Electric car and retrofit could save the family €270 a month – but it will take 20 years to recoup the expenses

Utilities have pushed through massive price hikes for electricity, gas and oil, while petrol and diesel prices have smashed records in recent months.

Housing, water, electricity and natural gas costs are up 17.4 percent since the beginning of the year, according to the CSO, with transportation costs also up nearly a fifth (18.7 percent) over the past three months.

According to price comparison website bonkers.ie, it’s estimated that the average annual electricity bill is now nearly €1,700 a year and gas €1,400 a year.

But owners of retrofitted homes save on average between 30 and 50 percent a month, according to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

Compared to the average bills for a 3-room semi-detached house at current prices, this means energy savings of between 900 and 1,500 euros per year, depending on the individual situation.

Even with rising electricity prices, owners of all-electric vehicles can expect to save around 60 euros a month on fuel – 720 euros a year.

With an average of €2,234 petrol or €1,900 diesel output per year, electric drivers save between €1,500 and €2,000 per year, combined with cheaper service and half the toll fee.

Roughly one in five cars registered so far this year has been either fully electric or hybrid, and of course you can always choose to ditch the car altogether for even more savings.

The CO2 tax on heating oil from €33.50 per tonne of CO2 emitted is set to increase to €41 from 1 May, which is a relatively small surcharge of €1.40 per month on the average gas bill, or €1.50 for those who do who use oil .

Also, a 20 kg sack of coal will cost about 90 cents more and a bale of peat briquettes will go up by about 20 cents.

By 2030, the tax is to rise to 100 euros per tonne of CO2.

However, drastically reducing your fuel consumption to deal with rising fuel costs will have little effect due to the standing charges in place.

For those looking to take advantage of government grants to reduce their fuel consumption as much as possible, according to Electric Ireland, a “deep” or complete energy retrofit of an A-rated home costs €56,000 but reduces to €30-35,000 € if government subsidies are granted are included.

The energy savings for a deeply renovated home range from $900 to $1,500, which means it will take at least 20 years to pay for itself financially.

Some homeowners may opt for a cheaper but less efficient “shallow” retrofit, or take an incremental approach over time such as become available.

In terms of household savings, energy efficient homes are likely to reduce energy bills by almost €1,200 in 2022.

When a family replaces their internal combustion engine car with an electric vehicle, savings of almost €3,200 per year can be achieved.

But the money spent up to this point is around €60,000 when a major retrofit and the cost of a new electric vehicle are combined with a price tag of around €30,000 (minus €5,000 government subsidy).

Breakeven will take at least 20 years if you go green, but more used electric vehicles are likely to enter the market in the coming years, and the cost of retrofitting homes may well come down as the government pushes to retrofit 500,000 homes until 2030.