The Southern Regional Assembly held an Import Workshop for the EMPOWER project on 27th March 2019 in Cork City. Brian Cassidy from Cork City Council provided a presentation on the retrofitting programme for social housing units in Cork City which will be used to pilot the EMPOWER energy efficiency equipment. Ruby Ganchou (ALEON, the local energy agency in Lorient) provided a presentation on The Social Dimension of Energy Monitoring, Users Involvement and Behaviour Changes and Joao Cleto (Local Energy Management Agency of Almada) provided a presentation on the HERB project – Holistic Energy Efficient Retrofitting of Social Housing in Almada.
The Workshop was highly participative and also included a site visit to view first-hand the social housing units been retrofitted by Cork City Council. The workshop allowed us to explore how Ireland can affect real behaviour change in energy consumption in social housing and as a direct result of the workshop we have now decided to survey the residents before and after the retrofitting to assess their levels of comfort which will provide additional insights for the EMPOWER project.
