Home Energy Grants NI 2026: Insulation, Windows, Boilers & Solar

Home Energy Grants in Northern Ireland: The Honest 2026 Picture

If you have been searching for insulation grants, window grants or a boiler replacement scheme in Northern Ireland, you have probably found the picture confusing. Most of the guidance online is written for England, where schemes like ECO4, the Great British Insulation Scheme and the Warm Homes Plan exist. Northern Ireland works differently, and that difference matters before you start applying for anything.

Here is the plain version. NI does not have a long list of separate grants for each measure. There is no standalone insulation grant open to every household, no dedicated window grant, and no open boiler-replacement scheme. Instead, almost all home energy help in Northern Ireland is delivered through three routes: the Affordable Warmth Scheme, NISEP, and 0% VAT on energy-saving materials. Once you understand those three, you understand what is actually available.

This guide covers each one, who qualifies, what it covers, and what to do if you do not qualify for grant funding.

The three routes to home energy help in NI

Route	Who it is for	What it covers	What you pay
Affordable Warmth Scheme	Homeowners and private tenants with a gross household income under £23,000	Insulation, heating upgrades, draught-proofing	Grant of up to £7,500 (£10,000 for solid wall insulation)
NISEP	Priority (low-income, over-60, disabled) and some non-priority households	Insulation and other efficiency measures	Part or all, varies by year
0% VAT	Every household, no qualifying needed	Removes VAT from insulation, solar, heat pumps, batteries	You pay, minus the 20% VAT

If your household income is under £23,000, start with the Affordable Warmth Scheme. If it is not, the realistic position is that you pay for upgrades yourself, with 0% VAT taking the edge off the cost. That is the honest answer, and it saves you chasing grants that do not exist here.

The Affordable Warmth Scheme (the main scheme)

The Affordable Warmth Scheme is Northern Ireland’s main home energy grant, funded by the Department for Communities and delivered by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. It is the single most important scheme to understand, because it is the route through which insulation and heating help is actually delivered to most eligible households. It has been extended and is now due to run until March 2028.

For households that qualify, it provides a grant of up to £7,500, rising to £10,000 where solid wall insulation is needed. The measures it funds, based on a home assessment, can include loft and cavity wall insulation, heating system improvements and draught-proofing.

To be eligible you need to own your home and live in it as your main residence (or rent privately), and have a total gross annual household income under £23,000. The application starts with a call to NI Energy Advice on 0800 111 4455, followed by a surveyor’s visit.

Because demand is high and funding is allocated on a rolling basis, the practical advice is to apply early rather than waiting.

Affordable Warmth, the Warm Homes Plan and the Warm Healthy Homes Fund

A lot of confusion surrounds these names, so it is worth being clear about which is which.

The Affordable Warmth Scheme is Northern Ireland’s current scheme, open now and due to run until March 2028. It replaced NI’s old Warm Homes Scheme back in 2015, which is why some people still search under that name.

The Warm Homes Plan is a Great Britain scheme run by the UK government. Energy efficiency is devolved, so it does not operate in Northern Ireland and has not replaced any NI scheme, despite what a number of websites claim. If you are in NI and have been told to apply for the Warm Homes Plan, the scheme you actually want is Affordable Warmth.

The Warm Healthy Homes Fund is the planned successor to Affordable Warmth, announced under the Department for Communities’ Warm Healthy Homes Strategy 2026 to 2036. It is expected to launch in April 2027, with Affordable Warmth continuing during the changeover. Our Affordable Warmth guide covers the transition in detail.

NISEP (supplier-funded help)

NISEP, the Northern Ireland Sustainable Energy Programme, is funded by a levy on electricity bills and delivered through the energy suppliers rather than government directly. It sits alongside the Affordable Warmth Scheme and can fund insulation and other efficiency measures.

NISEP splits applicants into two groups. The priority group covers households on means-tested benefits, people with a disability, and those aged over 60, who receive the highest level of support. The non-priority group covers everyone else, but funding is more limited and not guaranteed every year. Because the schemes are run by suppliers and change annually, the only reliable way to find out what is on offer is to contact your electricity supplier (SSE Airtricity, Power NI or Budget Energy) and ask what NISEP measures they are funding this year.

Insulation grants in Northern Ireland

Insulation is the area where the gap between NI and England causes the most confusion. In England, the Great British Insulation Scheme and ECO4 offer insulation to a broad range of households. Northern Ireland has no direct equivalent. Loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and similar measures are funded here through the Affordable Warmth Scheme (for households under the income threshold) or occasionally through a NISEP scheme, not through a standalone insulation grant anyone can apply for.

If you qualify for Affordable Warmth, insulation is one of the first measures a surveyor will look at, because it is cheap to install and delivers the biggest reduction in heat loss per pound spent. If you do not qualify, insulation is paid for privately, but it is worth keeping in perspective: loft insulation is one of the lowest-cost upgrades available, often paying for itself within a few years through reduced heating bills, and it benefits from 0% VAT.

The practical order of priority for most NI homes is insulation first, then heating efficiency, then generation (solar). Insulating a draughty home before adding solar panels means you waste less of what you generate.

Window and boiler help

Two measures people frequently search for separately are windows and boilers.

Windows: there is no dedicated window replacement grant in Northern Ireland. The Affordable Warmth assessment can include the replacement of single-glazed windows in some cases, but new windows are not a core measure the way insulation and heating are. If heat loss through windows is your concern, draught-proofing (which can form part of an Affordable Warmth assessment) and secondary glazing are far cheaper than full replacement and often deliver most of the benefit.

Boilers and heating: replacing an old, inefficient heating system can be covered by the Affordable Warmth Scheme for eligible households. There is no open boiler-replacement scheme for households outside the means-tested criteria. If your home is off the gas grid and runs on oil, which is common across rural NI, the assessment considers the right heating solution for your property. Our heat pump grants guide covers that route in detail.

0% VAT: the one help everyone gets

The one form of support open to every Northern Ireland household, with no means test and no application, is the 0% VAT rate on energy-saving materials. Until at least March 2027, domestic installations of insulation, solar panels, batteries and heat pumps are zero-rated for VAT.

In practice this removes 20% from the cost. On a typical 4kW solar system costing around £7,000, that is roughly £1,170 saved automatically. Your installer applies the zero rate; you do not need to claim anything. It is not a grant in the traditional sense, but it is the most reliable saving available, because it does not depend on your income or your benefits status.

Solar panel grants specifically

If your main interest is solar rather than insulation, the funding picture has its own detail worth reading separately. The short version: no NI grant currently funds domestic solar panels, including Affordable Warmth, which covers insulation and heating instead. What solar buyers do get is 0% VAT on the installation, and export payments that earn you money for surplus electricity once your system is running. For the full breakdown, see our dedicated guide to solar panel grants in NI and how export payments work.

What to do if you do not qualify for a grant

Most working households in Northern Ireland will not meet the income threshold for the Affordable Warmth Scheme, and that is worth saying plainly so you do not waste weeks applying for something out of reach. If that is you, the realistic plan is:

1. Take the 0% VAT saving as a given. It applies to every upgrade and needs no application.
2. Prioritise insulation before generation. It is the cheapest measure and reduces what every other upgrade has to work against.
3. Compare quotes for anything you pay for privately. Whether it is insulation, a heat pump or solar, getting three quotes routinely saves several hundred pounds on the same work.
4. Sign up for export payments once you have solar. It is free to join and earns you something for surplus generation.

Home energy grants in Northern Ireland are narrower than the headlines suggest, but the combination of Affordable Warmth for those who qualify, 0% VAT for everyone, and sensible sequencing of upgrades still adds up to a meaningful reduction in what you pay to heat and power your home.