Important considerations

Finance

There are a range of home energy efficiency grants and schemes to help you make retrofit upgrades to your property. We can sign-post you to available financing options and provide advice on the application process.

Please note that it is important to factor in the time it takes to apply for and secure funding into the timeline of your retrofit project. We would advise that you start this process at your earliest convenience.

Home Energy Scotland (HES)

Your local Home Energy Scotland team will let you know the latest information about any funding that might be available to you. You might be able to cover your project cost with an interest-free loan, or even get a grant.

Home Energy Scotland offers grants and interest-free loans to homeowners for a variety of energy efficiency improvements including heat pumps and several forms of insulation. Find out more about the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan.

Please note that to qualify for a Home Energy Scotland grant you must provide a pre-works Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) or a Home Energy Scotland report that recommends the specific retrofit measure you are applying for funding for. Then you will require an updated post-works EPC to verify that the measure has indeed been installed. You can read more about EPC’s further down this page.

Planning office

Building warrants

If your retrofit project involves any type of building work that will change your property, such as increasing the floor space or changing the roof structure, it’s likely you’ll need to apply to your local council for a building warrant.

If you’re not sure whether you require a warrant, ask your local Building Standards department. Our recommendation would be to always check with your local council, even if the work is minor.

The application incurs a fee based on the value of proposed works and requires a plan to be presented. We would advise that you think about using an who will draw up plans that prove your works will meet building standards.

Applications take around 20 working days to be processed by your local council so please factor in this time into your considerations. You can find out more at Building Warrants Scotland.

Listed Building and Conservation Area Status

If you live in a listed building, you will require listed building consent for both internal and external retrofit works. This is applied for through your local planning authority and is separate to any required planning permission. You may need to appoint a heritage consultant to help with your application.

If you live in a conservation area, you will probably require conservation area consent for any external work that modifies the look of the house but not usually for internal works. Again, you would apply for this through your local planning authority and may need to consult a heritage consultant to help with your application.

We recommend that you check with your planning authority what the existing permissions for your property are. Seeking such advice and applying for either form of consent is free. Please be aware that failure to obtain listed building or conservation area consent is a criminal offence.

Please note that while EcoCosi can signpost you to a heritage consultant, we are not able to support you in securing either of the consent forms mentioned above.

Energy Performance Certificate

An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) states your property’s energy efficiency rating and environmental impact rating. They also contain a recommendations report which gives more detailed information on the energy efficiency of your property, how to improve it, and an estimate of what this would cost.

EPCs are required as part of the Home Energy Scotland funding application process. If your property’s current EPC is more than ten years old than you will need to update this before applying for Home Energy Scotland funding. Check the pre-existing EPC of your home at Scotland’s EPC registry.

The pre-works EPC is required to show that the retrofit measure you are applying for funding for is recommended. If the current EPC is less than ten years old, then you do not need to update it prior to the application and instead you can obtain a free Home Energy Scotland report that recommends the measure.

In all events however, you will be required to obtain an updated EPC for your property after the works have been completed to receive the Home Energy Scotland funding.

To obtain an EPC, you must contact a member of an approved organisation (AO) to issue the certificate. A searchable list of AO assessors in your area can be found on the Scottish EPC register. Any new EPC will be valid for ten years and will typically cost between £60 – £120.

If you do need to update both the pre-works and post-works EPC, our recommendation is that you utilise the same AO for both. This means the the existing EPC will already be in their system and can be easily updated to reflect the changes with minimal time and expense.