A RESEARCH project led by University of Limerick is offering local people free smart sensors to monitor and reduce their building energy use.
The research, led by principal investigator, Professor Stephen Kinsella, and funded by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), is part of the SMARTLAB project which adopts a living lab approach to examine barriers to the use of smart technologies in Ireland’s buildings.
The initiative will test new ways to make buildings smart-ready , so they can better respond to the needs of occupants, cost less to run, and be ready to interact with a future decarbonised energy grid.
Local building owners and occupants are invited to join the project, receiving free energy monitors and environmental sensors and free expert analysis of how healthy and energy efficient their building currently is.
Up to 100 building owners and occupants in Limerick City will be installing sensors provided by SMARTLAB to monitor their building’s temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels.
The project team will help participants understand how their buildings use energy, giving them more power to lower energy costs and make good decisions about their building’s future.
“This is a cutting-edge project that puts Limerick at the forefront of collaborative approaches to empowering smart energy citizens,” says Professor Kinsella, SMARTLAB’s Principal Investigator and Head of the Department of Economics at UL.
“We are looking forward to working with people in Limerick city centre to explore how they can use smart sensor technology in their buildings and be part of the clean energy transition. This knowledge will be shared with policymakers at national and international levels.”
SEAI Head of Research and Technology Kerrie Sheehan said that energy research and innovation are central to accelerating Ireland’s sustainable energy transformation.
“SEAI is committed to paving the way for breakthrough solutions, through support for research projects like the SMARTLAB project led by University of Limerick. We look forward to the learnings and insights that this innovative and engaged research project can bring to drive energy demand reduction”.
Ruth Kerrigan, Chief Operating Officer for project partner IES R&D Ltd said they will help end users reduce energy with a target reduction of 10 per cent on average across all buildings in the project.
Limerick City and County Council Head of Urban Innovation Rosie Webb said it was important to empower owners and occupiers to their energy use immediately by using sensor data through behavioural change in the first instance and then energy retrofitting.
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