The idea of insulating the walls has exposed a flaw in the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme: the more energy you require to heat your house, the greater your potential returns (assuming you use a renewable heat source such as GSHP). This is counter-productive, as we should be encouraging home-owners to insulate heavily first. For example, say it costs £10k for me to insulate the walls through internal cladding. This reduces the size of the heat pump required, which means I get less payments from the government, over 23 years, possibly losing me £40k in revenue. If my increase in heating costs is £20k because I chose not to insulate, I’d still be financially better off. Of course, it’s not just about the financials, but it’s what drives most people’s behaviour, so if the government want to see a reduction in energy consumption, they’d do well to revise their ideas.
