Green Limerick: Learning a new skill in 2023
AS OF September this year, the Government has been running a nationwide media campaign, encouraging people to get out and learn a new skill. As part of this campaign, journalists across the country, including myself have been learning new skills in an attempt to encourage the general population to do the same.
Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (ETB) have a large number of courses suitable for picking up a new skill and I chose to take part in their Nearly Zero Energy Building Fundamental Awareness day course, something completely new to me.
The course is offered at their Green Innovation Campus in Roxboro.
Buildings in the developed world consume 70% of the total electricity production and are responsible for 40% of total CO2 emissions, so keeping your home as energy efficient as possible is a great way to help in the current climate crisis.
During the course, which ran from 9am to 5pm, we were taught about a wide range of topics on how to keep your home more energy efficient, with a lot of the emphasis and retaining heat in your house as loss of heat in your home is one of the main causes for energy usage in the house.
To tell you I knew little to nothing about how to keep your home more energy efficient would be an understatement, I had to nod in agreement as Kevin, who taught the course said to everyone: “I’m sure we all know what a BER rating is”. I rent in Limerick city so I believed keeping my home energy efficient wasn’t really in my reach besides skimping on heating and other energy-eating appliances around the house.
For those as clueless as I am, a BER (building energy rating) is exactly what it says, it ranks your home's energy rating.
Improving your home's BER can increase the warmth of your house while also reducing your energy bills. The BER is ranked from A being the best to G being the worst.
There are very limited buildings with an A rating across Ireland. As mentioned in Ireland’s National Retrofit Plan as part of the Climate Action Plan 2021, 500,000 homes across Ireland are set to have a BER B2 rating, with the installation of 400,000 heat pumps across the nation.
Personally, one of the greatest advantages of the course was learning more about mould and condensation, an issue faced in older houses with bad insulation, which can be an issue in my home as it was built pre-1960.
Condensation tends to form at approximately 9.3 degrees, when warm air comes in contact with cooler air, which is why it is most noticeable on windows as they are one of if not the worst objects for heat retention in your house.
Mould forms at approximately 12.6 degrees, so if your house is not properly heated, or heat easily escapes as your home is not properly insulated, mould can easily form, which can be a hazard to human respiratory health.
As part of the course, and probably the main new skill I learnt as part of the day was a practical workshop on how to make your house airtight. This involved being given a section of a window replica and having to wrap an airtight membrane around it which will help with air retention.
I by no means mastered it and I can’t imagine ever making my home airtight myself if I ever buy or build one in the future but it was definitely a decent skill to learn.
The EU year of new skills is definitely a worthwhile initiative that gets you out of your comfort zone.
I never expected to be sitting in a classroom/college environment ever again and being thrown in with people who knew more about the topic than me was definitely a lot on the day but it gave an interesting outlook into the lives of people from other professions.
Limerick and Clare ETB’s College of Further Education and Training run a large array of courses from sport related, to film and photography and even cooking courses.
There is definitely something for everyone to learn a new skill.