Members of the public are being invited to an event entitled ‘Your Cost Efficient Home’ which will be held in the Market House, Monaghan on Saturday, 25 April from 11am to 1pm. The focus will be on how you can easily reduce your energy, water and waste bills. There will be two key note presentations by experts in the area of low energy in the home – Michael Hanratty of Energy Action and Frank Cooney of Cooney Architects. The presentations will be followed by workshops on Heating / Insulation, Electricity, Composting and Water. The Water workshop will have information on rainwater harvesting.

 Micheal Callaghan and Barry McCarron of Transition Monaghan, the event organisers, say that they are delighted that two top class professionals in the field of low energy have agreed to present at the Monaghan event.

Michael Hanratty, IHER Energy Services

Michael Hanratty is Managing Director of IHER Energy Services, and Energy Consultant to Energy Action, a charity which tackles fuel poverty in Dublin by the provision of insulation in the homes of older people and low income people. Camcas is the equivalent in Cavan – Monaghan. Michael also manages the Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) Open Doors Ireland event which showcases practical experiences of designing and living in low energy buildings.

Frank Cooney, Cooney Architects

Frank Cooney B.Arch MRIAI is an architect who has 20 years working experience in the area of sustainable architecture and design. Frank with his wife Patricia McCaffrey established Cooney Architects in 1995. They have won many awards including a  gold medal winner of the Green Apple Award for ‘Built Environment and Architectural Heritage’ in 2012, for a low energy retrofit and extension of a period house in Dublin They also won a silver medal Green Apple Award for the retrofit to almost Passivhaus standard, of their own nineteenth century farmhouse in Cavan.

Transition Monaghan say that they would like any contractors and BER (Building Energy Rating) Assessors that are registered with SEAI  to come along and they can be identified to the attendees. However exhibition stand space is not available at the event.  Transition Monaghan hope that the event will lead to many more people taking action to reduce energy use in the home and thereby saving themselves money. It will also help to reduce the amount of money going out of the country on imported fossil fuels and of course help lower our climate damaging emissions.   For more information check http://www.transitionmonaghan.org or email transitionmonaghan@gmail.com.