Energy Costs.
Energy Costs.
Energy costs in Ireland are some of the highest in the EU.
The majority of the housing stock of 325 houses in Beech Park / South Park were built between 1962 and 1964 and used the building technologies of the time, concrete block construction, single glazed windows, oil central heating and minimal insulation.
The difference in energy related running costs for a 4 or 5 bedroom house built in the 1960's with a low BER rating and not upgraded to comply with the enhanced building regulations for houses built post year 2000 with higher BER rating could easily equate to an extra €5000 per year in running costs.
There are many ways and associated supports available to to reduce the energy consumption of a house and reduce its runnings costs and provides the householder with a more comfortable living environment and in most cases a property that has increased in value.
There are many residents in our area who have already carried out the different types of upgrades to their houses and those residents could help to provide advice and guidance to other residents who may want to embark on the same journey.
Starting an energy upgrade journey can be quite daunting for some people as there are many differenet solutions, many different suppliers, costs per solution can vary wildly, grant related information and supports can be confusing and finding accurate information regarding the relevant solution performance and cost benefit can be a steep learning curve that some residents do not have the ability to undertake. Thus residents who have already built up this knowledge are a valuable resource to the residents to help them through this process.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) are the primary resource for homeowners and related grant supports.
https://www.seai.ie/plan-your-energy-journey/for-your-home
However, there are other grants in place for wider community based initiatives like the implementation of a Sustainable Energy Community (SEC).
There are many SEC projects already in place in Dublin and quite a few SEC's already funded by DLRCC.
The implementation of an SEC through a residents association could help to develop an overall community energy plan for the residents of the association and if the relevant solutions were validated by the association community an implementation plan could be developed.
There could be some benefits to the community if this occured:
Specific solutions validated that work for the housing stock in the association area.
The identification of reliable vendors of relevant solutions.
Knowledge transfer amongst residents and removing the requirement for all residents to become technical experts in the evaluation, cost benefit and payback times related to relevant solutions.
Help and advice related to some energy solutions that do not work in the main type of housing stock within the area without significant building fabric upgrades and information to there cost benefit e.g is a particular solution worth the initial cost.
Help and advice related to Building Energy Ratings (BER) and the mechanism used by the BER assessor uses to calculate your BER. There are quite a few areas within this assesment process that can affect your overall BER rating final result in a positive or a negative way.
Community related buying power e.g a number of residents acting together to purchase a relevant solution from a vendor and any related diccounts that you may be able to achieve through a group based purchase.
There are many other ways a community can work together to implement solutions that benefit the community and support the overall climate action plan for Ireland.