Boilers in Waterford: oil and gas heating, grants and installers

Quick answer: in Waterford City and County, Census 2022 found 42.8% of households heat mainly with oil and 28.5% with natural gas, so you may need either an oil technician or a Registered Gas Installer. There is no grant for a new oil or gas boiler; SEAI pays up to €12,500 towards a heat pump for a house, and a €2,000 scrappage grant is due from early 2027.

Waterford city has a gas network, but the county around it is mostly oil-heated, and plenty of city homes are too. Waterford City and County Council has also set itself an unusual goal: to make Waterford the country’s first carbon neutral city. This guide covers the local heating mix, gas and oil rules, what the council does and the grants open in 2026.

How Waterford homes are heated

Census 2022 central heating data for the Waterford City and County Council area (the CSO does not separate the city):

Main central heating fuel, Census 2022	Waterford City and County	Ireland
Oil	42.8%	38.9%
Natural gas	28.5%	32.7%
Electricity	11.8%	11.8%
Coal	6.2%	3.5%
Not stated	4.9%	5.0%

Coal is the main heating fuel for 6.2% of Waterford households, the highest of the five areas we cover and well above the national 3.5%. Solid fuel back boilers and older oil boilers are both common replacement jobs here.

Gas and oil: who may do the work

Any work on a natural gas or LPG installation in an Irish home must, by law, be carried out by a Registered Gas Installer (RGI). The register used to be called RGII (Registered Gas Installers of Ireland); it is now run by Safe Energy Ireland on behalf of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), which appoints it as the Gas Safety Supervisory Body. When the job is finished, the RGI must give you a Declaration of Conformance certificate (also called a completion certificate), which records that the work is safe and to standard. You can look an installer up on the RGI scheme’s website before you book; see checking an RGI and the completion paperwork.

There is no statutory register for oil boiler technicians in the Republic of Ireland. OFTEC registration shows approved training and assessment; Selectra notes it is recommended rather than legally required. Replacing an oil boiler like for like is still allowed in an existing home, but SEAI does not fund it, and the Department of Housing says Part L of the Building Regulations has effectively phased out fossil fuel boilers in new dwellings (under 5% of new homes in 2023).

Waterford City and County Council’s role

In 2021 the council chose Waterford City as its decarbonising zone, with the aim of carbon neutrality by 2040, reducing fossil fuel use in the city and replacing it with renewables where possible. It adopted its Climate Action Plan 2024–2029 in February 2024. For individual homeowners the most direct council support is still the Housing Aid for Older People Grant.

What the council can do

The council administers the Housing Aid for Older People Grant for people aged 66 and over living in poor housing conditions. It can pay to repair or replace central heating, up to €10,700 (100% of costs) where household income is up to €37,500, with lower rates up to an income of €75,000. Since 1 January 2025 it cannot buy a new oil or gas boiler, but it can repair an existing one or pay for electric or biomass heating.

You apply to Waterford City and County Council, not to SEAI, and it is worth including a report from a heating contractor describing the condition of the existing system, which Citizens Information says should accompany a heating application.

SEAI grants for Waterford homes

SEAI pays up to €12,500 towards a heat pump system in a house (€9,500 in an apartment): up to €6,500 for the heat pump, up to €2,000 for new radiators or underfloor heating where needed, and a €4,000 Renewable Heat Bonus for replacing an oil or gas boiler, solid fuel or storage heating. The home must have been built and occupied before 2021, and you need grant approval before work starts. The full table is in our Ireland boiler costs guide.

On 29 September 2026 the Government approved a new €2,000 boiler scrappage grant for homes built before 2021 that replace a fossil fuel heating system with a heat pump or other renewable heating. RTÉ reports that the scheme starts in the first quarter of 2027, while SEAI says homeowners with a heat pump grant application already in progress will receive the extra €2,000 automatically. That would take the maximum for a house to €14,500. There is still no SEAI grant for replacing a gas or oil boiler with another gas or oil boiler.

Owner-occupiers on a qualifying welfare payment in a home built before 2006 can apply to SEAI’s Warmer Homes Scheme for free upgrades after a survey; SEAI says the most common works are attic and wall insulation.

Typical prices

We have not found a price survey for this city alone, so these are national figures checked in September 2026: €2,300–€4,900 for a like-for-like gas boiler including VAT (Gasworks.ie), €2,900–€5,500 for a new oil boiler (Selectra), and a median €16,000–€17,000 for a heat pump in a house before grants (SEAI). See our Ireland boiler costs guide for the full table.

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How to choose an installer

Gas work: check the installer on the RGI register before they start, and ask for the Declaration of Conformance certificate when they finish.
Oil work: ask whether the technician is OFTEC-registered and what certificate or commissioning record they will leave.
Heat pumps and grants: use an SEAI-registered contractor or One Stop Shop, and do not start work until you have grant approval, because SEAI will not pay for work started before approval.
Replacing a solid fuel or back boiler? Ask for a survey first; the pipework, chimney and flue changes can cost more than the boiler.

Our guide to comparing boiler quotes like for like has a fuller checklist, and Ireland’s heating controls grant covers the €700 controls grant.

Gas, oil and heating installers in and around Waterford

These businesses appear in public business listings for Waterford and the surrounding area, and each has its own website describing boiler or heating work. We have not checked their work, prices, registrations or insurance, and they have not paid to appear.