A One Stop Shop takes the whole retrofit off your hands, applies for the grants, and deducts them from your bill before you pay. It is the easiest route and it is not the cheapest one.
| One Stop Shop | Individual grants yourself | |
|---|---|---|
| Post works BER target | Minimum B required | No target |
| Who applies for the grant | The One Stop Shop | You |
| When you see the grant | Deducted from the invoice upfront | Paid to you after the claim |
| Project management grant | Available | Not available |
| Who you chase when it goes wrong | One company | Each contractor separately |
| Ability to do it in stages | No, it is one project | Yes, one measure at a time |
The One Stop Shop route requires a minimum post works BER of B plus either a heat pump or a primary energy uplift of 100 kWh/m2/yr.
SEAI registers companies to deliver a full upgrade as one project. The service covers a home energy assessment, the grant application, project management, the contractor works, the follow up BER, and finance support.
The grants do not come to you. The One Stop Shop claims them and discounts them from the total invoiced to you, so you see a net price rather than a gross price and a refund.
That upfront deduction is genuinely useful. It means you are not funding the State's share for eight months while you wait on a claim.
A One Stop Shop job has to hit a minimum post works BER of B, plus either a heat pump or a primary energy uplift of 100 kWh/m2/yr. Under the simplified BER scale that came in on 24 May 2026 that target is band B rather than the old B2. SEAI has confirmed the minimum required improvement itself has not changed.
That target is why the numbers are big. You are not buying attic insulation, you are buying whatever combination of measures it takes to drag the whole house to a B. On an older, larger house that is a lot of measures.
If you do not need or want a B, this route is the wrong one and you should do individual grants instead.
Two SEAI registered One Stop Shops were given the same 240 square metre dormer and the same assessment report. One came back at €102,000 net. The other came back at €58,000 net.
Same house, same report, same scheme, same registration. A €44,000 gap. Neither firm was doing anything improper. That is simply how wide the pricing is in this market right now.
The lesson is short. Get at least three One Stop Shop quotes. Not two. If you take the first one you will never know which end of that range you were standing at.
People walk into a One Stop Shop expecting the grant to cover something like half the job. On documented Irish One Stop Shop projects, the grant lands at roughly 20 to 29 per cent of the total bill.
That is the number to plan against. On a €60,000 job the grant is realistically somewhere near €13,000 to €18,000, and you are finding the rest.
Real Irish figures, including SEAI's own median One Stop Shop costs by house type, are set out on what homeowners actually paid. Look at that before you look at anyone's brochure.
It is the right call if you need a B rating, for a mortgage product, a sale, or your own reasons. Hitting a B by sequencing individual grants yourself is possible and it is a project management job most people will not enjoy.
It is the right call if you are doing four or more measures at once, because the interfaces between trades are where retrofits fail, and one company carrying that risk is worth paying for.
It is the right call if you need the state backed Home Energy Upgrade Loan, because SEAI's loan page says the works must be delivered through a registered One Stop Shop or a Community Project Co-ordinator.
It is also the right call if you simply do not have the time. Paying a premium to not spend your Saturdays chasing plasterers is a legitimate decision.
If you want one or two measures, do them individually. The attic and the walls carry most of the benefit in most Irish houses and you can claim them yourself without a project manager.
If your budget is limited and fixed, individual grants let you stage the work over years. A One Stop Shop project is one job with one price and you cannot pause it halfway.
If you already have good insulation and only want solar or a heat pump, go direct. See solar PV and heat pumps.
The property must have been built and occupied before 2011. A newer house does not qualify, regardless of how it performs.
You cannot have previously received SEAI grants for the same measures. If you took an attic grant in 2019, that attic cannot be grant aided again inside a One Stop Shop package, and the price you are quoted needs to reflect that.
Nothing can start before grant approval is in place. Because the One Stop Shop is handling the application, ask them in writing to confirm the offer has issued before the first van arrives. It is their process but it is your money.
Ask for the quote itemised measure by measure, with the gross cost and the grant shown separately for each. A single net number tells you nothing and makes comparison between firms impossible.
Ask what happens if the house does not reach B on the post works BER. Who carries the cost of the extra work, and is that written into the contract or is it a conversation you will have later.
Ask whether the price is fixed or subject to survey findings, and what specifically could move it. Then ask which contractors are actually doing the work and whether they are directly employed or subcontracted.
Ask for two recent customers in your county that you can ring. A firm doing good work will hand those over without hesitating.
A deep retrofit changes how a house handles moisture. You are sealing a building that used to breathe through its gaps, and if the ventilation strategy is an afterthought you get condensation and mould where you had none.
Ask the One Stop Shop directly what ventilation is included and where. If the answer is vague, that is the answer.
Ask too about the heating system that comes out at the end. A heat pump in a house that has not been insulated properly first runs expensively and heats badly, and it is the single most common source of a retrofit horror story in this country.
The spread between registered firms on the same house has run to €44,000. One quote tells you nothing. Three tells you where the market is.
A company registered with SEAI to deliver a whole home upgrade as one project. It covers the home energy assessment, the grant application, project management, the works, the follow up BER and finance support, and it deducts the grants from your invoice rather than you claiming them back.
No. You are paying for project management and for a company carrying the risk. The advantage is that you get a B rated house and one point of responsibility. If you only want one or two measures, doing individual grants yourself will cost you less.
On recorded Irish One Stop Shop jobs the grant works out at roughly 20 to 29 per cent of the total. Plan for that rather than the half most people expect walking in.
Because pricing in this market is wide. Two SEAI registered firms working from the same assessment report on the same 240 square metre dormer quoted €102,000 and €58,000 net, a €44,000 spread. Always get three quotes and always get them itemised.
A minimum post works BER of B, plus either a heat pump installed or a primary energy uplift of 100 kWh/m2/yr. Since 24 May 2026 the target reads as band B rather than B2 because the BER scale was simplified, but SEAI says the required improvement is unchanged.
Yes, but not for the same measures. You cannot be grant aided twice for the same measure, so anything you already claimed comes out of the grant total and lands on your side of the bill. Make sure the quote you are given reflects that.
No. Finance support is part of the service but you are free to arrange your own. The state backed Home Energy Upgrade Loan is available through several banks and credit unions and the rates differ between them, so it is worth shopping around.
Get the answer in writing before you sign. It is one of the few things in a One Stop Shop contract that can cost you serious money after the fact, and it is not covered by a standard verbal reassurance.
Checked against the official pages on 27 August 2026. Grant terms change, so confirm current amounts with SEAI or your installer before you commit.