Delivering a complete service in-house from initial assessment through to installation and certification, Churchfield Home Services is the very epitome of a One Stop Shop whole home energy upgrade provider. We contacted MD Noel Rowland to discuss the industry-leading status of Ireland’s premier home energy upgrades company.
With the Government committed to upgrading half a million homes by 2030 and generous grants available to homeowners who wish to transform the comfort levels of their properties and reduce their energy bills, there has never been a better time to invest in a home energy upgrade.
Churchfield Home Services boasts 15 years’ experience at the forefront of the home energy upgrade sector and is a registered provider of the new One Stop Shop home energy upgrade solution which was introduced by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) eighteen months ago.
As a One Stop Shop, Churchfield provides a full range of fabric, heating, and renewable measures including roof insulation, wall insulation, replacement windows and doors, ventilation systems, heating systems and renewable upgrades such as solar PV. They can organise, oversee, project manage and certify the entire procedure from start to finish, including applying for and securing the SEAI grants, simplifying matters for the homeowner and delivering an excellent service every time.
Founded in Dublin as Churchfield Green Energy in 2008, the company began trading as Churchfield Home Services in 2011 and quickly established itself as Ireland’s largest installer of external wall insulation and the country’s leading deep retrofit specialists under the SEAI Deep Retrofit programme.
In 2017, Churchfield Home Services was appointed to the SEAI Better Energy Home Scheme and given official counter-party status by Electric Ireland, becoming Ireland’s largest provider of home energy upgrade services. Today, Churchfield is registered to operate on all three SEAI warmer home schemes: namely the Fully Funded Energy Upgrade, Individual Energy Upgrade and the recently-introduced One Stop Shop Service.
When the One Stop Shop scheme was announced in February 2022, Churchfield Home Services didn’t jump straight in but instead took a step back and spent a full twelve months assessing the potential pitfalls and making sure they were 100 per cent ready before offering this service.
“The One Stop Shop programme really is a fantastic scheme, with a range of additional benefits available to the homeowner,” states founder and proprietor Noel Rowland. “For the One Stop Shop Service, we look after everything from an initial whole house energy assessment to design, providing a quotation for the works, installation using our own team of skilled tradesmen, project managing and certification.”
Churchfield Home Services are now going to market with a home energy assessment that does exactly what it says on the tin. The innovative and comprehensive survey provided, including laser scanning of the property, provides the homeowner with all the information necessary to make a decision within a matter of days or weeks rather than months.
“It’s a Rolls Royce service that allows the home energy upgrade service to progress from survey to decision within six-eight weeks maximum,” confirms Noel.
Traditionally Churchfield Home Services – who were appointed to the SEAI Warmer Homes Scheme for the first time in 2009 – have been providing external wall insulation, attic insulation, cavity wall insulation, high efficiency oil and gas boilers, window and door replacement, solar panels and BER certificates across Dublin and the greater Leinster region.
However, with a second base fully operational in Crossmolina, County Mayo – which now serves as the company HQ – they are in the process of also rolling out their full suite of home energy upgrade services, including the One Stop Shop, to homeowners in Mayo, Galway and the North West.
To date, the exceptional Churchfield Home Services team has carried out in excess of 5,500 home energy upgrades and current projections indicate that they will complete between 700 and 800 projects during the course of the current calendar year – quite an achievement considering that the scope and scale of these retrofits has increased almost exponentially year on year!
“In the early days, the upgrades were mainly attic insulation, boiler replacement and new heating controls, but there are many more elements involved now and the average cost of an upgrade has gone from around €3,000 to €23,000,” says Noel. “The retrofit is deeper now and the volume of work involved in each unit is greater.”
Direct full-time employment is generated for 65 as well as an additional 100 people on a contract basis. “We enjoy a great working relationship with all our contractors, and they have all been with us for years,” reveals the MD, who adds that he’s currently investing in a new training centre in Crossmolina, where surveyors, technical sales staff and the quality team will be trained to the highest industry standards. In 2015, Churchfield Home Services became the first construction company to successfully develop and implement its own Quality Management Application, Q-Smart.
Going forward, growth is very much on the cards as there is stronger demand than ever in Ireland for energy upgrades of domestic properties. “Demand for Fully Funded Upgrades has gone through the roof since the energy crisis began and SEAI’s output has increased by 50 per cent from 4,000 units to 6,000 units for this year. This is great news but the challenge is to continue delivering work to the high standards that we are known for. This is why we have invested so much in our resources, our people and the systems we use.
“To meet the targets of Ireland’s Climate Action Plan, which sets out to upgrade 500,000 homes to BER B2 or higher by 2030, as a nation we need to increase output to 60,000 units per year, which is at least a doubling of the current output. So demand for these energy upgrades is going to be very strong up until 2030 at the very least.
“These retrofits are not just taking place in cities and large urban areas but are going into every small community and village in the country. So, this is a really good sector to get involved in, with good career development prospects and growth forecast for the foreseeable future with the Government committed to investing billions of euro into the Climate Action Plan by 2030.”
Delivering in-demand home energy upgrade services to the highest possible standard and adopting a proactive approach, the future looks particularly bright for Churchfield Home Services. “The goal is to expand our service to nationwide inside the next 18-24 months,” Noel concludes. “We’re moving into the Mayo / Connacht market as we speak and in the latter half of next year we will move into more southern areas.”
Churchfield Home Services,
Crossmolina Industrial Estate,
Ballina Road,
Crossmolina,
County Mayo.
Tel: 01 253 0502 / 096 38555
Email: [email protected]
Web: churchfieldhomeservices.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, October 2023, Vol 9 No 10
