Firebird, Ireland’s market leading designer and manufacturer of commercial and domestic boilers, has been ambitiously leading the charge in renewable innovation to combat our climate woes.
It’s less a doubt but an absolute fact that Ireland simply cannot meet its ambitious target to reduce carbon emissions by 50 per cent over the next eight years if we don’t make a meaningful effort to tackle our household emissions.
The commitment set out in the Programme for Government might be considered unrealistically ambitious, but it is a target that is considered essential at a global level to contain temperature rise and ensure a liveable planet.
There is a simple solution that can bring us much closer to reaching that target, one which Firebird firmly believes would achieve a dramatic reduction in household emissions practically almost overnight, with the added bonus of cost efficiency as it requires no investment or capital cost.
There are 700,000 or so homes with existing liquid fuel boilers in Ireland with few other choices available for homeowners to adopt cleaner, greener heat solutions.
Mark Doyle, General Manager with Firebird explained how the introduction of HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils) for household and commercial boilers would be an instant game-changer for Ireland.
“A viable and sustainable drop-in replacement to Kerosene, HVO fuel is fossil free, and could reduce greenhouse emissions by over 90%,” he stated.
“HVO can work with any liquid fuel boiler and if used in homes, can potentially make these homes almost carbon neutral immediately. Our trials of HVO for home heating in Ireland and Northern Ireland have proved how household greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 90% with CO2 emissions decreasing by up to six tonnes annually.”
It would cost homeowners €400 max to convert their burners to be HVO compliant.
This would also help to alleviate the pressure on households and businesses as a result of the turmoil on European gas markets which has seen home heating oil almost doubled in price.
“This wouldn’t be a radical move either as Ireland would be following other countries such as the UK, France and Germany that use HVO for various sectors including domestic heating,” Mr Doyle continued.
“We don’t sell fuel so I have no vested interest in the HVO product other than for its environmental properties.
“We at Firebird passionately believe that we all have a part to play to reduce carbon emissions and we believe HVO is not the future, it’s the ‘now’. Firebird’s three manufacturing sites in Cork, Ireland, Northern Ireland and England are already fuelled by HVO so we see the ease and benefit of having switched to HVO every day.”
With this clear focus on renewables and sustainability, Firebird has dedicated significant resources and invested heavily in developing products with increased fuel efficiency, reduced emissions and products that use more renewable and sustainable fuel sources.
Firebird manufactures the most efficient liquid fuel boilers on the market at 97.5% efficiency and NOx emissions as low as 60mg/kWhr, half the EU limits.
Mark Doyle added: “We are continuing to innovate and drive more sustainable heating solutions that benefit not only our customers but our environment. Our responsibility to our customers and environment are the key drivers behind everything we do. We’ve been here at Firebird for 42 years and we want the business to be around for another 42 years and beyond so we want to do things for the right reasons and to set a good example in our commercial activities.”
For more information visit firebird.ie
