Home Energy Grants NI (2026/27): Every Insulation, Boiler and Heating Grant in One List

I’m Connor, I run Compare Solar NI, and on 23 September 2026 I checked every scheme on this page against its source: the Housing Executive, nidirect, the Department for Communities, the Department for the Economy and the Utility Regulator’s NISEP scheme list for April 2026 to March 2027. This is the index. Each line tells you who it is for, what it pays and who to ring.

The short version: Northern Ireland has one government grant (Affordable Warmth), one bill-funded programme with a dozen schemes (NISEP), two pieces of winter help, and a 0% VAT rate. Everything else you have read about is either closed or Great Britain only.

The full list, checked 23 September 2026

Scheme	Who it is for	What it pays	Apply to
Affordable Warmth	Owners and private tenants, gross household income under £23,000	Up to £7,500 (£10,000 with solid wall insulation): insulation, heating, single glazed windows	NI Energy Advice, 0800 111 4455
NISEP fully funded heating and insulation	Owner-occupiers under £28,000 single, £35,000 couple or family	New heating system plus cavity and loft insulation, free	Scheme manager (see below)
NISEP fully funded insulation	Owner-occupiers under £33,000 single, £40,000 couple or family	Cavity and loft insulation, free	Scheme manager
NISEP 60% heating grant	Owners and private tenants under £45,000 single, £50,000 couple or family	60% off a new heating system, insulation free	Scheme manager
NISEP 40% insulation grant	Any income, if no other NISEP scheme fits	40% off, up to £650 per measure	Scheme manager
NISEP heat pump schemes	Owner-occupiers under £28,000 or £35,000	Heat pump and insulation, free	Full on 23 September 2026
£100 Home Heating Oil Support	Oil-heated homes on qualifying benefits or under £30,000	£100 prepaid card	nidirect or 0800 072 0266
£63 Household Electricity Discount	Every household	£63 off electricity	Automatic from 6 October 2026
0% VAT	Everyone	20% off insulation, heat pumps, solar, batteries	Your installer applies it
NISEP business scheme	Businesses	20%, capped at £30,000 on some measures	Power NI

Two rules cut across all of NISEP. You cannot get a NISEP grant for a measure you have had funded at the same address in the last 15 years (including through Affordable Warmth), and the money is first come, first served until 31 March 2027. Scheme managers keep waiting lists when they fill up.

Grants for insulation in Northern Ireland

This is where NI is more generous than its reputation, and where most sites undersell it. By income:

Under £23,000: Affordable Warmth. Its first priority is insulation: loft topped up to 300mm, cavity wall insulation, removal and replacement of failed cavity fill, draught-proofing and a cylinder jacket.

Owner-occupiers under £33,000 (single) or £40,000 (couple or family): cavity wall and loft insulation fully funded through NISEP, with LED bulbs, draught-proofing and similar extras thrown in. The 2026/27 schemes are Keep Warm (Workspace, 028 7962 7474), Thermal Comfort (Energystore, [email protected]), Insulate Homes (Bluebuild, [email protected]) and Efficiency Plus Fully Funded Insulation (Refresh NI, 028 9099 3485). On 23 September 2026 Refresh NI listed its fully funded insulation scheme as open.

Everyone else: 40% off cavity or loft insulation, up to £650 per measure and up to £1,000 for extracting and refilling a cavity. That comes through Keep Warm Discount (Workspace), Help to Insulate (Energystore, 028 9030 1500) and Efficiency Plus Insulation Cashback (Refresh NI, which had a waiting list on 23 September 2026).

Flat roofs cannot get loft insulation under NISEP, and new builds and extensions are excluded. Solid wall insulation is only fully funded for owner-occupiers under £28,000 or £35,000, through Whole House Warmer Homes NI (Kore Retrofit), or through Affordable Warmth for detached homes.

Grants for a boiler in Northern Ireland

The old Boiler Replacement Scheme, which paid up to £1,000, closed to new applicants on 21 September 2023. What replaced it depends on your income and your boiler. In every NISEP heating scheme below, the boiler has to be over 15 years old or broken beyond economic repair (or you have no central heating, solid fuel or pre-2018 Economy 7 heaters).

Fully funded, owner-occupiers under £28,000 or £35,000: an A-rated oil or gas boiler (gas where it is available) plus insulation.

• Better Energy Homes Plus, anywhere in NI: O’Kane Plumbing and Electrics, 028 8675 1049.
• Efficiency Plus Fully Funded, Phoenix gas area only (Greater Belfast, Lisburn, Co Down, East Antrim, East Down): [email protected].
• Warm at Home Plus, Evolve gas area only (Dungannon, Cookstown, Enniskillen, Omagh, Strabane, Magherafelt, Coalisland, Derrylin, Artigarvan): [email protected].
• Toasty Homes Fully Funded (McGaffin Mechanical): marked closed in the 2026/27 list.

60% funded, owner-occupiers and private tenants under £45,000 or £50,000: you pay 40% of the heating, insulation is free. Better Energy Homes Cashback (O’Kane), Efficiency Plus Part Funded (Phoenix area; Refresh NI showed a waiting list on 23 September 2026) and Warm at Home Cashback (Evolve area). Toasty Homes Part Funded is marked closed.

Affordable Warmth: replaces a boiler only if it is at least 15 years old and someone in the home is over 65, gets Child Benefit or Kinship payments, or receives DLA, PIP, Attendance Allowance or Industrial Injuries Benefit.

Switching from oil to gas: Phoenix Energy’s Boiler Replacement Allowance offers £600 cashback and a free connection. Check the closing date at phoenixenergyni.com/bra.

Windows

Affordable Warmth replaces single glazed windows, but only as priority 3, after insulation and heating, and only for households under £23,000. No NISEP scheme funds windows. If your windows are already double glazed, there is no grant for new ones.

Heat pumps and solar

Heat pumps have two fully funded NISEP schemes for lower-income owner-occupiers, both full when I checked. The Department for the Economy’s grant for everyone is “likely” in 2027. The detail, and the oil-versus-heat-pump maths, is on the heat pump grants page.

Solar is the question I get most. Of the 394 quote requests that came through this site between March and September 2026, 262 came from homes on electricity bills of £100 to £250 a month, and many asked about grants first. The honest answer: the only NISEP scheme to include solar panels in 2026/27 (Toasty Homes Heat Pump and Solar Technologies) is limited to owner-occupiers under £28,000 or £35,000 and its manager had allocated all its funding by 23 September 2026. The Housing Executive’s Priority PV Scheme is for its own tenants, who are chosen rather than apply. For everyone else, the help is 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, which takes 20% off before you start. On a system that would cost £7,000 with VAT, that is roughly £1,170 saved, and the gap between the cheapest and dearest installer for the same system is usually worth more than that, so it pays to compare quotes. The full picture is in solar panel grants in NI, and if someone has offered you “free” panels, read free solar panels in Northern Ireland before you sign.

Winter 2026/27: help with bills

Two things are new this autumn. I have checked both against government sources. The detail is in the NI energy bill support guide for winter 2026.

£100 Home Heating Oil Support. Opened 9 September 2026, closes 31 March 2027. One £100 digital prepaid card per household where oil is the main heating and someone gets a qualifying income-related or disability benefit, or household income is under £30,000 after allowable deductions. It is not automatic: apply at nidirect.gov.uk/services/home-heating-oil-support or on 0800 072 0266. With 900 litres averaging £1,007.16 in the Consumer Council’s 17 September survey, it is worth the ten minutes.

£63 Household Electricity Discount. Automatic from 6 October 2026 for about 860,000 households, bill-pay and keypad, not means tested (Department for the Economy, 17 September 2026). You do nothing.

Not available in Northern Ireland

• Warm Homes Plan: Great Britain only.
• Boiler Upgrade Scheme (£7,500 heat pump grant): England and Wales only.
• ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme: GB only.
• Smart Export Guarantee: GB legislation. NI suppliers pay for exports voluntarily.
• Warm Homes Scheme (NI): closed on 31 March 2015, replaced by Affordable Warmth.
• Domestic RHI: closed to new applicants on 29 February 2016.

What is coming in 2027

Warm Healthy Homes Fund (Department for Communities), due from April 2027 to replace Affordable Warmth. Its consultation closed on 19 August 2026. The proposals I read in it: a grant limit of £35,000 (£45,000 for hard-to-treat homes), insulation first, then heat pumps, solar panels and batteries where the assessment supports them, and an income threshold at the National Living Wage (£29,741.40 net at the time of writing). Proposals only until the department publishes final rules.

Low carbon heat grant (Department for the Economy): a one-off capital grant for heat pumps, not means tested, “likely” to launch in 2027 once the regulations pass. No amount set.

Where I would start

1. Ring NI Energy Advice on 0800 111 4455. It is free, run by the Housing Executive, and covers Affordable Warmth and NISEP.
2. If your household income is under £40,000 and you own your home, ask a NISEP insulation scheme manager directly. Fully funded loft and cavity insulation is the most underused grant in Northern Ireland.
3. If your boiler is over 15 years old, find your income band in the boiler section above and ring that scheme manager.
4. If you heat with oil, apply for the £100 card now.