Millennium Community Centre gets major energy upgrade

Background

Millennium Community Centre in Kilkenny is an estate designed by Respond Housing Association with 46 family homes, two group homes and a community building which provides childcare services, youth clubs, educational courses and a community garden.  

The Project

Over the past few years Millennium Court has carried out multiple energy upgrades using SEAI grants to bring the community building, which was built in the 1990’s, to a higher energy efficiency standard. Some of the upgrades carried out include:  

1. Insulation on walls and attic 
2. New windows and doors
3. Switching the gas boiler to a heat pump and installing new heat controls
4. Replacing internal lighting with high performance LED lights.

Results and key achievements

The facilities manager of Millennium Community Centre noted that a significant challenge was securing the financials, and that without the SEAI grant they would not have been able to go through with the project. Following the upgrades, all the organisations that benefit from this community facility have experienced a considerable improvement in comfort levels. The new LED lighting has improved the brightness within the facility, while increasing safety. Moving away from fossil fuels to a heat pump has helped the centre to reduce its carbon emissions. These measures have also helped to reduce energy bills and building maintenance costs. 12 months after the upgrades were carried out, the facilities manager carried out a monitoring and verification report. It showed the building had reduced its overall kilowatts used by 37%.  

• Project Costs: €49,680 
• SEAI funded €14,904 
• Electrical energy savings of €2,094 

Next steps

Next Steps: 

Given the positive outcomes and savings achieved, Millennium Community plan to install solar PV panels and EV chargers in the future.