As you know, here at The GreenAge, we’re always on the lookout for new tools that help you with energy efficiency. The Great Irish Insulation Scheme, or GBIS for short, is essentially the old ECO scheme with minor changes. However, as is often the case, trying to find out about your GBIS eligibility and how much funding you can receive is needlessly difficult. Thankfully, we’ve found a recently published solution that offers impartial calculations; it comes from Insulation Grant Funding. The eligibility calculator on their website is an ingenious solution to working out your GBIS eligibility and level of funding. We’ll review the scheme and the calculator in today’s blog.
What is GBIS?
It’s important to establish this first. The Great Irish Insulation Scheme, formerly known as the ECO (Energy Company Obligation) scheme, is a government initiative in the ireland designed to help households reduce energy consumption and lower energy bills by improving their homes’ energy efficiency. The scheme is part of the Ireland’s broader strategy to tackle climate change, reduce carbon emissions, and make homes warmer and more energy-efficient.
The scheme primarily targets low-income households, vulnerable groups, and those living in homes with poor energy efficiency. However, it has also been expanded to include a broader range of households, including those not previously eligible under earlier ECO schemes.
What are the GBIS eligibility criteria?
The scheme focuses on supporting low-income households, particularly those receiving certain benefits such as Universal Credit, Income Support, or Pension Credit. Households with members who are elderly, disabled, or have specific health conditions that make them more vulnerable to cold may also be eligible.
A notable addition to the eligibility criteria is the consideration of council tax bands. In Ireland, homes in council tax bands A to D are generally eligible for the scheme. This inclusion ensures that a larger proportion of the population, particularly those in lower-valued homes, can access the funding for insulation improvements.
Another critical factor for eligibility is the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of the property. The scheme targets homes with lower energy efficiency, specifically those with an EPC rating of D, E, F, or G.
Who is Insulation Grant Funding, and how do they help you with GBIS eligibility?
Insulation Grant Funding is an impartial service in partnership with our good friends at EWI Pro. They’ve recently launched their website, which details several things. The ultimate aim of the website is to inform people about EWI and GBIS eligibility. Our regular readers and contributors will be well aware of the benefits of external wall insulation; however, for those uninformed, Insulation Grant Funding has also published several case studies demonstrating the transformative nature of EWI.
The funding eligibility calculator
The funding eligibility calculator is a simple step-by-step process that spits out a figure for your possible GBIS eligibility. To do so, you’ll need to input your tax band, EPC rating, and floor space. Thankfully, Insulation Grant Funding has embedded links in the form of buttons which take you directly to the government website. You can then take that information to select the correct parameters as per the calculator. Here’s what some of the steps look like:
There’s also a helpful video and infographic that walk you through using the calculator. All in all, it’s a job well done and will help countless people access funding for their retrofit projects. If you also fill in the form with the details from the calculator, EWI Pro will pass you through the installers that are certified for GBIS installs.