At the end of August, the CoolKits were delivered to the participating households in Madrid. Prior to the delivery, on 11 th August, two information sessions were held, one in the morning at the Loyola Palacio Senior Citizens’ Centre and the other in the afternoon at the San Filiberto Senior Citizens’ Centre. A total of six households attended out of a total of twelve that were contacted. In these sessions, a sample of each kit was presented, accompanied by a presentation summarising the energy culture workshops and explaining the impact that these kits have on household energy savings. Each household was then able to choose from the different kits available the one that best suited their needs. Thus, on the thirty-first of August, at the San Filiberto Senior Citizens’ Centre, ABD delivered the selected kits. The most requested kit was number four, consisting of a slow cooker and an aerator for the kitchen tap. Also in demand was kit number one consisting of a fan and a cooling towel; kit number five containing a smart plug together with a power strip and finally the sun protection kit in which they could choose between a roller blind or a solar filter for the window. The delivery was carried out by ABD in prior coordination with the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Meanwhile, in Barcelona, the CoolKits were delivered to the participants of an energy culture workshop done in the central office of the Comunitat Activa program of ABD, based in Hospitalet de Llobregat. Five out of all participants contacted replied with their interest to receive the kit. The delivery was organised on the 8th of August in Comunitat Activa, where all attendees were given a kit composed of: 1 roller blind; 1 fan; 2 LED lights E27; 1 LED light E14; 1 power strip with a switch
and 1 analog time programmer. The delivery was accompanied by a brief presentation of all devices and an explanation of their impact on energy consumption. The delivery was carried out by Ecoserveis in prior coordination with ABD.
Also, an initial intent to set up a heat alarm system was made through Whatsapp broadcast lists including the participants that attended energy culture workshops – and who gave their mobile telephone number and accepted to take part in Cooltorise activities. Two separate lists were made for the municipalities of Barcelona and Santa Coloma de Gramenet.
In case the Catalan meteorological service METEOCAT reported a hot day, a heat wave or a torrid night in the municipality, a direct message was sent to the according list. The goal was to inform all the participants so everyone could take the advice and prevent the heat wave beforehand.
A communication campaign was developed through social media to promote the heat alarm system, giving the public the option to enter one of the WhatsApp broadcast lists or to follow directly a Telegram channel created for the occasion.
It ended up being the Telegram system, the one that actually worked successfully. The key was that, for the WhatsApp service, the broadcast lists do not work unless the participants save the sender’s telephone number as a contact beforehand, so we could not implement it the way it was intended.
The Telegram channel did work correctly and two communications were sent during the month of August to the more than 20 people subscribed. Here is the link to subscribe to the Cooltorise Telegram channel: https://t.me/cooltorise
