Council backs 'toasty homes'

The ‘toasty homes’ scheme is giving people in Coleraine the opportunity to secure a grant of up to 1,500 towards the installation costs of converting to a new natural gas heating system.

Anyone who successfully secures one of the ‘toasty homes’ grants can also benefit from up to 800 towards insulating their home and free energy saving light bulbs.

The scheme, which is part-funded through the Northern Ireland Sustainability Energy Programme, will be available to 350 households, and equates to more than 500,000 across these homes, on a first-come, first-served basis.

‘Toasty homes’ is open to households which currently use oil, LPG, Economy 7, solid fuel or those with no heating system.

Shelly Burns, firmus energy, was in Coleraine last week to help launch the scheme with the Mayor of Coleraine, Councillor Norman Hillis.

Shelly said: “It’s a fantastic scheme as the criteria allows us to reach out to those households who may narrowly miss-out on other benefit schemes.

“Switching to firmus energy natural gas makes common sense as it just takes one quick phone call which can have huge advantages, including lower fuel bills.”

Mayor of Coleraine, councillor Norman Hillis commented on the scheme: “We are very pleased to support firmus energy at the launch of their ‘toasty homes’ scheme. The cost-saving benefits to people living in Coleraine is two-fold; initially the substantial discount off the installation but equally important, the significant savings on fuel bills gained by installing a highly efficient heating system and by insulating the home.

“I would encourage anyone interested in making their home a ‘toasty home’ to apply for a grant sooner rather than later as there are a limited number of grants available.”

To qualify for the ‘toasty homes’ scheme, people must:

* Own their own home or live in private rented accommodation

* Currently use LPG, oil, Economy 7, solid fuel or have no central heating

* Live along the firmus energy natural gas network in Coleraine

* Be single with an income/pension of up to 24K gross per annum OR couple (with/without children) /single parent family with income/pension up to 35K gross per annum

If you would like to find out if you are eligible or you want to turn your home into a ‘toasty home’ simply contact firmus energy on 08456 08 00 88.