The Low Carbon Home...

I was going to call this week's post a tour of the Transition Home but I decided to stick with low carbon. Believe me, walk into the home of anyone involved in a Transition project and you'll notice just the same actions being taken to reduce energy consumption.
Let's remember that low carbon / transition living is not about being told to give things up, it's about choosing to live differently.
Briefly my home has:
Thick lined curtains at all the windows, foil panels behind radiators to reflect heat back into the room, energy saving light bulbs in all light fittings, an extra thick jacket on the hot water cylinder, tightly controlled timers on the central heating (which we hardly use because we have a woodburner), cavity wall and loft insulation in excess of recommended minimums. I could go on, but to be honest your best source of information here in Cheshire is Energy Projects Plus who gave my family excellent advice when we wanted to improve the efficiency of our home.
Recently I attended a training day at their office in Winsford. Together with representatives from Tattenhall and Blacon I learnt how to use a thermal imaging camera which helps residents see where there may be potential heat loss in a building and build up a picture of the thermal efficiency of a home. EPPLUS hire the camera to community groups at low cost (from £10.00 a week) and give advice on how it should be used. This resource is available to any community group in Cheshire and I'm pretty sure that members of Transition Chester will be interested in borrowing it as well as low carbon groups such as Bollington and Tattenhall who have already put their names down to borrow it.
EPPLUS are also organising the first Renewable Energy Exhibition to be held in Cheshire (at the Crewe Campus of Manchester Metropolitan University) on 5th July 2008. Anyone interested in wind turbines, biomass, heat pumps, solar power etc will be able to come along and get free advice from installers and renewable energy specialists. It should be well worth a visit. Michael Flood who works at EPPLUS in Winsford told me:
"Anyone can come along between 10am and 4pm. We're delighted to be holding this event, it's the first of its kind in Cheshire and will really help bring the community and renewables installers closer together".

Conserving energy is easy, but it takes time to work out where savings might be made. Renewable energy can be very cost effective if chosen wisely and believe me it is possible to reduce your energy consumption and live comfortably if you take appropriate advice. I recently visited Church Stretton in Shropshire where residents can visit their local library and take part in carbon footprinting classes which are followed up by energy advice and in Totnes residents are encouraged to fit solar thermal panels as a part of a community challenge.
Residents in Ashton Hayes were encouraged to save money by reducing energy and Barry Cooney, the much missed landlord at the Golden Lion would cheerfully tell of saving over £200 a month on his fuel bills by taking simple energy saving measures. Think of saving carbon instead of money and it's easy to see how we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and live comfortable lives. If you do save money as result invest the savings in renewable - but make sure you take advice from EPPLUS before parting with your hard earned cash!
If you want advice give EPPLUS a call on 0800 512012