House of Tomorrow Programme

The House of Tomorrow programme, which was originally developed as part of the implementation process of the 1999 Green Paper on Sustainable Energy, offers support for research, development and demonstration projects aimed at generating and applying technologies, products, systems, practices and information leading to the greater use of sustainable energy in Irish housing. The main focus of the programme, which was launched in September 2001, was on stimulating the widespread uptake of superior energy planning, design, specification and construction practices in both the new home building and home improvement markets. Under the programme developers who designed buildings to consume 40% less energy for space and water heating than the current Building Regulations minimum standards, whilst also incorporating innovative energy saving and low CO2 technologies, could be awarded EUR 8 000 per dwelling, with an a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 50 dwellings per scheme (the criteria and levels of grant funding available through House of Tomorrow programme changed over time). In light of the new residential building regulations announced in 2007 (to come into effect in 2008), the programme closed to new applications from 30 September 2007. The new Regulations will make mandatory the standards promoted by the House of Tomorrow Programme. The Irish government is considering the most appropriate mechanism to support the governments policy to revise the building regulations again in 2010, with a view to further increasing the eneregy efficiency requirements for new houses.

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