Table of Contents
Low Cost Loans for Home Energy Upgrades
Written by: Briain Kelly
Published: October 7, 2025
Last updated: October 8, 2025
Reading time: 4 mins
So you want to carry out home improvements that will make your home more energy efficient, whether it is adding new insulation, replacing doors and windows, or installing solar panels.
All of these make excellent investments that can save you huge amounts of money on electricity and heating in the long run. The only problem is that they can be very expensive up front.
There’s no point talking about how insulation or solar panels will pay for themselves many times over if you don’t have the cash on hand to get them in the first place.
The answer to this is to get a loan, which will cover the cost of getting your home upgrade works done. There are a number of ways to get home improvement loans, but interest rates of 7% – 10%, or more, can significantly extend the payback period for home improvements.
The Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme is the government’s answer to this. Through this scheme, homeowners can borrow up to €75,000 at interest rates as low as 3% APR in order to finance works that will make their homes more energy efficient.
Why does the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme exist?
The Home Energy Upgrade Loan scheme was launched in 2024 with a budget of €500 million to encourage homeowners to carry out retrofit projects.
This is to help meet the target, introduced in 2020, or retrofitting 500,000 homes to a BER of B2 or greater by 2030.
It aims to achieve by using government subsidies for the scheme to allow homeowners to borrow at greatly reduced interest rates compared with standard commercial loans.
What are the main features of the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme?
The main financial features of the HEUL scheme are:
Loan Value: You can borrow anywhere from €5,000 to €75,000 under the scheme
Loan Term: The scheme offers flexible loan periods of up to 10 years.
Loan Security: Loans are unsecured, meaning that there is no collateral required.
The scheme also sets a number of criterial for how the upgrades works can be carried out.
Service Provider: The upgrade works must be overseen by an SEAI registered One Stop Shop service provider or Community Grant coordinator.
Home Improvement: The work for which the loan is being taken out for must deliver at least a 20% improvement on the existing BER.
Funding Distribution: At least 75% of the loan value must be used for eligible upgrade works. Up to 25% can be used for non-eligible works such as redecorating.
What home upgrade works are eligible under the loan scheme?
There are strict controls on what sort of home improvement works you can carry out with funds from the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme. The main restriction is that the works must also be funded by a grant from the SEAI.
The eligible works are further restricted by which scheme of the SEAI’s you are using to get the upgrade works done.
Better Energy Homes: This is for Individual Energy Upgrades where the homeowner wants to control what works are being carried out.
National Home Energy Upgrade: This works as a One Stop Shop where a registered provider will install a larger home retrofit all in one go.
Community Grant: You can have work done on your home as part of a larger community grant project.
If you are applying for individual energy upgrades, the scheme only supports wall and roof insulation, a heat pump, heating controls, and solar thermal panels.
There are far more upgrades available of applying under the One Stop Shop of Community Grant schemes.
- Project Management
- Wall & Roof Insulation
- Floor Insulation
- Windows
- Heating Controls
- Heat Pump
- Solar Thermal Panels
- Solar PV Panels
- Ventilation
- BER Assessment
Who is eligible for a Loan under this scheme?
To qualify for a Home Energy Upgrade Loan you must be:
- An individual who is resident in Ireland.
- The owner of the property for which the loan is being taken.
- Must not be tax resident in another jurisdiction.
The property must also be located in the country. It can be your primary residence or a home you rent out.
How to Apply for the Home Energy Upgrade Loan
- Contact and SEAI One Stop Shop or Community Pproject Co-ordinator to plan your upgrade project.
- Get a BER on your home if it does not already have one. This is necessary to see how much the planned upgrade works will improve its performance.
- Determine how much the upgrade works will cost to see what size loan you will need.
- Get a Home Energy Summary Report from the One Stop Shop of Community Project Coordinator outlining the proposed works.
- Apply for a low-cost loan with one of the finance providers participating in the scheme.
Where can you borrow from for the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme?
There are currently 11 banks and credit unions signed up for the scheme for people to borrow from. They are:
- Allied Irish Bank (AIB)
- Avant Money, in partnership with An Post Money
- Bank of Ireland
- PTSB
- Clonmel Credit Union
- Connect Credit Union
- First South Credit Union
- Listowel Credit Union
- Naomh Breandan Credit Union
- North Midlands Credit Union
- Progressive Credit Union
What are the best interest rates for this loan scheme?
Interest rates for the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme vary by provider, but are typically lower than what is offered for a personal loan or home improvement loan not part of the scheme.
Interest rates currently on offer for the HEUL scheme start from:
| Loan Provider | Interest (%) |
| AIB | 3.55% |
| Bank of Ireland | 3% |
| An Post | 3.75% |
| PTSB | 3.60% |
| Connect Credit Union | 3.19% |
| Clonmel Credit Union | 3.25% |
| First South Credit Union | 3.90% |
| Listowel Credit Union | 4.50% |
| Naomh Breandan Credit Union | 2.99% |
| North Midlands Credit Union | 4.2% |
| Progressive Credit Union | 4.28% |
Can I get a loan for solar panels?
You cannot borrow under the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme just to install solar panels, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot get them at all.
There are two ways to buy solar panels with money from a loan under this scheme:
- Get solar panels as part of a complete home retrofit under the SEAI’s National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme, also known as the One Stop Shop service.
- If getting a loan for individual upgrades under the Better Energy Homes Scheme, you can use up to 25% of the loan for works which are not supported, such as solar panels.
There are some caveats to this. With the One Stop Shop service, you are getting a larger retrofit, and the project must bring the home up to at least a B2 BER under the requirements of that programme. This means that you may have to carry out a lot of other work, even if you only want solar panels.
For people getting individual energy upgrades, you are only allowed to use 25% of the amount you borrow for non-support works such as solar panels. This means that if a solar PV system would cost €10,000, then you would have to borrow €40,000 to cover that cost.
Either way, you won’t be able to only get solar panels under this loan scheme.
FAQs
The HEUL scheme is only available for residential properties which have not been used in part for commercial purposes or short term lets in the past 12 months.
An individual applicant may get loans for up to three different properties, with a maximum value of €225,000.
You can apply for a Home Energy Upgrade Loan up until December 31, 2026, unless it reaches it maximum allocation before this.
The Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme is supported by government subsidies for its interest rates, and the loans are backed by the European Investment Bank.
No, there is no charge for getting a Home Energy Summary Report from an SEAI registered One Stop Shop or Community Project Co-Ordinator.
No, only properties within Ireland are eligible for a Home Energy Upgrade Loan.
No, the funds from the HEUL scheme can only be used to pay for new home upgrades which are eligible under the scheme’s rules.
The HEUL scheme is operated by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland on behalf of the government, but loans are fulfilled by the participating banks and credits unions.
Low Cost Loans for Home Energy Upgrades
Published: October 7, 2025
Last updated: October 8, 2025
Written by: Briain Kelly
Reading time: 4mins
So you want to carry out home improvements that will make your home more energy efficient, whether it is adding new insulation, replacing doors and windows, or installing solar panels.
All of these make excellent investments that can save you huge amounts of money on electricity and heating in the long run. The only problem is that they can be very expensive up front.
There’s no point talking about how insulation or solar panels will pay for themselves many times over if you don’t have the cash on hand to get them in the first place.
The answer to this is to get a loan, which will cover the cost of getting your home upgrade works done. There are a number of ways to get home improvement loans, but interest rates of 7% – 10%, or more, can significantly extend the payback period for home improvements.
The Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme is the government’s answer to this. Through this scheme, homeowners can borrow up to €75,000 at interest rates as low as 3% APR in order to finance works that will make their homes more energy efficient.
Why does the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme exist?
The Home Energy Upgrade Loan scheme was launched in 2024 with a budget of €500 million to encourage homeowners to carry out retrofit projects.
This is to help meet the target, introduced in 2020, or retrofitting 500,000 homes to a BER of B2 or greater by 2030.
It aims to achieve by using government subsidies for the scheme to allow homeowners to borrow at greatly reduced interest rates compared with standard commercial loans.
What are the main features of the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme?
The main financial features of the HEUL scheme are:
Loan Value: You can borrow anywhere from €5,000 to €75,000 under the scheme
Loan Term: The scheme offers flexible loan periods of up to 10 years.
Loan Security: Loans are unsecured, meaning that there is no collateral required.
The scheme also sets a number of criterial for how the upgrades works can be carried out.
Service Provider: The upgrade works must be overseen by an SEAI registered One Stop Shop service provider or Community Grant coordinator.
Home Improvement: The work for which the loan is being taken out for must deliver at least a 20% improvement on the existing BER.
Funding Distribution: At least 75% of the loan value must be used for eligible upgrade works. Up to 25% can be used for non-eligible works such as redecorating.
What home upgrade works are eligible under the loan scheme?
There are strict controls on what sort of home improvement works you can carry out with funds from the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme. The main restriction is that the works must also be funded by a grant from the SEAI.
The eligible works are further restricted by which scheme of the SEAI’s you are using to get the upgrade works done.
Better Energy Homes: This is for Individual Energy Upgrades where the homeowner wants to control what works are being carried out.
National Home Energy Upgrade: This works as a One Stop Shop where a registered provider will install a larger home retrofit all in one go.
Community Grant: You can have work done on your home as part of a larger community grant project.
If you are applying for individual energy upgrades, the scheme only supports wall and roof insulation, a heat pump, heating controls, and solar thermal panels.
There are far more upgrades available of applying under the One Stop Shop of Community Grant schemes.
- Project Management
- Wall & Roof Insulation
- Floor Insulation
- Windows
- Heating Controls
- Heat Pump
- Solar Thermal Panels
- Solar PV Panels
- Ventilation
- BER Assessment
Who is eligible for a Loan under this scheme?
To qualify for a Home Energy Upgrade Loan you must be:
- An individual who is resident in Ireland.
- The owner of the property for which the loan is being taken.
- Must not be tax resident in another jurisdiction.
The property must also be located in the country. It can be your primary residence or a home you rent out.
How to Apply for the Home Energy Upgrade Loan
- Contact and SEAI One Stop Shop or Community Pproject Co-ordinator to plan your upgrade project.
- Get a BER on your home if it does not already have one. This is necessary to see how much the planned upgrade works will improve its performance.
- Determine how much the upgrade works will cost to see what size loan you will need.
- Get a Home Energy Summary Report from the One Stop Shop of Community Project Coordinator outlining the proposed works.
- Apply for a low-cost loan with one of the finance providers participating in the scheme.
Where can you borrow from for the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme?
There are currently 11 banks and credit unions signed up for the scheme for people to borrow from. They are:
- Allied Irish Bank (AIB)
- Avant Money, in partnership with An Post Money
- Bank of Ireland
- PTSB
- Clonmel Credit Union
- Connect Credit Union
- First South Credit Union
- Listowel Credit Union
- Naomh Breandan Credit Union
- North Midlands Credit Union
- Progressive Credit Union
What are the best interest rates for this loan scheme?
Interest rates for the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme vary by provider, but are typically lower than what is offered for a personal loan or home improvement loan not part of the scheme.
Interest rates currently on offer for the HEUL scheme start from:
| Loan Provider | Interest (%) |
| AIB | 3.55% |
| Bank of Ireland | 3% |
| An Post | 3.75% |
| PTSB | 3.60% |
| Connect Credit Union | 3.19% |
| Clonmel Credit Union | 3.25% |
| First South Credit Union | 3.90% |
| Listowel Credit Union | 4.50% |
| Naomh Breandan Credit Union | 2.99% |
| North Midlands Credit Union | 4.2% |
| Progressive Credit Union | 4.28% |
Can I get a loan for solar panels?
You cannot borrow under the Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme just to install solar panels, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot get them at all.
There are two ways to buy solar panels with money from a loan under this scheme:
- Get solar panels as part of a complete home retrofit under the SEAI’s National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme, also known as the One Stop Shop service.
- If getting a loan for individual upgrades under the Better Energy Homes Scheme, you can use up to 25% of the loan for works which are not supported, such as solar panels.
There are some caveats to this. With the One Stop Shop service, you are getting a larger retrofit, and the project must bring the home up to at least a B2 BER under the requirements of that programme. This means that you may have to carry out a lot of other work, even if you only want solar panels.
For people getting individual energy upgrades, you are only allowed to use 25% of the amount you borrow for non-support works such as solar panels. This means that if a solar PV system would cost €10,000, then you would have to borrow €40,000 to cover that cost.
Either way, you won’t be able to only get solar panels under this loan scheme.
FAQs
The HEUL scheme is only available for residential properties which have not been used in part for commercial purposes or short term lets in the past 12 months.
An individual applicant may get loans for up to three different properties, with a maximum value of €225,000.
You can apply for a Home Energy Upgrade Loan up until December 31, 2026, unless it reaches it maximum allocation before this.
The Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme is supported by government subsidies for its interest rates, and the loans are backed by the European Investment Bank.
No, there is no charge for getting a Home Energy Summary Report from an SEAI registered One Stop Shop or Community Project Co-Ordinator.
No, only properties within Ireland are eligible for a Home Energy Upgrade Loan.
No, the funds from the HEUL scheme can only be used to pay for new home upgrades which are eligible under the scheme’s rules.
The HEUL scheme is operated by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland on behalf of the government, but loans are fulfilled by the participating banks and credits unions.
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