Energy efficiency in the home is now an important way to reduce your impact on the environment and save money on fuel bills and some construction companies are offering refurbishments to homes and businesses.

I spoke with Ian Lester, a native of Beech Hill in Donnybrook, who has started such a company, Architectural Project Construction, APC, with some important aims.

Ian Lester studied Construction technology at Bolton Street and took a Project Management Higher Diploma in Trinity College. Ian works with David Moran an Architect also from Bolton Street and together they have founded a company that is committed to help reduce the carbon footprint of businesses and private homes.

Ian said that they have examined a number of means by which energy consumption can be reduced in the home. These include both passive and active solutions. Passive solutions include providing or increasing the insulation to a property. Solar gain through passive means, passive solar redistribution and air tightness are examples of other passive means of energy control.

Active means including the provision of solar panels for both hot water and energy, photovoltaic and P.V. units, to provide electricity. Heat recovery ventilation systems, geo-thermal energy and wind energy are examples of active controls: these can either serve to conserve energy or to provide energy.

Ian Lester’s company has been busy trying to persuade local authorities to increase the insulation of houses and flats and have approached Dublin City Council about sites, such as Beech Hill where he grew up, to add insulation to the units.

Ian says, “external insulation offers the best in terms of financial and ecological return. Due to the climate in Ireland and in particular to the moisture content, this also offers the best control of dampness. This solution is also applicable to most houses and can be carried out with minimal inconvenience to the day-to-day running of the house.

“When considered in isolation the provision of external insulation, we believe, offers the best solution in over 90% of circumstances. This, when offered as a part of designed and engineered solution, can offer very great savings and reduce considerably the production of environment-damaging carbon.”

One technology that they have recently investigated is the provision of a windmill to support energy consumption in private homes. An example of their investigations into this is the study of the provision of one 9-metre-tall windmill, having a three-rotor diameter of 2.6 metres located in Drumcondra.

The wind speeds averaged 5.5 metres per second on an annual basis, this generates 250 Kilowatts of electricity on average per month. This is equivalent to the average family’s consumption of electricity per month, where gas is used for cooking and heating.

Ian says that the difficulty in providing this is that storage of energy is currently required due to the fact that the semi-state ESB will not purchase energy even at the standard rate that they sell it at, which alone renders this an uneconomic solution but believes that through EU measures that this will change in time.

Ian Lester’s company will, where possible, promote passive building values and the movement towards the reduction of energy waste and increase efficiency in buildings with advice, specification and installation of tried and tested products into the technology of new buildings to reduce their carbon footprint.

The same thinking goes for existing builds where products can be added to enhance the enjoyments of these properties with insulation and active energy solutions such as windmills and solar panels.

“We pursue, evaluate and use new technologies wherever it is practical to use them to help in the future and prolonged health of our environment, whether these are in the built environment or general living and quality of life,” he says.

Ian Lester can be contacted on 087 6940175.