A quick-thinking South-East Clare man used energy stored in his new electric car battery to power key household appliances following the electricity black-outs caused by the devastating Storm Éowyn.
Donal Mullins, Castlecrine, Sixmilebridge, who works in a factory in Shannon, charged the battery in his full electric Kia Nero car at work on Thursday and left it stationary until Monday at 6.30pm when his electricity returned.
When the electricity went at 3am on Friday night, Mr Mullins had everything prepared in advance, got up and ran an extension lead from his car into his house where he plugged in his fridge freeze.
He ran another extension lead into his sitting room to power the television and broadband and used one of the spare sockets to boil a kettle.
Acknowledging he was a lot better off than most people who were left days without electricity and water, he said his electric car battery could have kept most household appliances operational for another four or five days, if this was necessary.
The 64 kilowatt battery in his car provides him with a driving range of 430 kilometres in the winter and more than 500 kilometres in the summer.
“When the car battery is fully charged, it is a huge energy source. The main reason is to power the car for long distances.
“Car manufacturers are now offering vehicle2load, which means motorists can use his energy source for other means than just driving the car.
“When the car is parked and not in use, if you are camping for the weekend, you can plug into the car and use it to boil a kettle.
“I could have used the battery for several more days because I could check what percentage was left in the battery from my phone app. You can set it not to go down past a certain level so there will be enough battery to drive it and get it fully charged again,” he said.
In the future, he hopes to get an electrician to set up his central heating so that it can be run from his car battery as it wasn’t set up in time before the storm.
Council Chairman, Alan O’Callaghan held a meeting with council officials on Monday to see what measures could be put in place to help thousands of Clare people who were left without electricity and or water supply.
In an interview with The Clare Champion, he said most of the roads were passable on Monday following trojan work by the Clare Fire and Rescue Service, farmers and volunteers who removed fallen trees that were causing obstruction for road users.
Councillor O’Callaghan said he was contacted by people who expressed fears about the impact of power cuts on their elderly neighbours and those who needed electricity for medical devices.
The Kilmurry oil distributor that power cuts caused difficulties for people who used a machine at night to deal with sleep apenea.
“One woman needed a medical machine because her heart was stopping during the night for a split second following a sleep analysis. She rang me on Monday morning and by Monday evening her electricity had returned. She said she went three nights without the machine.
“Heat and food were major issues for elderly people living on their own. A lot of people living in rural areas like Truagh depend on getting water from private wells. If the electricity is gone, the pump will not work for the well so farmers have to get power from an alternative source such as a generator.
“Cattle in sheds drink a lot of water when they are eating dry silage and nuts. Getting water to cattle is important because they can get agitated. Farmers will probably need to buy generators and have them on stand by,” he said.
He said Met Éireann had forcecast Storm Éowyn accurately in the days leading up to it.
East Clare correspondent, Dan Danaher is a journalism graduate of Rathmines and UL. He has won numerous awards for special investigations on health, justice, environment, and reports on news, agriculture, disability, mental health and community.