Cork City Council has installed energy monitoring equipment into eight social housing units in Cork City as part of the Interreg Europe EMPOWER project. The Southern Regional Assembly is the Irish partner in the project with the Cork City Council as a significant stakeholder. The project aims to reduce carbon emissions by dynamically monitoring energy efficiency in buildings. The monitoring system in place will measure the energy usage before and after a deep retrofit of the social housing units.
The weather station will measure a number of parameters including wind speed, wind directions, temperature, humidity, air pressure, and rainfall. Inside the house gas consumption, electricity consumption, energy generated by the boiler, air temperature, air pressure and humidity will be measured.
Data is collected before and after the deep retrofit of the social housing units to measure the benefits of the retrofitting project. Cork City Council is working closely with Southern Regional Assembly to provide the Energy Efficiency Measuring and Monitoring Report (EEMMR) where data is logged in real time and all information can be presented without breaching the confidentiality of individual households.
Cork City Council is also a partner of another Interreg Europe project called INTENSIFY which aims to reduce carbon emissions from all sectors by empowering and energising local communities. The objective will be achieved by developing social platforms and other community-engagement mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions in all sectors and to attract private investment. The use of the EEMMR platform is a good example of engaging with communities in order to increase awareness of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
For further information please visit: www.interregeurope.eu/empower
Brian Cassidy, Senior Executive Engineer, Cork City Council: brian_cassidy@corkcity.ie
