About

I would like to invite you to use my BER services, which is very often the first step on your journey to making your home a thermal efficient and cosy place to stay. Your BER will be accompanied with a report listing recommended upgrades to your dwelling along with available SEAI grants.

I find great satisfaction in guiding homeowners on their home improvements. It is so rewarding coming back to a property that has become more energy efficient and seeing happy homeowners paying less for heating, while knowing that I had a small impact in the overall improvement of the Galway housing stock.

I arrived in Ireland in 2006 and, as a tenant at that time it didn't take me lomg to realise that a vast number of buildings in Galway would benefit from improvements in their thermal performance. At that stage I felt I would like to have a positive impact on this issue.

With qualifications and work experience in the construction industry as a project manager, quantity surveyor and building inspector, I took steps to move my career into building energy efficiency areas. I became a domestic Building Energy Rating (BER) Assessor in 2009 and later, in 2018, I was awarded PhD at Galway University, Ireland NUIG. The doctor degree was the outcome of years of research mainly on heat losses occurring through building envelopes. That challenging time gave me a deep understanding how these losses could be minimized and how the building thermal performance can be improved. In addition, in 2023 I became Building Life Cycle Assessor and in 2024 an Energy Auditor. These qualifications are supported with experience and have given me a broader perspective on overall building energy performance which I can now bring to the services I provide.

The founder of Effigotherm, Gosia O'Grady, BSc, MEng, Phd