Carbery Housing Association (CHA), is delighted to report that tenants in the four houses retrofitted with solar panels, battery storage, storage heaters and smart meters under the EU-funded pilot project ‘RED WoLF’ Project are already saving money on their energy bills, as well as reducing their carbon footprint by as much as 80%.
The project was launched in February this year, at an event in CECAS at Leap, attended by project partners from around Ireland, the UK, France and Luxembourg as well as representatives of local Sustainable Energy Community ‘Net Zero Skibbereen’ and other interested members of the local community.
The innovative domestic energy system, consisting of solar PV panels, storage heaters and a battery, was installed by contractor Eurotech Renewables. Tenants are already seeing a significant drop in their energy bills and are also benefiting from additional savings on their bill as any unused energy generated is sold back to the grid. CHA representatives Ana and Jose Ospina recently
visited the tenants , to ensure they were happy with the new system.
One tenant told them: “We’re delighted with the RED WoLF system, it’s really simple to use and is already saving us money - our latest electricity bill was only €61 for the past 2 months. We are getting most of our hot water for free and we’re looking forward to cheaper heating costs next winter.”
In addition to saving their money, CHA tenants will save around 115 kg of carbon per year, due to the system’s special algorithm, which controls when power is drawn from the PV panels, battery or the grid, depending on the carbon-intensity at any moment of the day or night. CHA is committed to retrofitting all of its properties to the highest possible standards of energy efficiency and has increased the building energy ratings of these 4 houses from an average D2 rating to an average of B2. In addition to the new heating system, CHA has also addressed insulation and draft-proofing issues in the four houses.
Chair of CHA, José Ospina, had this to say about the project: “We are delighted to be part of this innovative, cutting-edge pilot project and we firmly believe that the RED WoLF system is a viable alternative fossil-fuel based heating systems and superior to the heat-pump based retrofit approach that is being widely promoted and employed around the country. In our view, the RED WoLF system provides more benefits for the residents and fewer disadvantages, especially when dealing with older properties with poor insulation, where a full deep retrofit is not feasible.”