Pilot Projects

Learn more and apply for our pilot projects, developed to test and innovate new opportunities to achieve our goal of a cleaner energy future for Ireland

Residential Heat Pump Pilot

About the project

SEAI's Residential Heat Pump and Heat Loss Indicator Research Pilot aims to test the performance of heat pumps in homes with a higher level of heat loss than is currently required by SEAI for grant support.

Heat Loss Indicators determine how well insulated a home is: the lower the heat loss, the more effective the building is at preventing heat loss through the walls, windows, roof and floor. Heat pumps work most effectively in well insulated homes. When the heat loss is high, heat pumps require more electrical power and are more expensive to run.

Under this pilot, heat pumps and monitoring equipment will be installed in the homes of participating homeowners who have higher Heat Loss Indicators. Data will be accessed remotely and analysed to assess how well the heat pumps are operating in these homes.

How to apply

Under this pilot, homes with an HLI of greater than 2.3 and less than or equal to 3.0 will now be eligible for grant support for a heat pump under the One Stop Shop scheme. We are seeking 100 homes to participate in the pilot. If you are interested in participating, please contact a One Stop Shop.

Find a One Stop Shop

NAS Trusted Partner API

About the project

This trial will enable home energy service providers to provide tailored energy advice to homeowners by providing timely access to published BER records and access to the SEAI DEAP calculation engine to estimate energy efficiency uplifts based on different packages of energy efficiency measures.  

For the purposes of this trial, a home energy service provider is described as an entity working in the residential market actively engaging with homeowners promoting the retrofit concept and providing advisory services to them on energy efficiency upgrades to their homes, along with cost estimates for different packages of works.

The Service will be available to participants ("Trusted Partners") for a period of 12 months upon signing a "Trusted Partner Agreement". The term "Trusted Partner" is used to describe participants as they are trusted by SEAI to capture consent from homeowners prior to calling the service. This is a key success factor to delivering this Service and compliance will be monitored carefully during the trial period and will determine the continuing access to the Service. The "Trusted Partner Agreement" defines the terms and conditions of usage of the Service, and the eligibility criteria for participation. Any updates to the terms and conditions will be published on this page and communicated to Participants in advance.

 

The Service - termed the "NAS Trusted Partner API" - will enable eligible participants to access electronic BER datafiles (JSON) in real-time via an Application Programming Interface (API) and to submit modified BER datafiles to the SEAI DEAP calculation engine to return estimated energy uplifts.   

Key Objectives

  1. Trial and evaluate a new SEAI Service that will enable the market to achieve government objectives of retrofitting 500,000 homes to a B2 rating before 2030
  2. Support Government Climate Action Plan actions related to making better use of BER data and driving the development of a One Stop Shop retrofit model in Ireland
  3. Evaluate and measure the benefit of providing BER data to home upgrade service providers, with real time DEAP recalculations, in a format that can be applied to assist homeowner decision making on home retrofit investment.
  4. Focus on the impact that providing BER data and BER recalculation has on consumer decisions
  5. Foster innovation in the marketplace by incentivising application developers to build data driven solutions for homeowners to make the best decisions for their homes
 
Diagram of the trusted partner API Design

Five Key Requirements

There are five key requirements that the Trusted Partner must be able to demonstrate to SEAI to gain entry to the Trial. 

Must provide a Home Upgrade Service

Must provide a home upgrade service that captures consumer attention, promotes the retrofit concept, and provides tailored and costed consumer advice for home energy upgrades.

Must propose a technology solution

Must propose a technology solution capable of integrating with the Service and have the required technical skills to implement and support the solution for the duration of the trial.

Must have a registered BER Assessor

Must have a registered BER Assessor assigned as the requestor of BER data for the duration of the trial to ensure BER data is interpreted and processed in a manner that align with SEAI DEAP methodology and to fulfil Article 27(4c) (iii) of S.I. 243,

Must have a Consent Management Process

BER data is classified as personal and SEAI rely on consent as the legal basis under GDPR for releasing BER data,

Must conduct a DPIA

Must conduct a DPIA to demonstrate that the Trusted Partner will comply with their obligations as a Data Controller of BER data as specified under GDPR.

More detailed technical documentation and access to a testing environment for integration testing purposes will be shared upon acceptance onto the Trial.  SEAI will provide technical support during the initial on-boarding and integration of the Service into the Trusted Partners applications but will not provide a 24/7 technical support service for the duration of the Trial.  SEAI will monitor usage and may, from time to time, make changes the Service based on feedback from Trusted Partner and from internal monitoring of usage and performance metrics.     

All technical and other queries to [email protected].

 

Consent Management

SEAI is a data controller for BER data under GDPR and SEAI rely on consent as the legal basis for releasing BER data.  As such, the Trusted Partner will display and capture the required consent for SEAI to release the data, and separately display and capture the required consent for the Trusted Partner to further process the BER data to provide the advisory service. Homeowners can provide the required consent via the Trusted Partner's application (e.g. by ticking an appropriately worded homeowner declaration and consent checkbox) or by uploading a signed Consent Form. Tenants will need to provide a Consent Form signed by the homeowner permitting them to act on their behalf. In both cases, the Trusted Partner will capture appropriate evidence of home ownership and/or occupancy for the person providing the consent. As an example, SEAI will accept scanned utility bills as evidence the consent has been captured from the owner/occupier. The wording of the homeowner declaration and consent must be agreed with SEAI prior to publishing.

 

How to Apply

  • This trial is open to all market actors provided they can meet the terms and conditions and eligibility criteria set out in the Trusted Partner Agreement. 
  • Prospective Trusted Partners need to submit in writing to [email protected] evidence of how they intend to comply with the five key requirements listed above, and review fully the terms and conditions and eligibility criteria in the Trusted Partner Agreement. 
  • SEAI will review the submission and may request a follow-on meeting with the perspective Trusted Partners before accepting on to the trial.

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