A number of Donegal County Council housing tenants were left ‘freezing’ after the failure of their air-to-water heat pumps during Storm Éowyn.
Since mid-2023, the local authority has been installing the systems in their social housing stock during refitting to make them more energy efficient.
However, Councillor Patrick McGowan questioned their ‘resilience’ at today’s meeting of the Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District (MD).
“I would question the air-to-water systems and their resilience during storms,” he said.
“I have it myself and it restored itself quite quickly. But in a few council estates, like Hill Head, Castlefinn, they were slow coming back to full flow. Some people said they are going back to gas and open fires, but these houses are airtight and not suitable for that.”
Cllr McGowan admitted the issue was not just a local one and needs to be addressed at national level.
“There are big questions out there and they cannot be ignored,” he added.
Agreeing with him, Cllr Gary Doherty said that no electricity meant no heat for a lot of council tenants.
“I had several complaints from people saying they had no power, so they had no heat,” he explained.
“Is there a solution to that issue? Everyone in an air-to-water house was freezing. I had no advice for them when they called me.”
Cllr Dakota Nic Mheanman said tenants in other council houses are ‘scared’ of the air-to- water systems and don’t want to lose their fires and stoves.
Cllr Martin Scanlon said a number of the new heating systems had been installed in social houses in the Glenfin area. However, he said, generators belonging to some residents were not powerful enough to keep them operating in order to generate heat.
Mr Colin McNulty, the council’s Area Manager for Housing, said the ‘bigger air-to-water issue’ is a national one.
“This is also an issue with private houses and raises a question if there are regular power outages,” he said.
“I’m not sure what the answers are, but they (issues) are noted”.
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