Daikin hosts social housing sustainable heating forum

Daikin hosts social housing sustainable heating forum

On 20 April the Irish arm of the world’s largest heat pump manufacturer, Daikin, hosted a social housing forum at the Mullingar Park Hotel in Westmeath. Attendees primarily included architects, consultants, and representatives of housing bodies and local authority housing departments from all over the country. 

Over the last number of years, Daikin Ireland has been involved in many projects for both county councils and housing bodies all over Ireland. With over 50 years of knowledge and a large product range, Daikin has been able to bring their experience to many housing projects to help significantly reduce heating costs.

John O’Shaughnessy, sales manager of Daikin’s heating division, gave the welcoming address and an overview of the knowledge and experience Daikin can bring to projects if involved at an early stage. Other presentations on the day were from Michael Hanratty of IHER on the road to NZEB in Ireland, Passive House Plus editor Jeff Colley who spoke on Dún Laoghaire- Rathdown’s passive house policy, and John McCormack of Respond Housing Association on the benefits of deep retrofit.

The aim of the event was to demonstrate capabilities in the field of cost-effective heating solutions for social and affordable homes. This was a forum for professionals to meet likeminded colleagues from the same areas of expertise, and to help participants benefit from the experience of others who have already gone through with retrofitting projects.

There were many questions and answers from the audience through the day, and one of the highlights of the event was a visit to two local recent site installations by Westmeath County Council, one consisting of a hybrid gas boiler and heat pump, and another with a Daikin integrated system with combined cylinder.