How a smart switch to gas is powering local communities in Strabane
Posted: 10 Jul, 2025
In Strabane, every penny saved at the local community centre can mean more support for grassroots projects and vital services. For the past eight years, Ivan Barr has been the community development officer at Melmount Community Forum, an umbrella organisation supporting seven groups across the area.
Like many charities, they’re operating on tight budgets. When the opportunity to switch from oil to gas came along, Ivan saw real potential. With a focus on efficiency, long-term savings, and minimal disruption, the move has helped transform how the centre operates, freeing up both funds and space to reinvest back into the heart of the community.
Given today’s technology, I was very keen to hear more about the ability to zone certain rooms off. We have an office suite and two activity rooms, so now I can heat only the areas in use. It’s save, save, save for the centre and the charity,
Ivan explained.
The ability to reduce running costs while improving the building’s heating efficiency was a major factor in making the switch.
The more we can save on our outgoings, making things more economical, the more that money can go into projects and programmes for the community. Funding for charities isn’t what it used to be, so we have to look after the pennies.
Beyond his role with the community forum, Ivan serves as a district commander for the Community Rescue Service, an organisation that supports searches for high-risk missing persons, and he also works part-time as a bus driver for the Education Authority.
When we started looking into switching to gas, Evolve made everything incredibly easy to understand. I was surprised by how quickly the whole process happened. A lot of changeovers can take months and months, but in our case, there was no disruption at all to the community centre or its activities, which was a huge benefit for us. I was really impressed at how Evolve guided us through it and made the changeover happen so smoothly and quickly.
The results speak for themselves, not just in savings and comfort, but also in the added space and aesthetic improvements around the centre.
As a community centre, we run various projects. One of them is an intergenerational gardening group. The removal of the oil tank and the old boiler has created ample additional space for them to work on their project. We now have a nice treeline with flowers amongst it, which is really eye-catching.
Ivan is quick to recommend the switch to others:
100% I would recommend the switch to gas, not just for the economic benefits, but also for the cleanliness of it.
And when it comes to the support they received, Ivan is full of praise.
Evolve has been outstanding with their assistance in helping us convert from oil to gas. I’d highly recommend other organisations and businesses out there get in touch with Evolve and make that move.