Shannon Town Sustainable Energy Community (SEC)

 Hi Folks, We will be starting on our Energy Master Plan (EMP) as soon as we get a consultant onboard. To prepare for better communications, I have created a TikTok, Instagram and Facebook page for us (we do already have a Facebook Group page). You will be able to find our content on these platforms by searching for the hashtag #ShannonTownSEC You can also follow our story here! https://shannontownsustainableenergy.blogspot.com/ Exciting times ahead!

Just an update that out application for funding to create an Energy Master Plan for Shannon Town is is progress. It may be a few weeks yet before it is complete. This plan will create a snapshot of energy use in Shannon Town by residents for heating, cooking, travel, etc, based on historic census data and forms submitted by residents. It will also include some detailed case studies of the energy use by some homes and community spaces. Showing what could be done to reduce this energy use and therefore save money. Details of an EMP are available on the SEAI website at:  https://www.seai.ie/plan-your-energy-journey/for-your-community/sustainable-energy-communities/master-plan With a finished local example for Cratloe available at: https://sustainablecratloe.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CratloeEMPFinalVersionFeb24.pdf

 Finally got round to making a small video explaining how to get the most from your Smart Meter data :) What this video illustrates is  how to make the most of your Smart Meter by: 1) register your Smart Meter at https://www.esbnetworks.ie/ then displaying your usage / generation data on that portal 2) Downloading this ESB data to your computer 3) Uploading this data to https://www.energypal.ie/ for a more detailed analysis and cost breakdown Enjoy.

Dropped off the 1KW (2.4KWh) power station with Essam today to get measurements of how much electricity his food truck uses. He would like to purchase an 2000W 1500Wh power station so he can run lights/fridge/etc. when he's off-grid. https://iallpowers.com/products/allpowers-2000w-portable-power-station https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cScqnOofMRQ So be collecting and analysing the measurements from today should say whether this is possible :) It look likes the van uses less than 40W for lighting and another 300W whenever the fridge compressor kicks in. But I will have detailed info from the sqlite3 database when I retrieve the unit at the end of the day :) Only just portable! Safe home again! After a grand day out :) So the unit was deployed at around 13:30 and removed around 16:30 so around three hours of data. Essam had been there since 12:00 or so so the fridge had 90 mins to cool its contents. Here, is the graph for the power drawn during that time: It can be seen that time on ...

Finally, added two handles to power station.  I just have index.html code to finish now :) Which needs to work as a hotspot and provide graphs based on stored sqlite3 data tables.

These have been gathering dust in the shed for the last year. So will see if they will still take a charge. The two 100W panels and epever charge controller were recently recovered from being leant to the Shannon Tidy Towns 40' Container. Based on an Epever LS2024B https://shop.thesunpays.co.za/products/epever-ls2024b-solar-charge-controller-20a-pwm And monitored using a Blynk code on a NodeMCU.(A version can be found on my laptop under  Tracer-RS485-Modbus-Blynk-V2.ino as not yet shared to Github) The charging is monitored here..

  Here's the inverter inside the wooden power station housing. So I finished weatherproofing the 1KW power station housing earlier this week and tried it out in the garden. The DPC (damp proof course) plastic stapled to the pine should allow the unit to survive the rain for a few hours :) The unit provides AC out (1000W for 2 hours) and AC in and PV in to recharge the batteries. The unit needs bigger wheels and some kind of handles to allow it to be wheeled around more easily. The 1150W microwave was too much for it and caused the inverter to beep before shutting down. (Reducing the power rating on the microwave made no difference). A 700W toaster worked OK. As it only draws 761W The PV input also worked OK. This allows the inverter to charge the batteries using a solar panels. And the inverter's display showed the batteries PV charging :) So bringing the power station back inside the kitchen to try a 1000W load on it. It is pulling down 900+W quite happily for tens of minutes ...

Here's the agenda items: 1) How can we grow our SEC? (Youtube, etc.) 2) Sustainability day in Shopping Centre 3) Information table 4) Starting an Energy Masterplan 5) Keeping in touch with other SECs 5) AOB

I have wired (with fuses) two Renogy 12v 100Ah batteries in parallel and connected to a 12v 1000W hybrid inverter. This was then enclosed in a wooden box with: 1) a weatherproof mains socket. So mains equipment can be plugged in and draw 240 vac at up to 1000W for 2.4 hours. 2) a mains plug (for overnight/cheap rate charging of the batteries) 3) A pair of MC4 PV panel connectors. So the batteries can also be charged for free on a sunny day via a PV panel. I still have to weatherproof the box and add a webserver to allow its operation to be monitored via a mobile phone. It can then be a portable power station and used for demonstration purposes, say, to power laptops on our information table :)

  Hi. I'm looking to have our monthly meeting on Friday 3rd May in Shannon Library. Time yet to be decided. Please reach out if you'd like to attend! 0876 488 522 kilnageer@gmail.com

This evening at 7 pm I attended a 1 hour webinar by SEAI on "Solar Meitheal Webinar: Explainer & Chat with SECs". An enjoyable event which show how SECs from Greystones to Aran Islands can help people understand and make decisions regarding PV solar panel installations. I'll post more links about this webinar when I receive them https://www.seai.ie/community-energy/sustainable-energy-communities/meetups-and-events

  I attended the 2nd Cratloe SEC saving energy talk on Tues 16th. Another excellent talk by Mona of EcoVision and great to chat with like-minded people. SEAI Sustainable Energy Communities

  A simple way to increase your comfort level on cold nights is to use heavy curtains :) I have found a 5 C difference either side of curtains! A clothes peg can help close tricky curtains and a board behind a radiator can keep the heat the right side of them :) And remember good quality curtains at bargain prices can be got in most charity shops! Like Second Chance Animal Rescue - SCAR in the Shannon Town Centre :) @SEAI @ SEAI Sustainable Energy Communities @ Shannon Community Partnership

     Wow! I didn't know so much energy use data was public! https://psmr.seai.ie/Reports/PublicAnnualReportForPublic... Say for St. Patrick's Comprehensive School in 2021 was 270MWh or roughly 1000 units per day (remember school closed quite a bit). Interesting data, most residential homes would use 10 units a day (4MWh per annum) and Shannon Airport (40,000 units per day / 13,000MWh per annum) https://www.seai.ie/.../seai.../key-statistics/residential/

T he next step for us will be to work towards a masterplan of how to engage with the people of Shannon Town to be more energy efficient. Our neighbours in Cratloe just published their 43 page plan at: https://sustainablecratloe.ie/ What I think would be brilliant is if ESB Networks would provide SECs occasional actual supply/generation data from their network. They already share capacity data: https://www.esbnetworks.ie/.../availability-capacity-map

Only two of our four members could make it for today's meeting in the library but it was a very useful session and we decided the following: 1) We decided on a mission statement of "To encourage efficient use of energy in Shannon Town. To be achieved through engagement, education and awareness raising among individuals, organisations and companies in Shannon" 2) We also decided to agree on actions we can take each month and report back in our next meeting. This month's action is for me to promote the use of the Home Energy Saving Kit. This Codema kit is free to borrow from the library: https://www.codema.ie/think-energy-home-hub/the-home-energy-saving-kit/