News
St Breward Energy and Recycling Fair
6 Mar, 2009
St Breward Parish Council has received backing for its Energy and Recycling Fair from local MP Dan Rogerson.
The fair aimed to inform residents about recycling and about insulating their homes to save energy and money.
Mr Rogerson called in on Saturday to meet schoolchildren from St Breward Primary School, who had made ‘mini-turbines’, which generate a small amount of electricity.
Commenting, Dan Rogerson said:
“St Breward continues to make the green agenda a high priority both for its Parish Council and for its residents.
“I’m delighted that so many parishes like St Breward are finding out how they can take action individually and as a community to tackle climate change.
“I always enjoy going to events like this, and it was especially good to meet children who are taking the environment seriously early in life.”
Wasted Energy Costs 50 Jobs Per Week
2 Feb, 2009
Over a million pounds per week is lost by Cornish businesses through poorly insulated buildings and inefficient heating, lighting and machinery.
This estimate is based on national figures produced by The Carbon Trust.
“Such an economic effect on Cornwall is unsustainable, particularly at this time of recession,” says Tim German, Director of CSEP. “It is vital that our businesses act to reduce their losses by taking energy efficiency measures.”
This is a view supported by business leaders; Thelma Sorensen, chair of Cornwall Business Partnership says: “At a time when many Cornish companies are under extra pressure, cutting back on this waste could mean the difference between saving or losing hundreds of local jobs. In fact, sustainable energy presents a real opportunity for businesses.”
But whilst most business owners are aware that reducing waste is important, there is a common assumption that energy efficiency measures involve large up-front costs.
“We’ve all heard the phrase ‘you have to spend money to save money’” says Russell Geake, who is organising this week’s Building Sustainable Business conference. “But when it comes to energy efficiency, there’s a lot that companies can do without costing a penny. Our advisors understand the pressures being faced by local businesses, so we’re always looking for low-cost or no-cost solutions to their problems. Some basic training in ‘smarter driving techniques’ can cut fuel consumption by 15% - which could be worth thousands for some Cornish businesses.”
The free event will be held at the Penventon Park Hotel in Redruth this Thursday (5th February) and will give Cornish businesses an introduction to saving energy. Building Sustainable Business is being organised by local charity Community Energy Plus and will run twice in the day, starting at 9:30 and 1:30.
For more details, visit the CEP website www.cep.org.uk, e-mail russell@cep.org.uk or call 01209 614973.
New renewables for old social housing
20 Jan, 2009
Can renewable technologies such as heat pumps and solar panels really be retrofitted to social housing?
Yes they can, and now there’s an online toolkit to show how.
The toolkit shares the lessons learnt from the installation of hundreds of renewable energy devices to homes in Cornwall. The contributors include local housing associations and a climate change charity.
The idea came from Cornwall-based installer Andy Honey after he encountered “disbelief” from social landlords outside the county:
“Housing associations were telling me that this work was unfeasible, but I knew it had already been done on hundreds of properties in Cornwall.”
For new-build houses in areas served by mains gas, affordable warmth can usually be provided through a combination of loft and cavity-wall insulation alongside an efficient condensing boiler. However, a large proportion of social housing is classified as “hard to treat”, especially in rural areas. This could be due to construction type (solid walls or a lack of accessible roof space) or location (off mains gas network, conservation area).
Whilst hard-to-treat properties may require more costly solutions, the potential savings (both financial and environmental) are often much larger than for standard properties.
For example, installing a ground source heat pump in an existing social housing home could cost as little as £6500 when part of the cost is met by the Low Carbon Buildings Programme or CERT funding. Ground source heat pump systems are very cost effective in use and produce much lower carbon emissions than fossil fuel systems.
1. Drilling a borehole
2. Inserting loop
3. Installation complete
The toolkit was created by members of the CSEP Energy in Buildings Group, including Community Energy Plus, Microgeneration Ltd, Carrick Housing and Penwith Housing Association. It was funded by Cornwall County Council from a Local Area Agreement pump-prime grant and in-kind contributions from the project partners. Adam Paynter is the Deputy Leader of Cornwall County Council:
“Whilst Government policies are still catching up with the issue of hard-to-treat homes, microgeneration installers and social housing providers in Cornwall have been working at the forefront of the emerging retrofit sector for years.”
For example, Cornwall’s Carrick Housing and Penwith Housing Association have already retrofitted over 300 homes with renewable energy measures and this figure is due to top 500 in 2009. Denys Stephens chairs CSEP’s Energy in Buildings Group and is the sustainability manager for Penwith Housing Association:
“The retro-fitting of renewable technologies into existing homes is good news for landlords, tenants and the local economy. It provides a means of achieving affordable warmth in off-gas areas, something that is almost impossible with fossil fuel systems, and helps housing associations meet their targets for improving the energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions from their homes."
"Tenants on low incomes are among the most vulnerable to rising fuel prices, and in homes where further energy efficiency measures are not possible, renewable energy can make a decent standard of heating affordable. The work carried out by social housing providers in Cornwall provides living proof of this, and has also provided opportunities for local micro generation installers to enhance their skills in retrofitting their technologies to existing homes. This is a field where Cornwall can justifiably claim to lead in the UK.”
Old fashioned bulbs are rubbish
12 Jan, 2009
A letter in the Western Morning News suggested that low-energy light bulbs are expensive, unsuitable for many fittings and give a dim, flickery light. We put the record straight...
Elizabeth Burton’s rant against low energy light bulbs was misleading and full of errors.
Switching to low energy lighting is the cheapest and simplest way to cut your bills. That’s why Community Energy Plus gives away thousands every year to help cut carbon emissions and fight fuel poverty.
An old-style 100W light bulb used for an average of three hours per day would cost around £10 per year to run and last for around two years.
A low energy alternative would cost around £2 per year and last five times as long. So taking Mrs Burton’s bulb prices (£1.21 vs £2.19), the ten-year cost for old-style bulbs is £106 compared to just £22 for efficient lighting. Now multiply those savings by the number of bulbs in your home or office…
The one drawback of such long-lasting bulbs is that some people are still using bulbs from the 1980s. It’s true that they were ugly, dim and capable of causing headaches. But so were shellsuits! I wonder just how many people have decided not to make the switch based on their impressions of an ancient bulb in a friend’s house. Welcome to 2009!
When the Energy Saving Trust took its lightbulb challenge to Plymouth’s Drake’s Circus recently, most people couldn’t tell the difference between the two types of light. Of those who could, 60% said they preferred the light from the energy efficient bulb. Click here to see a video
It’s true that the cheapest bulbs are not compatible with dimmer switches, but when each one will save £80 over its lifetime, you can afford to splash out on an extra fiver for a top quality dimmable bulb. Of course, if it’s quality and control that you’re after, you could always go for a programmable LED system.
If you’re really worried about the mercury in CFL bulbs, you can pay a little extra for mercury-free alternatives. Personally, I don’t think that a trip to the recycling centre once per decade is too much trouble, but if you switch to LEDs, they’ll last for fifty years and don’t contain any mercury at all.
Finally, there’s the fallacy that “fewer than half of the current fittings in Britain’s houses can take CFL bulbs”. Actually the figure is more like 98%, and for the other 2% there are LED alternatives. They might not all be available in your local supermarket, but they can be delivered to your door from specialists (try Googling “efficient light”).
It’s time to stop thinking of light bulbs as disposable items to buy with the weekly shopping — the next one you buy could last longer than your TV, your washing machine or even your car!
Gas Crisis
7 Jan, 2009
The Russian gas crisis may not have affected Cornwall this time - but what does the future hold?
Commenting on the news that a dispute between Russia and Ukraine has cut off gas supplies to several countries in Eastern Europe, Tim German, Director of the Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership said:
“The news is just the latest in what is becoming an increasingly regular occurrence – it certainly reflects a situation which is destined to get much worse.”
“North Sea Gas no longer meets the demand from British Customers, so imports are growing. Last year, only 3% of Britain’s gas came from Russia, but this figure is set to rise to 25%.”
“There is a danger that peripheral areas of Europe such as Cornwall will be affected by the decisions of countries over which we have very little control.”
“Our concern about the future energy security of Cornwall is also based on historical evidence. We only have to look back at previous petrol blockades when our fuel depots were some of the first to have deliveries withdrawn.”
“It is vital for Cornwall’s future security and prosperity that we create a low-carbon economy. Generating our own power from renewable resources and using it more efficiently is the only way to reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuel.”
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