ENERGY AUDIT
I was at Tullyarvan Mill this week finding out about an environmental audit that had taken place there recently. The audit was funded by the Removing Barriers Programme covering Tyrone and Donegal. The Mill had a team of experts looking into every aspect of their energy use. The audit that had just been delivered shows how changes can be made in all areas of the building to cut energy usage and reduce costs. There are already energy saving features within the building such as good insulation and low energy lighting, which turn off automatically when no one is in a room. The audit includes the costing for adding solar power on rooftops that are south facing, a wood chip boiler and wind turbines to generate renewable energy. Energy will be saved by concentrating on making the best use of natural light and ventilation to save on electricity. There is also a summary to see the short and long term payback of investing in green technology. The findings make for interesting reading and will be a benchmark for other companies to follow.
Most small businesses in the tourist industry probably wouldn’t want to go to the expense of getting a professional audit done though as they can be very expensive. Putting in a wood chip boiler could take more than twenty-five years before any financial benefits are seen, which isn’t much of an incentive. Getting information locally about how to implement a few simple changes to reduce the energy that is used could make a big difference to the viability of a business. Some service providers find that up to half their costs go on heating. This doesn’t mean that loads of money needs to be spent on new equipment, it might just mean that the loft needs more insulation or the thermostats are turned down a degree of two. The COMPARES project that is running for the next few weeks hopes to address this problem and highlight some simple changes that can be implemented to help both the planet and the financial bottom line of local tourist providers.
I was at Tullyarvan Mill this week finding out about an environmental audit that had taken place there recently. The audit was funded by the Removing Barriers Programme covering Tyrone and Donegal. The Mill had a team of experts looking into every aspect of their energy use. The audit that had just been delivered shows how changes can be made in all areas of the building to cut energy usage and reduce costs. There are already energy saving features within the building such as good insulation and low energy lighting, which turn off automatically when no one is in a room. The audit includes the costing for adding solar power on rooftops that are south facing, a wood chip boiler and wind turbines to generate renewable energy. Energy will be saved by concentrating on making the best use of natural light and ventilation to save on electricity. There is also a summary to see the short and long term payback of investing in green technology. The findings make for interesting reading and will be a benchmark for other companies to follow.
Most small businesses in the tourist industry probably wouldn’t want to go to the expense of getting a professional audit done though as they can be very expensive. Putting in a wood chip boiler could take more than twenty-five years before any financial benefits are seen, which isn’t much of an incentive. Getting information locally about how to implement a few simple changes to reduce the energy that is used could make a big difference to the viability of a business. Some service providers find that up to half their costs go on heating. This doesn’t mean that loads of money needs to be spent on new equipment, it might just mean that the loft needs more insulation or the thermostats are turned down a degree of two. The COMPARES project that is running for the next few weeks hopes to address this problem and highlight some simple changes that can be implemented to help both the planet and the financial bottom line of local tourist providers.
Photo: Pupils at a classroom at Tullyarvan Mill make good use of natural light from the windows. From Right to left: Nuala McLaughlin- Job Coach and Life Skills co-ordinator, the Inishowen New Start Project. Michelle McLaughin, Michael McGonagle, Margaret Rose Coyle, Victor Lee, David Morrison and Michael Gormley
Environmental.
No comments:
Post a Comment