This is Energy Awareness Week - and the message is beginning to get through to Irish home-owners, reports Iva Pocock.
With rising electricity prices and the cost of oil at an all-time high, many home-owners are turning to state-of-the-art renewable energy heating systems in the knowledge that they offer substantial cost savings and the prospect of cheap energy into the future.
These technologies can reduce heating bills by up to 50 per cent. Considering an average Irish family will spend €50,000 over the next 30 years on heating its home, this is a substantial sum, says Paul Dykes of the Renewable Energy Information Office. Interest in these systems is growing, Dykes adds, with more than 500 free Sustainable Buildings Information Packs requested in the last month. The office is promoting these packs this week as part of Energy Awareness Week, and the following are among the ideas recommended.
Solar hot water
Pat and David Lynch, from near Kinnegad in Co Westmeath, are one of many Irish couples to have realised that despite our high rainfall and far from tropical summers, Irish sunshine can provide hot water at minimal cost for most of the year.
When they started planning their new four-bedroom home in 2000, the Lynches were aware of solar technology, but it was only after browsing the Internet that they decided to avail of their south-facing site and use free sunlight to heat their hot-water tank.
They chose a Co Kerry-based company, Wind Water Solar Energy Systems, to provide and instal a solar panel consisting of 30 tubes manufactured by one of the world's leading solar-panel companies, Thermomax, based in Bangor, Co Down.
The panel cost €5,142 in 2002 (a similar system now costs €4,250) and has been worth every cent, according to Pat.
"I used to have the immersion on all the time, but I haven't turned it on once since we moved in here two years ago," she says.
Because the solar panel absorbs radiant heat, it doesn't require direct sunlight and can function on cloudy summer days when the sun is warm and high in the sky.
In the winter the family has the oil heating timed to come on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening to boost the hot water.
"Even at the worst in winter, the solar panel will always have the cold gone out of the water so you're not starting from scratch," says Pat. "We reckon that after a couple of years the panel will have paid for itself."
Wood-pellet stoves
A number of companies are now supplying state-of-the-art wood-pellet burners in Ireland, and interest is considerable. One Co Dublin company, Celtic Flame, in Malahide, which has been selling them only since October last year, is already ahead of its three-year sales target, says director Gordon Tyrell.
The stoves promise the attractions of a log fire with the benefits of cleanliness, efficiency and automation, and are ideal for heating rooms and water. They run on small wood pellets which can be easily poured into the fuel containers of the stoves. To date, one limiting factor has been the lack of an Irish pellet manufacturer, with people relying on European or Canadian imports. Now, however, an Enniskillen-based company, Balcas Timber, has started production.
In contrast to an open log fire, which releases only 50 per cent of the fuel's potential energy, the best stoves are more than 90 per cent efficient.
Adrian Neville, who recently installed a wood-pellet stove in his family's large living area in their Co Wicklow home says: "I'm astounded at how little fuel I'm using."
Ground-source heat pumps
These pumps harness solar heat stored in the surface layer of the ground, using the same principle as a fridge, which draws heat from one area and moves it to another.
Joyce and Viv Freeman, from near Dunmore East in Co Waterford, use a ground-source heat pump as the main heating for their house, which they built in 2002. Looking through their living-room window at the field where their daughter's pony grazes, they can see their heat source.
Buried one metre below the paddock is 600 metres of liquid-filled piping which provides all their heating and hot water needs. The continuous system harnesses the ground's relatively constant heat of between six and 10 degrees and releases it at a higher temperature in their home.
Joyce says she is "delighted" with the system and would "never ever" go back to an oil-fired boiler.
"Oil bills at our last house were absolutely huge," she says. Now, the only running cost of the ground-source heat pump is electricity, and as they run it at night it's good value. It runs from midnight until 8 a.m., feeding the hot- water tank and under-floor heating. "That's sufficient because the floor is like a storage heater which allows the heat out all day."
People can't get their heads around the fact that the earth can be used to heat a house, says Joyce, but a number of the Freemans' friends have followed their example after seeing how well the system works.
For further information, contact the Renewable Energy Information Office (tel: 023-42193; website: www.sei.ie)
