Ecologics Solar Panels installed in Tramore Meals on Wheels

Meals On Wheels Goes Solar In Tramore

Tramore Community Care Centre, which provides a “Meals on Wheels” service, has cut its costs by installing a solar water heating system for their kitchen, with the aid of 30% funding from the SEI Re-Heat scheme. The system was installed by Pat Garvey, a Tramore based solar installer with Ecologics Solar Solutions Ltd.

The system is based around 90 solar vacuum flasks on the roof of the building which provide hot water for the kitchen and toilets. These state-of-the-art flasks are similar to Thermos flasks, and are designed to gather heat during both sunny and cloudy weather, maximizing the season over which the system will perform. Over the year, the system will produce over 2/3rds of all the hot water required, and will reduce the annual carbon emissions from Meals on Wheels by over 1 tonne.

Mary Daly, Service co-ordinator at Meals on Wheels, is pleased with how the system has worked in recent surprisingly bright March weather. “We use a lot of hot water in food preparation and cleaning at the centre. It gives us all a lot of satisfaction to know that we are both helping the environment, and saving money in the long term”, she said, “energy prices will continue to rise in the long term, so we regard this as a very worthwhile investment”.

Tramore Community Care is a registered charity providing a ‘Meals on Wheels’ service to those in the community who are unable to cook for themselves. They provide seventy meals a day for the community with four voluntary staff working from 7.30am until 3.00pm. Demand for hot water during this time is high with all cooking utensils used being hand washed. The system was part funded by a grant from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (formerly SEI) which provides 30% of the total cost of suitable renewable energy installations.

Story also appears in Construct Ireland, Waterford Today News paper and the Munster Express