warmer Homes on 6 October 2026, but they come through the same long queue. On a qualifying payment, SEAI's enhanced solar grant (up to €8,400 plus €600 for a battery) has no waiting list; otherwise solar is the standard €1,800 SEAI grant, and a typical install happens within weeks of ordering.

How to Apply

1. Check you qualify and apply — online at the SEAI Warmer Homes portal, or by posting the application form. If you qualify through Carer's Allowance, you also need the Carer's Allowance Confirmation Form. For most other payments, SEAI now checks your eligibility directly with the Department of Social Protection.
2. SEAI surveyor visits your home — they walk through the house and attic, assess what upgrades are suitable, and discuss the recommended works with you.
3. An SEAI-appointed contractor does the work — you don't choose the contractor; SEAI assigns one. You should still get a written contract stating the agreed works.
4. Post-works BER and inspection — every home gets a new BER assessment after the work; some homes also get a quality inspection.

If you live in an apartment, you need written permission from your management company before SEAI will assess the property.

That is the outline. For the full version — the four eligibility gates, exactly which documents count as proof of ownership, the stage-by-stage waiting times and the reasons applications get cancelled after approval — see our Warmer Homes Scheme application guide.

Is There Any Catch?

One condition: if you sell your home within 5 years of the work being done, you must tell SEAI in writing at least 30 days before the sale, and SEAI may — at its discretion — ask you to repay some or all of the cost. As long as you stay in the home for 5 years, the upgrades are entirely free with no repayment.

You can also apply to the scheme more than once. If your home would benefit from further upgrades after the first round of work, you can re-apply, provided you still meet the qualifying criteria, though SEAI says homes that had works on or after 1 July 2018 are usually not eligible again.

New since 6 October 2026: the Government announced on 29 September 2026 that solar PV and a 5 kWh battery are now offered as standard under the Warmer Homes Scheme, and SEAI opened an enhanced grant of up to €9,000 for solar and battery for households on certain welfare payments. SEAI's own Warmer Homes page had not added solar to its list when we checked on 7 October 2026. Our explainer on free solar panels and the Warmer Homes Scheme covers both routes.

Frequently Asked Questions