These devices, which are installed in the hot press, turn on when excess green energy is available, providing households with almost 100 free full tanks annually, and tenants are notified the night before each activation.

“For us as an organisation with 82,000 houses, the potential is huge”, Robert Clements, head of sustainability at the NI Housing Executive, stated. “With at least 22 percent of households in fuel poverty, where more than 10 percent of the household income is spent on heating, the project could have wide ranging impact.”

In Northern Ireland, the supply of renewable energy is often higher than what is consumed, leading to generators being ordered to reduce output. During December of 2024 alone, nearly 40 percent of wind-generated energy went unused due to grid restrictions, and a total of 915 GWh of renewable energy was wasted last year, “enough to heat over 300 million tanks of hot water”, according to EnergyCloud NI.

“The energy that’s being used to heat these tankfuls of water during the night, that’s green energy, that’s clean energy that’s largely speaking reduced carbon content”, Jamie Delargy, chair of EnergyCloud NI, concluded. “It supports vulnerable households while making better use of renewable resources.”