With the new funding, the community can transform the building from a cold, costly space to a warm self-sufficient community hub.

It’s the most colourful building in West Cork and now the village committee in Ballydehob has been given nearly €55k in funding to continue the great work already done with this bright community project.

The building is a former AIB bank first built in the 1950s and when it went up for sale – members of the community decided they could turn the old building into something positive for the village.

Warm self-sufficient community hub.

With the new funding, the community can transform the building from a cold, costly space to a warm self-sufficient community hub. The former bank now serves as a tourism office, community centre, and art museum.

The building had a low BER rating with poor comfort levels for staff and community members and due to poor insulation and energy efficiency, the community council found it difficult to achieve a warm, comfortable building at an affordable cost.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) granted a Ballydehob community project almost fifty-five-thousand-euro (€54,860) in government funds to help carry out an extensive energy upgrade. The project is one of 84 community or not-for-profit projects supported by SEAI in 2022 and 2023.

The works were completed at the Ballydehob Bank House community project in West Cork with Government support through SEAI’s community grants and additional funding through SE Systems community fund.

Speaking about the Ballydehob Bank House energy upgrade project, William Walsh, CEO at SEAI said:

“ The Ballydehob Bank House energy upgrade is a testament to the Ballydehob Community Council and SE Systems who have helped deliver such a fantastic project. These energy upgrades will help them reduce their carbon footprint and heating costs.

The Ballydehob Bank House required a significant number of energy upgrades. The building was upgraded with new windows and doors, the cavity walls were pumped, and the attic was insulated. There were three flat roof sections at the back of the building which were fitted with warm roof insulation.

After the insulation was complete, solar panels were installed to run the new heat pump upgrade and four EV chargers.

William Swanton, Ballydehob Committee Member explained:

“The ambition of the Ballydehob Bank House was for the local community to have a place where they can meet and develop. The full energy upgrade project took the building from a cold, costly place, to a warm, self-sufficient, low-cost, low-carbon success story. The solar panels are producing more electricity than we are using, and we’ll be selling it back to the grid. There’s an app on my phone that allows me to monitor how much electricity is produced and see how much energy we have saved. It’s amazing.”

Read the full article here: https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/west-cork-community-project-given-28490436