ESB sponsors About the House

ESB has announced it is to be title sponsor of the hugely successful About The House series, presented by leading Environmentalist and Architect, Duncan Stewart. The announcement was made at a launch in ESB Headquarters in Dublin on Tuesday September 15th.

The 13-part series is due to be screened on RTÈ 1 from Tuesday September 29th and will feature sustainable housing and energy-savings in the home.

About The House attracts weekly audience figures of up to 500,000 and has been running as a centre-piece of RTÈ’s schedule for the past 10 years. Its predecessor, Our House, also enjoyed huge popularity. Chief Executive Padraig McManus said, "The need to conserve energy and save money is central to all our lives. Economic pressure on households can be reduced by a new approach to energy consumption. Through programmes such as About The House, we can help achieve these savings.

"ESB’s primary concern is to lower electricity costs to consumers and maximise the efficient use of energy. Sustainable housing is at the heart of the solution and, in the process, can create significant employment. We see About The House as a powerful means of conveying our sustainability message to the public."

ESB is helping thousands of households to cut their energy costs through a series of home insulation initiatives and is in the process of a major works programme in the Midlands, upgrading insulation in 2,000 homes. In addition, the company is providing a free home-energy audit for 25,000 households nationwide. The Chief Executive said, "This 'Halo' programme will provide home owners with all the information they need, including advice on financial arrangements and grant availability, in order to implement energy savings."

Duncan Stewart said he was delighted that ESB is associated with the series this year, "The energy efficiency campaigns and energy upgrades directly run by ESB this year fit perfectly well with the ethos of About The House where we do our best to promote sustainable sound construction and promote the building of very energy efficient homes for the sake of the environment and the homeowner."

Duncan went on to say that this year the programme was focusing on cost-effective improvements people can make to their existing homes by upgrading and reducing future energy bills and also looking at the most sustainable new building being built in Ireland.