Running costs that can genuinely threaten a club.
Pools, changing rooms, halls, floodlighting and long opening hours.
Sports and leisure facilities are among the most energy-intensive buildings in any community. Pools, changing rooms, showers, large heated halls, floodlighting and extended opening hours combine into a running cost that can genuinely threaten a club’s viability.
ENCON works with sports clubs, leisure centres, gyms, swimming pools, GAA and soccer clubs and community sports facilities on energy upgrades across the building and its systems.
Hot water and pool heating dominate. A facility with showers and a pool is generating and losing enormous quantities of heat continuously, and the plant doing it is often old, oversized and controlled crudely.
Starting with the least glamorous and most effective measure there is.
The measures that move the needle in sports facilities:
For volunteer-run clubs, controls and pool covers frequently deliver a meaningful saving for a capital cost the club can actually raise.
From insulation to heat pumps, ventilation and more. Improve comfort, lower bills and increase your BER rating.
New builds, extensions and deep retrofits, fully managed from design and planning through to construction and completion.
High-quality solar panel systems for homes, farms and businesses. Lower energy costs and gain energy independence.
Energy upgrades and construction solutions for commercial, agricultural and public sector projects.
Most clubs aren’t short of willingness — they’re short of capital and of someone with time to assemble a project. The Community Energy Grant is designed for exactly this, supporting projects that group multiple buildings together, and sports facilities are frequently the anchor building in a successful community application.
ENCON works on these projects as delivery contractor and technical partner, handling surveys, specification and costing, and working alongside project coordinators through the application.
Training nights, fixtures, pool timetables and summer camps all constrain when work can happen. We schedule around them, and for pool plant we plan shutdowns into scheduled maintenance closures wherever possible.
If the full project isn’t fundable this year, there’s usually a measure that is. We’ll tell you which one gives the best return for what you can raise, rather than quoting for everything and leaving you stuck.
A pool cover, almost always. Evaporation is the largest heat loss from a pool and a cover addresses it directly for modest cost.
Yes. Controls and covers are usually affordable, and community energy projects exist precisely to fund the bigger work.
Some plant work needs a shutdown. We plan it into scheduled maintenance closures where we can.
Often, where there’s daytime and early-evening demand and suitable roof area. We size it against actual consumption.
Clubs are frequently the anchor building in one. Talk to us about what else in your area could join it.
Call 051 850722. We’ll tell you which single measure gives the best return for what you can raise.
