Boyle Powerful Community Pathway

Main objective

The Boyle Powerful Community Pathway study was managed by GEAI and carried out by European Solidarity Corps volunteers with IT Sligo technical support.

The goal was to analyse the use of energy in a typical Boyle household. To do this, we had to find out the types of houses and their ages, numbers of people in each household, what types of energy they used, how much they paid for it and what kinds of transport they used.

The results are based on our doorstep survey of over 100 households in Boyle. It included design of questionnaires, delivery to 10% of Boyle households, analysis of the questionnaire results.

Once these results were analysed, we came up with a transition scenario to achieve reductions in energy costs and carbon emissions. This scenario is described fully in our Powerful Community Pathway report.

Methodology

A household energy survey was designed and administered to 103 households representing roughly 10% of the occupied housing stock in Boyle. Data was processed to obtain information about households energy landscape. Then, an investment scenario to 2025 was modeled, comprising costs-saving actions in the domains of Knowledge, Houses, Transport, with the Community domain acting as an underlying catalyst.

The average total energy cost per person is approx. €4,513 per household.

Even though thermal energy costs are only 30% of the total, thermal energy (used for heating) emits 54% of the total carbon emissions and therefore has the highest climate impact. This is because of high reliance on oil and solid fuels.

Transport energy, at 31%, has the second largest impact, due to dominance of private diesel cars.